Battanbang

The town of Battambang is a pretty cool  place. A real mix of third world craziness, traditional old school backpack haunts and some uber cool ( but not up themselves ) modern bars and restaurants. It has a laid back vibe, well not so laid back at 6am when they blast out the national anthem on massive but tinny speakers for school assembly next door....
We spent yesterday just cruising about town, kate chatting to people in bars (you know what she's like..)
We got talking to a really nice and interesting Dutch lady who works for the Red Cross as a physio therapist for rehabilitation of land mine victims. She took us up to her work for a look around. It was pretty impressive. All local employees (except her and the Belgian boss) and they actually manufacture and fit the prosthetics there on site and also have a gym etc for getting folk back on their feet properly. 

God it makes you think about the different people in this world. Ones that are happy to dedicate their lives to helping others and ones that will just steal and abuse to get everything that they want. The Dutch lady's previous partner was a doctor she met through work. He got blown up in Afghanistan a year ago, paying the ultimate price whilst trying to do his bit to help others....
In the evening we went out to a local circus show. I feel like a travel critic but it really was a charming mix of very impressive acrobatics and innocent humour. I'd certainly recommend it to you if you're passing this way. Tip of the week is to bring a cushion though cos the wooden benches played havoc with our already bruised buttox.
Not much else to report so here are so photos which hopefully catch some of the atmos of our favourite place so far - Battambang

Homage to the mighty C90

A bit like Raffles?

It's a bugs life

All praise the elephant

Elf n safe tea

Night markets

Circus