Getting my groove back in Battambang

So, in the words of the great Kenny Rogers, you've gotta know when to fold em, so I have moved to a quiter place to regroup.

That place is Battambang , about 200 Kim's south west of Siem Reap, a town of about 140000 people. Thanks to Lonely Planet I found a nice villa about a km from the town centre, called very aptly, Sanctuary Villa. You get a lot for less than $50 a night in Cambodia!

Moosie was happy to have some luxury

And I could spread out

The food and location were just what I needed, and gorgeous staff make it a very sweet spot.

I have just done walks into town, enjoying the markets, and the river.  One nice arvo was spent at a local Wat, which they are restoring. I asked a lovely monk if I could take photos and he offered that yes I could take one of him.

He then explained that he lived here, in some lean to tin sheds, but they were restoring the monks residence as well as the temples.  This area of Cambodia had a commune chief who did not obey the Khmer Rouge in destroying all the Buddhist temples. It was explained to me that now the Buddhist monks actually provide the leadership and I guess intellectual capacity within the society, given that most educated people were killed.

Th scale and intricacy of these Wats are amazing, and each town has many.  They are also quite entertaining at times.

See, what am I sooking about having a sore head! Morning walks, afternoon swims and lots of reading and resting have greatly restored my spirits. This is the view from my room.

This town was colonised by the French at one stage so there are lots of lovely buildings with cute balconies and shutters. As I've said before the contrast is amazing, you have buildings like this, and massive government buildings, and then a block away are people living in pole shacks.

I'm now using a trekking technique where I pick the next spot to walk to and don't stress about the whole trip. I am staying four nights in any spot so that I can relax, and booking the spot after that before I leave ( sort of like rock climbing where you try and have three points of contact at all times). So next stop is Angkor Wot, then Phnom pehn. 

My head has stopped hurting, I just now have a tender, green/yellow forehead. The skinned knees, wrists and elbows are healing well too. Having to take nuropen made my allergy blisters reoccur on my throat and chest ( remember Fiji?) but they are now settling with antihistamines. So hopefully I'm going to be able to stop pill popping. Lucky Katie helped me pack my medicine kit.