Royal Hotel, Battambang, Day 1

After a quick breakfast, it is ready to say bye to Chamraoen's home. The owner surprise us with two traditional Cambodian scarves, and takes our photo with his sign that I am sure will crop up online on some point.
At 10.30 we board the bus and set off, leaving Siem Reap behind us. It's another good bus, I don't think we have had a bad one in Cambodia yet, but it is again a long journey. What is meant to be 3 hours soon turns into 4, and it is already late afternoon as we arrive. The hotel is nice, but we are starvig so quickly go out to grab some food. We both have a baguette at About The World restaurant which we later find out is the number 1 rated place to eat on tripadvisor (justified) before Amy heads back and I get my hair cut.
The language barrier hasn't caused too many problems so far on our travels, until today. After sitting in the chair for nearly an hour getting my head shaved on the sides and trimmed on top(30 minutes just shaving!) I finish up with short hair and half a beard. There is no option but to say an emotional goodbye to the beard that has accompanied me through all my early twenties.
After the heartbreak of the beard fiasco, we decide to head out to the Joseba Extebarria Human Art gallery. A truly remarkable photo gallery run by two truly remarkable people. Joseba spent a great amount of time biking (bicycle that is) through 29 countries to get the snaps. He had no money, and relied on the kindness of the very people he photographed to survive. The photos are beautiful, and Joseba talks for almost an hour on the great work him and his wife are doing helping young Cambodian children who live in very poor conditions to go to school. It is an uplifting and heartwarming story of human kindness.
After visitig the gallery we grab some tom yam which is great, before heading back to the room, ready to see more of Battambang tomorrow.Read more