Day 8 - On the River

Early start this morning! We were all ready for breakfast at 6am and knocking on the door of the restaurant - unfortunately the staff were not so ready, in fact still sleeping!! Just barely cooked toast all round then!
Narro, our driver, took us off to the floating village and our guide Chamrong negotiated a motor boat for us to go out in (could have seated twenty people!) and we were on our way.
We had a fabulous trip on the river with all the working boats going in and out of the floating houses and some of us took some fabulous photos - unfortunately I wasn't one of them! I could blame my camera but it turns out it was me and I need to relearn some techniques, so back to the drawing board for the rest of the day.
Once back on dry land we wandered in and out of the shoreside market - lots of timber for the stilt houses, palm beer (local hooch), live eels and fried insects! I mention this because Joanne and I had agreed that we would both try a fried cricket as it was a local delicacy and here they were in a bag, together with a lot of other fried things like cockroaches and locusts! Chamrong picked out one each for us and we ate them (as you do!) and they were actually quite nice - a bit like the really crispy bits on Peking duck - another tick off the bucket list !!
A quick trip back to the hotel to check out and we were on our way to Battambang where we were visiting the mountain site of the killing caves from the Khmer Rouge regime. Another monumental climb (quite literally as the site was at the top) where there were several temples, a fee large gold buddhas and one very happy monk who appeared to be smoking something suspicious- I shall say no more but he looked very happy.
Again, numerous vervet monkeys were up to their tricks entertaining the visitors and making mischief and providing some light relief from the very chilling reality of the killing caves. People were taken to the edge of holes in the mountain and knocked into the deep caves where they were left to die. The site is now a memorial to all those who were so cruelly killed and many of the remains are still visible inside what is now a shrine.
Once out into the warmth of the day again we walked back down the mountain on our way back to the bus when we were absolutely astonished to see hundreds of thousands of bats rushing out of a cave in the side of the mountain - everyone stopped to look as the swarm continued spewing out of the cave continuously for at least 15 - 20 minutes. Our very own 'Life on Earth' moment!
We dined at 'The Gecko' cafe in Battambang and it was probably the best meal we have had so far and will be recommended to everyone.