Blogs from Ratanakiri, North, Cambodia, Asia

The northeastern provinces of Kratie, Ratanakiri and Mondulkiri, some of the most remote areas in Cambodia, are home to much of Cambodia's vanishing wildlife and forest, and some landscapes of outstanding natural beauty. Ratanakiri, my next stop, is an isolated province in Eastern Cambodia on the border with Vietnam and home to various ethnic minorities, elephants, waterfalls and pristine jungle. The bus to Ban Lung was to leave at 1.00pm, so I made sure I was at the pickup point, Xplore Asia's office, in plenty of time. Honestly, I don't know why I bothered, the bus was an hour late. And it was a local one, not the tourist mini bus I was expecting. That explained why it was so late....local pickups. We eventually hit the road at 2.30 in a very overcrowded mini van. With ... read more

Out of the jungle and onto what will some day be a proper road we start our day. Quickly the hard pack clay turns into more of a silty sand pit and we are forced to walk. The ground under our feet acts more like water, splashing into the air and over the tops of our shoes, constantly stopping to empty our shoes, eventually the road works appear again and Nathalie has logged a stellar 30km day! Never run again my arse! Finally we make it to lunch time....but along the way we see standing ponds of water around some of the construction areas. Turning one corner, we see Bunna washing the dishes in what would be a cesspool any where else, guess not so today...We were forced to fill one of our water bottles from ... read more

So we spent a good few days in Phnom Penh. I really loved the city, just the feel of it. We did the usual tourist stuff, killing fields etc. So much history realted to the city. We met a few lovely scottish men. Im liking bumping into scots and irishman as they make the best drinking company and are just generally chatty and approachable. We went to a club where i managed to insult some guy by telling him he looked like GOB from arrested development (i though that was a compliment). I had my card blocked but managed to unblock that after goign around the stupid woman i wa talking with to get it unblocked. Smooth sailing now (I hope). We have now headed to Ratankari. The bus journey took ages. Random roads and the ... read more

Hello all from Ratanakiri Province in Eastern Cambodia, I was on the fantastically long bus journey up north from Phnom Penh to the Laos border, but something kept irritating me. When we stopped halfway in Kratie I had packed my day-pack and was ready to jump off the bus but I relented. On eventual arrival in the border town, Stung Treng where 3 three major rivers converge everyone knew everyone on the bus as we were pretty much sitting on each other. Below: One of the rivers passing through Stung Treng and the bridge towards Laos Instead of going straight to Laos, I followed my irritation, deciding rightly that I hadn't seen and felt enough of authentic Cambodia yet. I joined some of the others from the previous bus journey and decided to get the bus ... read more