For the last leg of our family road trip we traveled from Pursat to Battambang where we spent one night before heading back home via backroads.

🏨 New Hotel 🎲

     While on the highway bound for Battambang I did some research for the cheapest hotel with aircon and hot water. I found Star Hotel, and the pics seemed well enough, so that's where we landed for $15 USD per night.

     We parked outside and carried most of our belongings inside because the tuk-tuk isn't exactly as thief-proof as a lockable car interior. To our surprise there was a vegetarian restaurant a few doors down, and this convenience caused me to skip the only Indian restaurant this town has that I am aware of.

Kimchi For Srey-Yuu 🥬

     Battambang is one of Cambodia's largest cities, and with that size comes things like modern supermarkets, but luckily Battambang doesn't have the traffic congestion like Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. Srey-Yuu had been asking for some kimchi for quite a while, so we snagged some while in a random local supermarket.

To The Countryside 🌴

     My wife has an old friend that I have never met here in Battambang, so we also took this opportunity to meet her and see her place. My wife even lived here briefly once upon a time, so she gave me a tour of the area.

     In this area there were many old friends and little nooks to hike to and say hi to more old friends. We spent a few hours here before realizing we better hit the road before too much of the day was gone.

     While here we looked at the foundation for a wooden house that once stood in the days when my wife lived here. Srey-Yuu still has some memories of this place, but by the look on her face she didn't seem impressed.

Strangely Clear Water 🚰

     Battambang is a little greener than the rest of the country, and things like shade trees alongside the road's edge are common here, a stark contrast to the mostly tree-less landscape of the rest of the country. Even here next to a major road the water runs as clean as the whitewater behind our house high in the Cardamom Mountains.

     It was so nice to walk around in the shade outdoors, and to even see a clean creek reminded of my Indiana boyhood home. Of course there are still heaps of trash and litter everywhere like the rest of the country, but Battambang is about as beautiful as a semi-urban area can get in Cambodia.

The Endless Spiral 🌀

     My wife had previously traveled to and from Battambang via a new chain of dirt roads that were of decent quality, but we weren't 100% sure of how to navigate it ourselves. Google Maps works pretty well here, but once you venture into the rice fields it's uncharted territory.

     We may or may not have made wrong turns along the way, but I was quite pleased to drive 4+ hours in the middle of nowhere and not got completely lost or be stuck to roads so bad we could walk faster than the tuk-tuk's shock absorbers could carry us.

     Along the way we followed a huge irrigation canal, likely a project completed during the Khmer Rouge times but newly renovated with concrete and all the other modern irrigation trappings. I saw a neverending trash whirlpool and was so mesmerized that I had to stop and stare at it for 5 minutes. It's good to appreciate the small things in life.

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