Blogs from Stung Treng, East, Cambodia, Asia

Voila cela fait un mois que je suis au Cambodge à mes yeux le pays du sourire à mes yeux pour le moment! Une population énormément de sourire énormément accueillante les enfants comme les adulte sont très curieux ! Malgré le massacre des Khmer qui ont assassiné toute les têtes pensante du pays leurs joie de vivre et et leurs curiosité leur ont permit et leur permettra de continué à faire du Cambodge un pays ou il fait bon vivre même si ont ne peu pas nié leurs naïveté sur plein de chose a commencer par la santé et l'environnement, la faute à qui... Il y a des millier de choses a voir dans ce pays, ce n'est pas le pays avec les plus beau paysage comparé à ces voisin du sud est asiatique mais il ... read more

After having spent a lovely few weeks travelling through Laos I decided it was time to leave for somewhere new - so the next obvious choice was Cambodia. Kate and I got an early morning boat to the mainland where we waited for nearly 2hrs for the bus to take us over the border and south ( remind me again why I got up so early!?) Arriving at the border and being forewarned about the slightly corrupt Cambodian officials! 2 dollars for a ?medical check - which consisted of filling out a form and having your temp taken! And 2 dollars for an exit stamp out of Laos!! Along with the 35 dollars for the visa! With the officials being official and def not in the mood to negotiate we handed over the reddies and had ... read more

Wir fuhren die letzten 15km zur laotisch/kambodschanischen Grenze und wollten uns den Austrittstempel hohlen. Die Beamten sahen aber das wir mit dem Motorrad unterwegs waren und sagten es sei nicht möglich mit dem Motorrad nach Kambodscha zu fahren. Wir hatten schon viele Geschichten darüber gehört, taten aber unwissend. Es gibt kein Gesetz das den Verkehr über die Grenze regelt und man ist auf den Goodwill der Grenzposten angewiesen (oder evtl. Geld). Sie gaben auf und sagten wir sollen die Kambodschaner doch selber fragen. Also sind wir rüber zum Kambodschanischen Grenzposten und fragten nach. Zuerst wollten sie nichts wissen und sagten es sei nicht möglich. Vy insistierte und zeigte ihnen wir alle nötigen Papiere hatten, um die Grenze zu überqueren. Die älteren Herren wollten uns nicht durchlassen oder legten es drauf an das wir ihnen noch ein ... read more

We had booked the Phnom Penh – Siphandon (4,000 islands) bus, which left at 6:45. We got on and had been assigned the seats at the front, which was great (no one reclining on top of us) and the air-con was working and there was even a bathroom on board. We were thrilled! Three hours in we stopped for a short food-and-toilet break, and we were making great time. An hour further down the road, however, a moped came out of nowhere into the middle of the highway and the driver had to drive straight into a huge bank of gravel to avoid him. The tyre had been ripped bare, and the brakes were shot. We stopped and eventually they gave up trying to fix things and we had to wait for a new bus. An ... read more

At first glance Stung Treng doesn't have much going for it but it's the northern-most settlement in Cambodia on the Mekong, so we're stopping for a while. We are now nearly 2,610 miles from the source and just 117 feet above sea level - but almost three miles lower from where the river splutters to life on the plains of Tibet. We are the only people who get off the bus. The sun beats down, the market smells - fish paste and rotting fruit - embrace us, and grown women in pyjamas emblazoned with teddy-bears, polka-dots, and flowers, skirt around us on scooters. I think: 'I don't like it here much'. But I figure: 'give a place a chance'. Cycling along the broad expanse of the Sekong (a tributary of the Mekong) that afternoon we pass ... read more