Snake rolls and fried scorpions are just some of the tasty snacks on offer at a roadside stall in Battambang

The atmospheric city of Battambang, 290km from Phnom Penh, is the second-largest city in Cambodia and an architectural treasure-store.

Rail nuts can get there on the once-weekly (6:20 am on Saturday) trail from Phnom Penh, but easier options are a five-hour bus trip or (during the wet season) by boat from Siem Reap.

Most of Battambang’s fine old French colonial-era buildings somehow survived the Khmer Rouge era, and many Buddhist pagodas also grace the city and its surrounds.

Just outside of town, check out the Angkor-era ruins of Ek Phnom and Phnom Banan.

Immediately following the downfall of the Khmer Rouge, a number of Battambang residents escaped to Sihanoukville and other beach towns, to start a new life as it were; however, many are now drifting back to this graceful old city.