Blogs from Kratié, East, Cambodia, Asia

Since leaving Siem Reap about 2 weeks ago it seems we have been slowly making our way north through a selection of one-street towns, each slightly more dusty and remote than the last. It all began in the south of Cambodia in Sihanoukville, where we headed for a couple of beach days to recharge our cultural batteries following our temple overdose at Angkor. The beach was sandy, the sun was hot and the beach BBQs each evening were a bargain at 3$. After three days though we decided to get going, and jumped on a bus for the faded colonial delights of Kampot. That particular phrase will crop up again and again in this blog. Kampot, to its credit, has more than one street. It may have as many as 6 actually, though most of them ... read more

Joff - Having spent a marvelous day at Angkor Wat the previous day we woke early for the 7.15am bus to Kratie. Having been advised by the lady in our hostel that she could not tell us what type of transport would take us there we waited for our pickup with some trepidation. After some wait a bus arrived which took us to the central bus station. We were very quick to note on boarding our bus that we were the only white people on the bus save one other and as is customary there can be up to 5 people sitting on any 2 seats. Fortunately we had booked and so our seats were free. The bus was cool and clean to begin with but behind us we had a serial smoker who was clearly ... read more

From Battembang, we had a long bus journey to Kompong Cham, which is in the east of Cambodia. We only had one day stopover as we wanted to see the Bamboo Bridge and also go on a bike ride around a rural village. At the beginning of the dry season, a bridge made entirely out of bamboo is constructed to allow villagers from the island access to the mainland. At the end of the dry season, it is destroyed as boats can be used to cross the Mekong River. This happens every year! We hired out some bikes and went across the bridge which made quite a noise but was extremely sturdy. We loved cycling around the small village (and having to say Hello to passersby about a billion times!) We saw traditional Horse & Cart ... read more

Now that we are back in Cambodia, memories are reactivated of our last visit to that country, which was just over 2 years ago. That was in my pre-blogging days. So here is one, as the TV chefs say, that I prepared earlier.... We were on our way from Kratie to Sen Monorom. The first part of this journey was no problem, just a regular bus journey to the little town of Snuol, from where, we had been told, we could easily catch a minibus to Sen Monorom. But it was in Snuol that things started to go slightly pear-shaped. Snuol. The very name of the place should have told us something. Instant mental associations are invoked with words like snide, snigger, sneaky, and snot. And indeed it turned out to be a bit of a ... read more

Leaving Kratie had to happen, sooner than later in this case. Off again along the river as has been the case but this time some very nice jungle style road/trail. We were treated to amazing sites along the way and it surprises us still how much the river changes from place to place... Every day has a theme. Some times it's the heat, some times it's the dogs, almost always present but often we don't notice them, well are not feeling threatened, one always notices, not very often but it does happen. Today's theme was dirt, dirt like we've not seen before! We all know what is said about a 'picture being worth a thousand words' but these do not come close to conveying the magnitude of what we were dealt. Even the hardened Cambodian drivers ... read more

Sunrise is a time of day but in the villages is starts HOURS before the event. First the dogs barking, then the roosters join in, followed by the people. No need to set the alarm today! As we are going through our daily ritual of gathering clothes, filling bottles and bladders with water and Gatorade, Bunna and Mambo start packing up their gear. In all the preparation we miss the commotion as Bunna is unrolling his belt that he'd placed next to his pillow and is greeted with a wonderful little surprise in the form of a small scorpion! The sting delivered, the little monster promptly became goo on the underside of Bunna's boot! Very surprised to hear of all this, Nathalie immediately goes into first aide mode and whips out the kit we drag everywhere. ... read more