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Published: February 27th 2009
Day 45/46/47/48 - Ban Lung (& Kratie)
To quote Lonely Planet in regards to Ban Lung is the best way we can describe the place.......
"It may look like autumn all year around, but its just that the leaves, like everything else are cloaked in a blanket of dust".
But not even the book or people we had talked to prepared us for the amount of dust. The nickname for Ban Lung is "the Red City", which is quite appropriate. Luckily due to the extra cash from S's mom, we chose to stay a bit out of town at "Nordon House". It is run by a Swedish guy and his Cambodian wife. Our bungalow was super clean, hot water was provided via solar panels, there were electric fans and the electricity ran from 6PM to 4AM. It was the closest to luxury but still being eco-friendly. It was $20 a night, which is normally slightly over our budget, but it was no worries since it was on mom (thanks, yo!!!).
The owners had an adorable little 15 month girl - Vanessa - that we watched play with her tiny 8 month old cousin - Bin Bin while
G
'Sleepy' on the buseating lunch - Swedish food no less!!! We set our bags down after lunch and encountered 2 huge spiders in our room. Our screams caught the attention of the staff and they quickly killed both of them and left the bottle of Raid for us.
Rasty, the father of Bin Bin offered to take us to Boeng Yeak Lom, which is volcanic crater lake that formed about 700,000 years ago. It was a Sunday so the lake was quite busy with families (and naked little kids), so we walked about a quarter around the lake and found a quieter dock. It actually had mostly Westerner's that we named "Dock-O- Whites", but it eventually drew in about a dozen hilarious Cambodian guys. S jumped in first and after a bit of coaxing got G to take the plunge as well. The water was a bit cold, but it was refreshing from the hot sun. We were told that there are indeed fish in the lake, but if so we didn't see any. The only issue was the dock was worn down and there were no steps to get out. So we had use a piece of wood to leverage yourself
Crater Lake
The lake is surprising clear for the dirt that surrounds it on all sides! onto beams that protruded out from the dock. It was quite a struggle, but luckily the group of Westerner boys helped S out of water and G actually did it herself after carefully studying others on their struggle to get out. The Cambodian boys were all so funny, they all just jump in with their jeans, belt buckle and all. They even picked up one boy that was just spectator and threw him in - it was quite a laugh. We took few dives in an out of lake and ended up hanging out for about 2 hours at the lake. Rasty met us back at the entrance and we headed back to the hotel for a shower.
We decided to go into town for dinner and Rasty and Ero (another guy who worked at Norden House) drove us into town to Gecko House. We had a yummy dinner of chicken in yellow curry and fish in red curry. The boys actually decided to wait for us as they thought a moto driver might over-charge us to get back to our guest house. We invited them to eat with us but they declined but ended up joining us after
Hut For Rent
At least that is what the sign says. we finished eating. We talked to them about Obama, the Khmer Rouge, life in American, Cambodian corruption and our thoughts on the country. We also learned the family tree. The wife of the Swede is the oldest daughter, Ero is the middle child and the then there is the youngest girl. Rasty is the boyfriend of the youngest (we never did catch her name) and they have a little boy - nicknamed Bin Bin - together. The grandmother also lives with them at the guest house. And to top it all off, the family had two adorable golden labs, which just had us totally in love with this family. We decided then that we totally wanted to be adopted by the family and have them as our surrogate family while in Asia. S even went further and decided she wanted to marry into the family as Ero was the cutest Cambodian guy ever (Sorry A, S having a crush on you was so last week). Even though he might not have spoken the best English, S was sure he spoke the language of love.
After dinner and a few beers, we made the dusty journey back to Norden House
Floating S
S took the first jump, but needed a bit of help getting out. and enjoyed the electricity and watched DVDs from the extensive collection at the guest house. It was surprising cool without A/C as there was a nice breeze since we were on top of a hill. However, when the fans cut off at 4AM, it was a bit noticeable, but nothing like we had experience in Kompang Cham.
The next morning - Feb.23 - we got a quick breakfast and them jump on the back of Rasty and Ero's bikes and headed off to check out the nearby waterfalls. The first one was Chaa Ong, then Ka Tieng, next up was Kinchaah. The last waterfall was a mystery one as it wasn't in the original agenda and since there was no admission fee it must have been off the beaten path for tourist. The prettiest one was Chaa Ong but we most enjoyed Ka Tieng since we got to swim in the pool of water. A group of "lost boys" (and 1 girl) were hanging out near the entrance and joined us for our swim. They climbed all over Rasty and G to be able to jump off their shoulders. Surprising they mostly left S alone which she as fine
SPIDER!
Spider the size of our your hand. with as all of the boys were but naked - a little awkward! Ero didn't jump despite our best effort to get him in but instead he stayed back and took pics of us from the rocks
We also took a dip in the fourth waterfall and were joined by a bunch of older Cambodians (they wore their jeans though). It was a bit shallow since it is currently the dry season. But it was still nice and refreshing. We chatted with them via Rasty translation and compared tattoos.
The best part of day was also just riding around with the boys and talking with them. They were both 24 years old and Ero was still in school but loves to do dirt bike racing. They taught us how to count to 5 in Khmer and a bunch of other phrases we have already forgotten. We also attempted to teach them some of our wonderful Espanol skills. Rasty was so funny and asked about the meaning of some of the curse words he hears in movies. By the time we were finished sightseeing it was past lunch time. However, we were so covered n dirt and red dust
Ero and G
G got to ride a proper dirt bike with Ero. He likes racing and has the scars to prove it! that we had to hop in the shower. But again the staff was so lovely, they had us order our food first and knocked on our door when it was ready. The place did have free internet but since we both needed to use it, we went into town to the internet cafe. The connection was slow and frustrating, but the boys were sweethearts and brought us cokes to sip on in the sweltering cafe.
Afterwards, we chilled out for a bit, watched another movie - this one is too embarrassing to even admit, but lets just say it starred Hillary Duff. Then we got yet again another yummy meal at Norden House and watched the kids play a bit and of course gave the dogs some love. The night ended with watching episodes of "Little Britain" (computer says "noooooo"). But the night was very long as the alarm went off at 6:00 AM to catch the 6:30 Am bus to Kratie. Once again the staff was amazing and set out coffee for us (free of charge) and handed us a bundle of banana's for our bus ride. (They also left the electricity on for us in the AM
Dirt
Everywhere is red clay that kicks up dust. so we wouldn't have to pack in the dark) They also took our breakfast order at night and had a baguette with butter and jam wrapped up in take away bag for us. Rasty and the grandmother took us to the bus station in their SUV and waved good bye to us. It was really bitter sweet as we had become so attached to this people in such a short time, but we knew we had to keep going since there is still so much to see in Cambodia. The ride to Kratie (pronounced Kra-cheh) was uneventful except for when they opened the door to the bottom of bus to get our bags out. Our bags were absolutely covered in red dust. We both just looked a the bags, looked at each other and then back at the bags. The moto drivers nearby laughed at us and simply said "red city". Guess a little bit of Ban Lung will be with us forever. G is still picking out the dust form under her nails and Steph's gold shoes have been down graded to Bronze.
Kratie is famous for its vicinity to spotting the fresh waters dolphins that live in
Marriage Hut
This one was lower, so it would be for the bride - don't ask. the Mekong. However, it was quite expensive and there is no guarantee you'll even see any of them. As Floridians, we felt like we had seen enough dolphins and instead just roamed the city for the rest of the afternoon and night. Plus we are going to be over-budget for Cambodian so this was something we decided to save our money on.
The next morning we boarded yet another bus and made the 10 hour bus ride to Siem Reap.
More in the next blog......
xx
S & G
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Dani
non-member comment
Red dirt clay... sounds like home! I can't believe those spiders were in your room. Haha. I don't know if I could sleep after that. I just love all of your photos. Love you; be safe!