Just a flying visit to Phnom Pehn, having got the bus from Siem Reap (bus with Capitol Tours, $5, perfectly good). Again we were struck by the fact that the buses are mainly used by locals- we were two of four white faces on board. It's great that despite the poverty of the country, people travel far and wide... and it's great that we tourists aren't being tucked away on separate, overpriced buses. What's less great after a few hours are the karaoke music videos ...

Well what a contrast from Siem Reap, a real tonic. Battambang (pronounced Bat-Dam-Bong) is a real Cambodian city, not a tourist city and because of this it was a wonderful place to stay. The only tourists we could see were the ones that disembarked from the boat at the same time as us, a mere handful, so we could really soak up the spirit of the place in peace. Here Cambodian children were genuinely interested in us because we looked so funny to them and because ...

How Cambodian tourism works: We want to go to Siem Reap from Phnom Pehn so ask our hotel receptionist how to book tickets. She sends us next door to a travel agent, this getting a cut of whatever we spend. The travel agent sells us the ticket that gets him the most commission, we get the bus, we get met at Siem Reap by a tuktuk driver offering a good price, and find that his friend hops on board to sell us tuk tuk services to tour around the Temples of Angko over...

Classic Cambodian tourist experience #1 was ticked off the list very promptly as we got in a taxi at the airport and halfway to our desired location, the driver tells us our hotel has closed down. This is of course a lie designed to make us say "sure, take us somewhere rubbish where you'll get a huge commission" but we told him we were sure it was open, please take us there. He nods, drives on, then suddenly pulls over, jumps out and says "I fix car - you go with...