Meals: local lunch | Accommodation: In Battambang

Today we will bid farewell to Phnom Penh and the urban atmosphere while starting our journey to Siem Reap through a very special route. We will travel through the busy riverside town of Kompong Chhnang, where if we wish, we can visit a local pottery village, since this town is famous for producing undecorated items for the Cambodian homes. 

Afterwards, we will arrive to Kompong Luong, the largest floating community on the Tonle Sap, with its almost 10,000 inhabitants, where everything floats on the water, including the schools, a clinic, the shops and the petrol station. We will explore it by boat and experience life in a real floating community untouched by the mass tourism. 

We will head later to the provincial capital of Pursat for lunch, a pleasant riverside town in Central Cambodia, and continue then through Pursat province, passing through typical Cambodian landscapes of endless rice fields dotted with sugar palms. It will be late afternoon when we arrive in the charming Battambang and check into our hotel.

Meals: breakfast | Accommodation: In Battambang

Today we will visit in the morning a local village in Wat Koh and learn about farming, rice harvesting and rural life in Cambodia. 

After lunch, we will travel to the hilltop temple of Wat Banan. The winding road follows the Sangker River and passes by many traditional wooden homes, offering an authentic glimpse of rural Cambodia. We will also be rewarded with striking views when we ascend to the Temple. 

Phnom Sampeau, a sacred mountain dotted with interesting pagodas and stupas, will be our next target. There is also a moving memorial to Khmer Rouge victims who were thrown into one of the many caves that pepper this holy mountain. We will return to Battambang town for the night.
 

Meals: breakfast | Accommodation: not included

After breakfast, we will leave Battambang and travel North towards Siem Reap, the atmospheric gateway to the majestic temples of Angkor.

Tip:

It will only take us only a few hours to get there (around 3 ½ - 4 hours). After checking-in in our hotel in Siem Reap, we will count on the rest of the day free till the evening, when we will enjoy a dinner with a classical dance performance, where we will see many of the most popular Cambodian dances, including the graceful Apsara dance, scenes from the Ramayana (known as Reamker in Cambodia), the coconut dance and more. The classical dances include elaborate costumes and date back to the time of Angkor, while the folk dances are connected to the harvest and the cycle of the seasons.  No visit to Cambodia is complete without attending at least one traditional Khmer dance performance!