This was an easy riding day today. Only 175 km on a mostly deserted highway from Siem Reap to Battambang. The reason to stop so soon was two fold. For one, so that we have a good launching point for the remainder to Phnom Penh, but secondly to stop early enough to have some time to explore Battambang.

The city is the capital of the province by the same name. In recent history, it was occupied a couple of times by the Thai. It has some cool French colonial architecture left standing and is a way to experience a little bit of what “normal” Cambodian cities would look like.

We took our time, started after a late breakfast and made good progress. The road is smooth, the traffic manageable – with the exception of the overtaking by some of the cars. There is a clear but annoying hierarchy in Cambodia: Cars don’t see oncoming motorbikes as a valid reason not to overtake. After all, they can always move to the shoulder. Unfortunately, this extends to us – but I will surely not go off the tarmac into sand at 80 km/h, so it takes a bit of focus and liberal use of the horn to explain the error of their ways to the kamikaze cars every 10 km or so. Overall, it is still quite manageable though.

Lunch was taken at a roadside BBQ joint that stood out by its spotless seating area. It has become harder to find passable places to eat – Indonesia was a highlight in that regard. This time we were lucky though – and even got a veggie salad for Nina. The owners were charming, the BBQ chicken delicious and all of it ridiculously cheap at $2.75 US.

Sadly, the recommended cute little backpacker place would only take two day plus reservations, so by the time we arrived, they were booked out. We went with Agoda once more and found this comparatively luxurious hotel, just a little bit out but still within walking distance for $8 US per night. Once more we unloaded, got a shower and got ready to hit the town. The afternoon was just right for it. It had cooled down a little and the light was gorgeous again.

After a loop to take in the river and architecture (and some fooling around at the monkey bars) it was time to feed Nina’s inner chocolate monster. What better place than the Choco L’Art – a gallery / cafe run by a French / Khmer couple.

Since we were keen to get to bed and ready for a long day of riding tomorrow, we decided to go straight from tea to dinner. Once more picking a “dining for a cause” restaurant, we treated ourselves to delicious Khmer food in the most cozy of places. We are still blown away by the harsh contrasts between the Cambodian reality outside, especially during the dusty dry months, and the spic and span places set for westerners to leave their hard dollars.