Battembang and home

Battembang proved to be a much quieter town than Siem Reap or Phnom Penh. We had a couple of delicious meals there following up on Lonely Planets recommendations. The two recommended activities were well worth while also. In the morning we took a Tuk Tuk out to the "station" for the bamboo railway. This was initially built to transport rice from the paddy fields into town and link with the line into Phnom Penh. It is probably still used to transport the rice as the line passes through acres of rice paddy. The "train" is a series of independent "carriages" which are a rectanguler platform about 5 feet by 10 feet made of a steel frame filled in with wooden slats and covered with bamboo matting. This rests on a front and rear bogie and is powered by a simple 6 hp motor. It chuggs along the line with much clicking and jouncing because the line is not welded at the joins; the two lengths just abutt each other. Time and heat has also caused some interesting warping of the rails. The interesting part came when we were going up the track and met a number of carriages coming back with earlier birds than us on board. Protocol demands that the carriages returning have right of way so our driver informed us that we must get off. He and another driver then lifted our platform off the boggies and laid it beside the track. The fan belt of the motor was disconnected and the bogies were similarly lifted off the track. The returning carriages then trundled on and our carriage and others waiting were reassembled and proceeded to the end of the line. There we spent 10 mi utes perusing the goods on offer at a small market. The most entertaing thing though was watching three  young children crouching around a block of ice which had been brought up for the ice boxes of cold drinks. They had a lot of fun licking the ice as if it was a huge icy pole until an interfering adult took it to serve the intended purpose. Bob took a great photo of them.
That evening we went to a circus performance by the music, dance and gymnastic students at a nearby college. This was very professional and unsurprisingly the young students are about to undertake a  performing tour of France. There was a story linking all the performances which touched on the trauma and recovery from the Pol Pot regime but there was clever use of humour and technology to bring it all together. Afterwards we went to a local French restaurant for a very delicious dinner at an incredibly low cost.
Then it was the 6 hour bus trip back to Phnom Penh and dinner with Jenny and Wayne. Clinton and Michaela also arrived that evening . The next and last day in Cambodia was taken up with last minute trips to the markets and packing. We then over nighted in Bangkok and went to the Sunday Chatachuk Markets.
Now we are back in Perth and will be going home to Walpole tomorrow. It has been a great holiday and fulfilled all our expectations.
Caio for the last time. Gail and Bob.