Sorry, this one got really long, but it has been absolutely amazing. As always, here is our favorite conversation from the road these past few weeks: “You buy bracelet?” “No thanks,” I replied. “Okay.” The little girl replied, disappointedly. “Where you from?” “United States.” “Oh, America. Washington D.C. capitol. Population about three hundred million. President George Bush. Alaska biggest state. Rhode Island smallest state. Honolulu capitol of Hawaii.” “What about Wisconsin?” “Umm…” The girl gives me a blank look. I ask myself if anyone ever knows anything about Wisconsin. “Now you buy bracelet? I give you special price, fifteen for two [View Full Entry]

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Only one full day left in enigmatic Cambodia. It's going to be such a shame to leave this incredible country as there's so much, all in the details, that we're going to miss. Here are some of the minutiae that make up the crazy whole that we love so much:- Khmer food (especially Lok Lak and the supremely delicious Amok), local markets selling the living, barely living and very much dead creatures of this country (you can ascertain the level of life by the number of flies - the more flies, the deader it is), the gorgeous red dust tan, counting [View Full Entry]

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From Sihanoukville we travelled back to the capital and then from Phnom Pehn we took a mysterious bus journey in the direction if the Ratanakiri province. I say mysterious because according to the Lonely Planet this journey takes about 19hrs... best case scenario... but the bus company we were travelling with claimed we'd make it in 12hrs, no matter what. So as we sat there questioning to what lengths our bus driver would go to save us those 7hrs and observed that the Cambodian countryside was nothing like what we were expecting. The roads in Cambodia are notoriously bad and, although [View Full Entry]

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Our first stop in Cambodia was in the Ratanakiri Province, which is in the North East of the country. We met some people on the bus who were also travelling there and decided to split a four hour cab ride for $45 - 5 of us plus the driver in a Toyota Camry. Yikes. Because most people skip past this area, there is only one bus a day, which we missed, so we squeezed in for a bumpy ride and got to know each other. Our new friends, Janet and Jakov are from Malta, and Sijs, pronounced like 'lace' with an [View Full Entry]

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So, this blog will include two places: Kratie and Ban Lung. On 1/10 we left for Kratie which is about 5/6 hours from Phnom Penh in central-eastern Cambodia: *The night before in Phnom Penh, I watched a dog take a dump on a pile of trash around a light post. I thought to myself, that is a very smart dog, as it could have crapped anywhere. *Our bus was freezing and was filled with mostly upper class travelers, very few locals. A man spoke for almost 5 minutes in Khmer though, and then spent 10 seconds explaining what he had said [View Full Entry]

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Hello to everyone that reads this. So for the last 5 days we have traveled into the north eastern part of Cambodia and it has been fantastic. We left Phnom Penh early to catch a bus up to Kratie which was about a 6 hr bus ride on a paved road thankfully. Once in Kratie each of us took a moto and a driver on a 15 min ride through the town and rural areas to a dock where we would take a boat to see freshwater dolphins in the Mekong river. Before I get to that though I just [View Full Entry]

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On www.travelfish.org I'd read about a homestay experience that sounded interesting. A couple, Don and Kheang offered an experience to see what rural life is like in Cambodia and the reviews of the experience had been great, so when I arrived in Phnom Penh I rang Don and organised a visit. Don is an American that's settled down in Cambodia, with his Cambodian wife and two children Ra and Na. They are a really interesting couple that have both had fascinating lives and it was just so interesting hearing their stories!! Kheang had actually been alive while PolPot was in charge, [View Full Entry]

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A flight from Ban Lung in Ratanakiri Province to Sen Monoram in Mondulkiri Province, then on to Phnom Penh. total time was 1.5 hours! Impressive considering it takes 13 hours by bus. These are the aerial pictures from the flight. There's a lot of them, but I moved the best ones to the first page. Full disclosure, most have been cleaned up in Photoshop, it was very hazy that day. I included so many pictures with the hope that someone, somwhere will find them useful... * NOTE * -I've recently discovered the key to getting the best clarity out of posting [View Full Entry]

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What I expected was to see a society totally different from Cambodian culture, known for their carved totems of deceased family members. What I got was an amazing river trip on a unique boat, views of Vietnam, a $1.50 ramen meal and also a glimpse at a Chinese village over 100 years old! It was hot, the river was cool. I bought a hat that barely fit my head. We were exhausted on the drive back to Ban Lung, as the sweltering heat, tropical sunshine and 120 decibell boat engines deafened us the entire way. It was an amazing trip and [View Full Entry]

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The bus ride from Phnom Penh to Ratanakiri started out simply enough. It was a cool, almost chilly morning for the short motodop ride to the bus station near Olympic Stadium. At 6am, we were definitely short on sleep considering it was New Years Day and we spent the better part of the night before eating food, ice cream and watching fireworks until after midnight. Fortunately we were given the best seats on the small bus, and off we went. We crossed the Tonle San River, then the Mekong. We stopped at small villages for breakfast and hour by hour the [View Full Entry]

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