Out in the sticks

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Hello again, just a quick one from us before the electricity is turned off again! Since our last blog we took a long old bus ride north to a place by the Mekong. It was absolutely stunning and was all the better as we took a boat trip out, just the two of us and the man on the back for 90 minutes cruising around spotting the rare irrawady dolphins at sunset. It was incredible and so nice to be away from the busy cities. Today we have so far had a bone crunching day in search of the unbeaten track. It began at 7.30 until 4 pm when we arrived at Sen Monorom. The trip was interesting...we took a locals pick up service which involves pilling high a toyota pick up with 2 crates and one bag of chickens (all/most alive), a box of fish, a further bag of ducks (again alive) bags and bags of rice and veg, a moped and the luggage of the 21 people on the journey. We could not believe our eyes as it was being loaded on. We paid an extra $2 each to sit inside the cabin behind the driver, yet we did not quite realise we would be sharing the seats for 2with a further 2 people. It was hell and a big mistake for us two being the largest two on the pickup. But we made it with numb bums and are thrilled to have organised our ultimate aim here. Tomorrow we will start out on our two day elephant trek visiting some indigenous villages, waterfalls and sleeping out in the jungle. Then we shall return here (hopefully between 6 pm and 10 pm when there is electricity so we can have a shower) to have an explore day to ourselves before making off towards Vietnam. Will update you all again when we are back on the beaten track.
x x x

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