So 3 weeks in and we’ve ended up in Battambang, supposedly Cambodia’s 2nd largest city, after Phnom Penh….. so where is everyone? This is such a sleepy place, noone seems to be in a hurry to go anywhere or do anything and there isn’t actually that much to do…..or so Lonely Planet told us….

Another lesson learnt: Don’t believe everything LP tells you.

This is an awesome little place, so much so that we’ve extended our stay by 2 nights. It’s not go go go like PP was, however there is a lot to do, but at a relaxed pace. The architecture is stunning, all French colonial and eclectic. Just taking a walk around here was fascinating. It’s just outside the city that you see really cool stuff  though – we hired some bikes and cycled north where we found a stunning temple.

If you’re ever in Battambang, go see the circus- it’s an arts school for teenagers- absolutely incredible. The original circus is in Battambang but when the students graduate they can go onto perform in the professional show in Siem Reap- all the proceeds from the show are invested back into the students education.

For our last day in BB, we went on another cycle trip, this time heading south to see the Killing caves. A similar situation to that in Phnom Penh,  I’m only just beginning to comprehend the scale and impact of the Khamer Rouge and all of the suffering that people here went through. It’s hard to imagine that almost every family here would have lost at least 1 member to the atrocities. On our way out, we saw the famous bat caves- every night, at dusk, millions of bats leave the cave to fly to Tonle Sap lake to feed. Our camera didn’t do a great job at capturing it, but it was truly amazing. The fly in groups so from a distance it looks like a massive swarm of bees flying towards you!