Battambang

This is the last stop on our trip! Kind of surreal really. Advertised as a beautiful French colonial town on the river we thought it would be worth checking out. On arrival we discovered the "French" influence is barely there and the river is gross and nearly dried up. We did get a very nice hotel room for $16 a night though which we have spent lots of time in due to the heat - 42 degrees here!

We did go to the circus which is put on by performing arts students, it was entertaining and nice for us to support a local project. The other main attraction here is a bamboo train - turns out it was a pallet on train wheels that can go very fast through the dry paddocks of the Battambang countryside. Again, happy to support the local attraction but wouldn't repeat. Can you tell we are ready to go home? Haha. We did do a fantastic cooking class though! If was so great and the food was amazing!! Fish Amok Curry, spring rolls, beef lok lak and banana tapioca for dessert. If you're nice to us (i.e bring us wine) we might cook for you when we get home :-).
Part of the cooking class was to visit the local market for produce. We thought we had seen the grossness and beauty of local markets in a third world country throughout our trip but today had something new! Live cane toads having their heads chopped off with a machete and being passed down the production line then being skinned only to then have their feet chopped off. At this point thrown to the front and ready to sale! And the lady couldn't cut the head off fast enough to keep up with the sales of the frogs! This lady also sold dead pythons and live giant cockroaches for eating. Like I said we thought we'd seen it all...I felt sick to the stomach for the next hour.