BattaBing Battambang

We encountered our first tropical storm on our first afternoon walk though Battambang. We hid under the awnings of a CD shop where the kind shopkeeper took pity on us and brought out a couple of chairs for us to rest while we watched nature's handy work. Battambang is almost a world away from Phnom Penh. It is a small, quiet, sleepy colonial town with friendly locals and hardly any hassling. We met a couple of moto drivers who drove us through picture perfect countryside to see a couple of Wats and to ride the so called Bamboo train. The bamboo train is literally a home made bamboo mat attached on top of 4 small train wheels powered by a small moped motor and using a big stick as a break, riding over hardly connected uneven train tracks. Great fun until you meet the one going the other way. The train with the lighter load dismantles to the side to give way. Comfortable? No! Safe? Probably not! Fun? Definitely!! Popular? Considering the amount of locals that jumped on our mat - very much so!

As we wandered through the town we met a local English teacher who invited us to attend his English class which he runs free for the poor kids from his village. As 3 of us hopped onto his little motorbike we cosily rode for 20 mins into the countryside. It was only when we arrived we realised the scale of what he was doing as there were about 200 kids divided into 12 or so classes. All those classes were run by his former students. We visited all the classes and chatted to some of the most eager to learn kids that we have ever met. It was a humbling experience which we'll never forget.