Battambang
Cambodia’s second city is a slower, lower-key counterpoint to Phnom Penh — a French colonial town along the Sangkae River with intact pre-war shophouses, a small but lively contemporary art scene, and a countryside studded with hilltop temples. The famous “Bamboo Train” (norry) is a flat platform on rail wheels powered by a small motor, originally cobbled together by villagers to move goods along disused tracks; today it’s a tourist ride at the rebuilt section south of town. Catch an evening show at the Phare Ponleu Selpak circus school — the parent company that trained the founders of Phare in Siem Reap — and ride out to Wat Banan on its hilltop and to Phnom Sampeau, where a column of millions of bats spirals out of a cliff cave at sunset every evening of the year.