Weekends here for us usually involve kids activities and bicycle excursions. There are swimming lessons and Jan coaches the kids in soccer.
But when we can we get the bikes out and go off exploring. Taking any of the roads from the town you quickly get out to the village areas. Hundreds of small smiling faces call out "Hello, what is your name?", dogs and chooks scuttle across the road and everyone is busy. What I love here is that life is going on all around you - no neat suburban streets and closed curtains. Everything happens on the street; people cook and eat, fry noodles or bananas to see, kids play and women do the washing (men mend motorbikes or swing around in hammocks).
This Sunday (suitably covered in plastic macs as it rained) we ventured north and quickly came upon a quirky garned with a beautiful lotus flower pond. It was open and there were little gazebos to sit in. We sheltered from the rain and no one even asked what we were doing!
We also explored a Wat, saw them making Aspara (goddess) statues and had a punctured tyre mended (25 cents worth).
On the way back we came across one of the Land Mine clearing organisations - have a look at the white truck. This huge vehicle is used to rake the ground, and if a mine or munition is founf it will explode it. A sobering reminder of what still lurks here. Battambang has a lot of ordnance still left and unfortunately the rainy season tends to bring it to the surface.
Then the last stretch home and off for coffee!
