Battambang

Quieter than Siem Reap, Battambang is Cambodia’s second city, its own scatter of ancient temples and Buddhist shrines set in the surrounding countryside. Its best-known attraction, though, is the bamboo railway, rickety wooden platforms powered by small engines that once carried villagers and goods along disused French colonial tracks. It has become something of a novelty ride for visitors, but it says a lot about Cambodian ingenuity, and it is genuinely good fun.