Great Northwest

Battambang:
Very chill little city. Wooden-shutters on old French colonial buildings, traditional Khmer houses, Thai-style temples...And they haven't replaced everything with crap plastic and tinfoil-looking facades. Not yet. Yeah, they have billboards and a bit more traffic than I remember but the place still has character.

Let's hope they don't fuck it up.*

Sleepless:
On a recommendation, I checked into the new Seng Hout Hotel. Nice place, nice staff, good location. $15 a night for A/C, cable, fridge, hot water, clean rooms...

But the mattress - hard as a fucking rock. Dead tired when I checked in, hoping to get some sacktime before a meeting. Spent 4 angry hours trying to get comfortable, cursing the asshole that thought these beds were a good idea. Enough. Got up - back hurting, evil mood - and went looking for a new place to stay.

"But sir, this one new. Very good." :
A zombie traipsing through downtown Battambang. Same story everywhere I went. City is full of nice $15 rooms - The Lux, and some others - but they all had the same back-busting mattresses. Must have gotten a deal from the same supplier. May he burn in hell.

Sleep:
Wound up at the Star Hotel near a bus station. $15 and a mattress that let me get some shut eye. The WiFi was slow as shit but the staff was pretty cool. Anyway, if you like a FIRM bed, you are in luck, but if you don't like sleeping on a slab of wood, keep all this in mind.

Enough of My Whining:
Didn't bother hitting the bars in town. I did hop on a moto for nighttime cruises through the ville. A lot of Khmer clubs around. Neon-lit, chicks out front. Some action out behind the Teo Hotel. If you know where you are going , you can have a good time up there.

Etc..:
The BBQ chicken at the market didn't make me sick and the White Rose Restaurant - still a win. Didn't see anything north of $2.50 on the menu, and they stay open til 10. (And they have diet coke - 3000r.) While I was there, the town was gearing up for some pre-Water Festival boat racing. Festive happenings along the river. Kids rides, music, and carnival games. Rows of fat balloons - 1000r a dart. All you had to do was hit one and pop it.

Best carny game ever. I came away with all sorts of shit. Photo frames, a plastic bow-arrow set, a coffee mug... Housekeeper at my hotel scored some of the loot. I laid the stuffed rabbit on a glue-sniffing kid. Made his day. The act of kindness left him speechless. Or maybe his brain is gone. Whatever. It was a good night. I like Battambang.

More info you didn't ask for:
Taxi (the whole car) PNH-BTTMBG cost me $35 / The guy on the return trip wanted $40 (We made stops in Pursat and Kampong Channang.)

Noted on Highway 5:

• 1 crane sitting halfway through the newly constructed wall it had just smashed.
• 1 dead-looking dude sprawled face-down on the pavement; a worried old woman hovering over him.
  
• 1 completely overturned pickup loaded with logs and a dinged-up mini-bus. Gawkers delight.
• 1 vivid set of skid marks leading straight into a ditch.
  

*And a hearty FUCK YOU to Attwood Group for that ugly space station inspired building they put up. Soulless pricks.