Rural Cambidia

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Rural Cambodia



Today was border crossing day and the concern was whether Buffalo Tours would have their guide waiting for us at the border. The border crossing is in the middle of nowhere and has only been open for a couple of years. It would not be a good place to be stranded, even for me. I would not like to have to try to get a ride in one of the vans loaded up with backpackers.



There are lovely new buildings on both the Cambodian and Laos side of the border. They are not being used. The Laos border officials are working out of two ancient railway cars that appear to have sunk into the ground. They actually appear to growing out of the ground. When I asked where the bathroom was, the driver pointed to the bushes. The buildings appeared to be finished and there was no construction activity. The Cambodian officials were working out of a wooden shack (best words to describe it....shack.) and off a table under a tree. We were happy that the morning rain had stopped!



The Cambodian guide and driver were there and all went smoothly at the border. Pay an extra $6 for express service and you get your visa immediately instead of waiting 6 hours. money talks especially in communist countries.



We had a horrendous drive to Kratie. When we had a paved road it was fine but the drive went like this. There would be a couple of miles of pavement.....drive 7-80 kph, oops pothole....slow down, gravel, axle killing pothole, pavement but only on the other side of the road, ox cart slow down to crawl, village....watch out for kids, dogs, chickens, potholes, gravel with potholes....follow the truck on the other side of the road, lurch, lurch ( free massage) another village, endless miles of gravel with car swallowing potholes (this is really getting bad!) another village, oh God, schools out, how can there be this many kids around, finally pavement....go 70 kph, well that was a good 5 minutes....endless miles of villages (why do they have to string the villages out along the road), roads better on the other side and we are bigger than the motor bikes....they'll have to give way, when will this hell end?



I've seen worse roads in Laos and Cambodia but they were under construction and it was raining.



The northern part of Cambodia is sparely populated. This both a result of the poor land and the vast number of people killed by Pol Pot. They are trying to repopulate the region but it is slow going. I thought Laos was poor but this area looks much poorer that Laos.



About 3 1/2 hours later we got to Kratie. And tomorrow drive is 6-8 hours. Suicide is not an option and there is no airport anywhere nearby.



We spent an interesting hour in the market with our guide. He explained a lot of the local foods. Apparently the market stall owners are among the wealthiest people in any town. Politicians and army generals, along with their families, are the richest people in the country. They have their own special license plates and drive the biggest cars.....well, actually they have drivers and body guards.



We were staying at a villa on the island. Not quite up to the same standards as the River Resort. We took the public ferry and piled our suitcases with the market produce at the front of the boat. The locals made room for us to sit on the wooden benches. No dock on the other side but there was a plank to walk down....they needed to put it out to get the motor bike off the ferry. Steep scrabble up the river bank.....good thing Deb wore good sports sandals.



We were met by 2 motor bikes. It's amazing what you can get on a motor bike: tourist, day pack, 25k suitcase balanced in front of the driver! It happened so fast, Deb did not have time to say "I can't get on that, I'll walk". The road was a cement sidewalk. No cars allowed on the island. The horn was going constantly, cows(the worse for getting out of the way), kids, bikes, dogs, cats, adults, motor bikes, and then we hit the dirt section.....with ruts. We made it to the villas. Once you forgot about perching on an overloaded motorbike, the ride through the countryside and villages was very pleasant. The villas were lovely and we were happy to get off the bikes.



We had time to wander back to the village. There was a wedding and we had a constant stream of people dressed up and on their ways to the party. Women in long gowns can look very graceful on the back of a motor bike.



On our walks, we had good views of the river and some fishermen. The river is very shallow in places and I could see fisherman walking in the middle of the river in waist deep water.



The villas are all individual building on stilts. They are lovely wooden building and very large. They are also pretty dark since they do not have screens on the windows. They are made from wood.





We had a great dinner on the terrace by the pool.

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