kratie. Cambodia. february 3rd – 5th. 2009

We catch and early morning bus to Kratie from the front of our hotel. The search for a hotel, setting in, food. It is far more ‘tourist’ orientated here, but small. We wander a market, catch sunset on the Mekong (across from our hotel!) and chill in our room. Stephen is still recovering from the later part of Laos, so we wait a day to venture out. I am excited about Krolan, a vegan ‘snack’ we read about in the Cambodian Mekong booklet we picked up in Laos. We decided to rent bikes and ride out to take our chances with spotting the dolphins again. It is a good choice, we have a really nice, if long and sweaty bike ride to see the dolphins even closer this time. We lounge in the shade afterwards, watching them from shore and enjoying a quiet afternoon together. I gave up on trying to catch a photo of the dolphins, and just simply watch them play. And for ‘Krolan’ Yummy! picked some up on our ride here and recognized the woman I bought it from as the woman picture selling it in our book! Unable to communicate, I pull out the booklet and show her the photo, which she had very obviously never seen before! Then she tries to offer us money for the book, which we picked up for free from the Cambodian embassy in Laos, (I of course give her the copy and refuse her money. It is sad that the government, who gives the booklet away never even showed her the book and her picture, much less provided her with even one copy) it would be interesting to know if my interference had any impact either positive or negative. We ride back to Kratie and do a quick ‘tour’ of town before catching sunset and returning the bikes. Tomorrow we head to Phnom Penh, the largest city we have been in since Kunming, not sure what to expect.

our kratie photos on flickr

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stung treng. cambodia. february 1st – 3rd. 2009

We arrive in Stung Treng late in the afternoon and have to convince the driver we don’t want to stay where he is dropping us. Another gentleman with us is also adamantly refusing, so we convince the driver to drop us off in the ‘main area’ of town. We all end up at the same place. I am not going to give a blow by blow account, but our lack of preparation combined with no infrastructure at all makes our visit to Stung Treng little over 36 hours. We realize now that starting in a small town with no language skills or sense of Cambodia itself was probably not the best introduction. Had we visited at another point in our travels though Cambodia, the lack of a tourist driven setting would have been refreshing and welcomed, but we weren’t prepared, and I guess I was a little bit shaken up by the border crossing. It is only a couple of hours away from Don Khon, but it is totally and completely different here and we hadn’t had a chance to switch gears and get any feel for Cambodia before arriving. It is probably fairly telling that I didn’t take a single picture while here and Stephen took only very few. I think my sense of adventure had waned at this point and Stephen’s attempts to inspire me through his were unsuccessful. We decide to move on.

our stung treng photos on flicker

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border crossing. laos into cambodia. february 1st. 2009

A boat ride to the mainland amongst many now familiar faces. Divided in to two groups, we all board buses and head for the boarder. It is an involved process, departing Laos, a small amount of USD paid illegally, arriving in Cambodia for more official ‘you play by their rules, but it’s legitimate if somewhat uncomfortable in its intimidation, and we all get admitted in to Cambodia without any escalating incidents. Then a scramble to figure out who is going where and which bus we need to be on.  Stephen, I and 4 other people had asked to go to Stung Treng. We have all prepaid for the trip, they divide everyone up but keep asking the 6 of us. ‘why do you want to go there?’ amidst many attempts to convince us all to go somewhere else, the three buses are loaded up, take off and suddenly the 6 of us are left standing at the Cambodian border with no one left but the border guards and a quick assurance from the now disappeared bus manager that we will get to Stung Treng. I will leave out the details, but it took 3 hours, and 2^nd load of tourists crossing the border (and disappearing on buses bound anywhere but Strung Treng). A loss of patience on my part, much questioning of the border guards, the manager (when he appeared) and a healthy dose of western indignation creeping in before we are on a bus bound for Stung Treng. It was a pretty mishandled situation, but my response to it gave me far more insight into myself more than anything else. It really makes you reflect on a perception; your own insecurities, how you come to have both and how they affect your sense of being. There are certain expectations that should be left at home when you are abroad, none the least of which is that we just entered a new and unfamiliar environment.

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don khon. laos. january 31st – february 1st. 2009

The last stop in Laos before we cross into Cambodia. Picking the southern most island, it is rustic here, full of people taking their time to travel south east Asia. We are here only for one day, our objective, to see the critically endangered Irrawaddy dolphins that live in a very small area of the Mekong (remaining population approx. 12 in this area and estimated 7,000 worldwide). We hop on the bikes and make our way slowly. A stop at the bridge built by the French  and the old locomotive sitting on our side of it. Really overwhelmingly beautiful waterfall, ‘simply through its majesty and power and the reverence it inspires in those of us here to witness them’. Lingering for some time, drawn to this place, it is hard to pull away, but it is mid afternoon and the dolphins are so close. We bike, uncertain of the path, but find the beach and the boatmen is waiting. A woman joins us as we make our way to the inlet, which is the boarder between Cambodia and Laos. We join other in a small rock outcrop and my disappointment at not staying on the water is overcome when the dolphins make their shy appearance, in front of us. They are several 100m away, but  I am sure there were 3 if not 4 of them, and we sit for well over an hour watching them play. It is brief glimpses and we all watch silently and carefully, really honored to be seeing them. We part ways for now and enjoy a really beautiful ride back as the sun starts to set on our last night in Laos. Dinner, careful packing for our boarder crossing tomorrow and the generator shuts down around 10pm (as it does every night), and Don Khon is embraced by the night. Tomorrow, we leave for Cambodia, tonight, we sleep.

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don khong. laos. january 28th – 31st. 2009

We have decided to visit a national park on the way to Don Khong and spend a night there first – doing  a home stay. The infrastructure to arrange this from Champasak is either expensive or non-existent, so we join another couple at the main road and try to flag down a ride. A bus finally stops and takes as a short distance to the road that leads into the park, where we quickly discover that arranging transport the remaining 7km, not so simple. Hot sun, dusty crossroads, few buildings, language barrier, exorbitant - relative to usual transport costs, even taxi fare and no reservation arranged, we shortly decided to just continue our journey to Don Khong and forgo the park. But we are really at a sparsely populated crossroads in the middle of nowhere. It is noon and as I am loosing hope a truck finally stops and we negotiate a ride onward. There are a few other foreigners aboard as well and thankfully two of them are going to the same island we are, as we again are dropped at a crossroads, even less populated then the last. We walk wearily in the mid day sun, each with our full packs for 2km or so before we find the water, A lone boatman waiting to take us across to the island. Thankful to have reached our destination, we check in to a quiet hostel with a lovely feel and a pretty big room as the past few entries, it is SMALL here, and really calm, laid back and serene. We spend the time observing river life not far from the boat landing and the handful of restaurants. Our plan here? To bike around the island, which takes a day with a break from the noon sun, but Stephen gets sick, so we see little else but the area we are in. It is really lovely here though, and there is no need to do much other then rest in our room, eat and watch the Mekong. Stephen recovers in a couple of days and we decide to move on. I am glad he did as we are with each stop further and further from being able to find medical help if we need it. (this is of course Stephens’ cue to get sick). In retrospect, I can appreciate the experiences much more, but at the time Laos was wearing thin.

our don khong photos on flickr

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champasak. laos. january 26th – 28th. 2009

Early Dawn. Locals ferrying in to the boat landing. Pakse before its day begins. Waiting. We leave today for Champasak. Which boat is ours? The lack of infrastructure refreshing and disconcerting at the same time. The boatman introduces himself, he is waiting for a different boat, there are others joining us. Andreas (our friend from the plateau) and Klaus, sitting in single file, our journey is quite serene as we each silently contemplate the Mekong during the 2 hours that follow. It is a morning I still think of often, am grateful to have experienced it as I did and with the four others that shared that journey. It is among the highlights of the times spent journeying from one destination to the next. I realize now in hindsight, that some of the most rewarding parts of our travels were some of these journeys; another, being the people we met. We arrive in Champasak, it is small and simple, and we keep in pace with our environment. As always, food and slow wanderings, getting a sense of this place. Much lovely conversation with Klaus, with the local man (buy!) at tourist office, a long sweaty, meandering bike ride, a full afternoon spent slowly taking in Wat Phu, a chance encounter with Naomi, veering off the ‘main’ road to the ‘2nd’ road, the dark of night interspersed with a snippet of passing conversations, the warning bark of a dog. It is at this point the foreigners become fewer and as you travel further south through Laos to the Cambodian boarder, many of those people are part of that path. It is with a few now familiar faces that we take the morning ferry back to the mainland to continue our journey south to Don Khong.

our champasak photos on flickr

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