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Kids in a Palm Tree
Kids hanging out on Don Det The next morning Sebastian, Angela, the Danish couple and myself took the hour or so long boat ride to Don Det island. Although it is much smaller than Don Khong, it is considered to be the most popular with travelers and is better equipt as far as services and guesthouses go. The boat drops you off at the sandy dock where the sunset and sunrise roads meet. Again, it was very hot and I opted for a bungalo on the sunset side. I was not into the idea of being woken up by the heat at 6:00 in the morning. I checked into a guesthouse off the main road, mainly because it was a single room with a fan. Later I learned that I could only use the fan between the hours of 6 and 10 in the evening. Electricity was introduced to the islands just last year and many things are run on generator only a few hours a day. I met up with an Australian guy (who was really into hats) to take a walk to the waterfalls. Don Det is a quaint place and the path to the waterfalls is pleasantly lined with palms, the locals' thatched
Squeaky Clean
I saw this man getting clean in the river while I was having my morning tea. houses and the river. We crossed a bridge and had a drink on the other side. We found the waterfall, but could only think of taking a dip. A Frech woman suggested we go down to a pool she found near the lookout area. The water was hot! I never imagined that running water from a river could be so warm, but I think the rocks heated it up. Better than nothing. It turned out to be pretty nice and the sun was less intense so we stayed in there until our fingers went pruny. (Later that day, I met a girl who told me her friend had been around that same area and was attacked by bees and cut her foot so badly that she went back to Thailand to have surgery). On the way back to town, the weather started to get windy and stormy. A break from the heat felt good. The rains never came and we were lucky to find water buffalo bathing in the river. We must have sat there half and hour watching their habits and the buffalo hierarchy of the bathing area. I bet the Austalian guy to go and have a wash
Muddy Buffalo
Keeping cool in the mud with them, but he declined saying he didn't want to end up as the main character in one of those "this stupid backpacker..." stories. We met the others for dinner to have steak and potatoes which was more like chopped mystery meat and french fries (the food is not the best in Don Det).
The next day I had lunch with the Danes and hung out with some nice travelers at Mr. Bs guesthouse. An American guy had rented a canoe for 50 cents and asked if I wanted to help him manage it around the river, dodging little islands and the fisherman who really did know how to control a boat. The currents are funny and you don't always end up where you had aimed originally. We did manage to catch a violet sunset over the water. That night I hung out in some hammocks at Mama's guesthouse and chatted to some people while gazing out at the river and snacking on some of Mama's delicious spring rolls. That night I walked back to my guesthouse in the pitch black dark. I was waiting for my eyes to adjust to the night, but they never did. I ended
Washing the Mud Off
I sat for a long time watching these guys bath. The water buffaloes turned out to be one of my favorite things about the 4000 islands. up stubbing my toe on a rock and hobbled around trying to find my room.
The heat was a bit too much for me to take and two days was all I could handle on the islands. I bought a bus ticket from Don Det to Siem Reap for 30 bucks. I thought it was a bargain considering how far it was, but this was the route I wanted to take. The main reason was to avoid the road connecting Siem Reap to the Thai border (infamously bad). I planned to take the boat from Sihanoukville to Trat and this was the best way to go. We all met at Mr. Bs and headed towards the boat that would take us to the Cambodian border. We were told to book in advance so that the boatmen wouldn't charge you $40 knowing you had no other choice but to pay it. We took the short ride and were put into two small mini buses. We went down an unpaved, bumpy road and out of nowhere tuned right down what looked more like a path in the woods to the "'official" border crossing. If I weren't with so many other people
Hat Man
A picture of the Australian guy I met who was really into hats. Here he is sporting what I call "Englishman on Holiday in a Warm Climate" look I would have panicked.
The immigration office was so funny. It was a little wooden hut in the woods with a couple officers waiting to take your $25 to get into Cambodia. Of course, you have to pay them a couple bucks for their trouble. Then we were loaded back onto the buses, we were officially in Cambodia.
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