Battambang - Saturday 4 November

Met Dj at 9.30 after a lovely breakfast in hostel. 4 girls joined us from the hostel. Nicky, Toni, honey and Vicky. German and Austrian and all spoke good English but we had to talk very slowly for them to understand us. So our first stop was a Buddhist temple. Jack got talking to a monk and he walked us round talking about his religion. Have attached photo of the lady's face and her eyes that followed you!!. After the temple We went to see how they use the bamboo for making food. It was cored, filled with rice and baked. Tasted amazing. Then we went to a small killing fields area to commemorate 10008 people who were murdered during this period in Battambang area. First tears of the holiday as it really gets you. Don't know how I'll manage the genocide museum and largest killing fields when in phenom penh. On a happier note went to a fish market! Yuk. Lol I had to cover my nose with tiger balm to avoid the smell... then stopped to see a local make her dried chewy bananas which they sell by the bag and then onto a place where they make rice paper. At each of these stops we got to try all the food and it was "interesting" but we did try it all. Some nice some not so nice. Then we visited where they make rice wine using the cobra. 40% proof. People drink this with the blood from the cobra which looks disgusting. Then we stopped for lunch at a street vendor but i chose not to eat but did have a few mouthfuls. My stomach has been good up until now so didnt want to take any chances. Jack wolfed in and enjoyed but again a bit wary. Then our final stop was the mountains and caves. Had to walk up this steep climb for about an hour. Was exhausting but the view point over cambodia was Stunning. Had to sit with my fan and catch my breath. We got back down for 5.45 grabbed a quick beer and then along the road a bit to watch the bats leave the cave. At sunset every night (6pm today) the bats fly from the cave to go and find food and eat off the rice fields. It was on the dot. There are approx 5 million bats in this cave and to see them come out in droves was awesome. Took like 8 mins before the sky cleared. So that was our day. Busy but brilliant. Was only one thing to do now. Hostel beer and bed and thats what we did. Moving on tomo to phnom penh so had to get organised yet again.