Notes on the journey North

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Of course I wonder how well I'll survive the trip to Stung Treng. It certainly helps to have a lot more padding than I do and I would prefer not to lose the skin off my tailbone again. All's well with the Lawyers here in Phnom Penh. The shareholders are now in place for the birth of the "Accardo Corporation" (creative little name ain't it?). As anticipated, Lawyer Rob was ecstatic over the gift of the Battambang wine. He may even sue for attempted harm.

Once in Stung Treng, I'm hoping to avoid being sociable at all for the first couple of days as I seek to catch up on sleep, rest, and writing. The floor will be my bed in Stung Treng and Banlung, with mosquito netting as my canopy.

Off to pack a few belongings, leave my passport and second bottle of wine here in Phnom Penh for my return in about two weeks.

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Have been on the road traveling north for two hours and in dire need of a second cushion. The NE provinces have never enabled BlackBerry reception above the town of Kratie, about two thirds of the way to Stung Treng. We'll see if rumours of the new radio tower have any truth to them.

Skirting Kratie is a 35 km stretch of mud rutted road with puddled potholes and I'm typing this with one finger as I bounce around on the back of the sliding bike.

Stopped to watch a group of people gathered to help free a laden pickup from thick mud. Two other trucks were stuck and waiting for help and I considered it my duty to stop the bike, take photographs of people in trouble and raise morale by acting as the foreign cheering section. Sophat wished I'd put the damn camera away and stop talking to everyone.

Well it's almost dark now and we still haven't met the paved road to Stung Treng. It will be another one and half hours once we do but I'm hoping the rain will not start again as my jacket's in the pack strapped tightly down on the back of the bike.

Both of us are covered in mud and this doesn't bother me as it does Sophat. Never mind, mum will wash his clothes and I will give him the money to wash the bike, then he'll feel like a man again.
I've lost all feeling from my waist down.

Sky's bright with lightning every few seconds. Rain is beginning to fall but not yet heavy. We've reached paved road at last and stopped at a stall to buy two thin pink rain coats from a Chinese trader. Very lovely they are too, and pink is obviously a good colour for Sophat. Can't tell if there's thunder, what with the wind rushing through my helmet and rustling my pink plastic coat.

Getting nauseous from looking down and typing on a phone that the wind is dragging from my hand. Will give up and do some back seat driviing. I'm quite good at it.

Flat countrside here, and total darkness except for the bike's two headlights and my BlackBerry keypad. The lightning is all around us. It's possible that we're the tallest objects around and may never be heard from again if struck. Just two blackened bodies. But it's a free show and I want to make the most of being surrounded by forked lightning.

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9.22pm. we've finished eating on the floor of the new family home here in Stung Treng.  Five different dishes had been prepared for us, of which two included bones with a taste of fish. More tired than hungry right now and ready to curl up and sleep.

Having washed with the communal bar of soap and rinsed off by sluishing water over myself from the large bucket in the "water room", I'm now in my room and lying on the mattress under mosquito netting, listening to the circadas on the outside of my shuttered windows.

The geckos have the run of the house. Mosquitos, malaria and dengue fever are widespread. Thankfully, I stopped at the former French le gare pharmacie, stocked with all the goodies often requested by "foreigners",  asked for 'Doxycycline' and immediately took a tablet.  If a mozzie bites the infected family members and them comes to bite me for dessert, I hope my blood titre is at an effective level.

On the way in to this town I noticed red flashing lights that meant a tall structure was nearby.  It could well be the new communications tower that had been promised but never constructed up until this point in time.  Banlung may well have something similar by now too, but we'll see.

I'm exhausted and my eyes are closing.  I really hope I don't need to use the loo too many times in the night as it means carefully stepping over sleeping bodies on the floors throughout a very dark house!.

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5am the following day.
Last night there were 12 people sleeping on he floors here, and some are already up to cook the food to be served below. They run a noodle stall at the front of the property and this is the main source of income.

Because I have a cough and small 'cold' I will rest today and get ready for a meeting with Sovann, who supervised the building of this house with our donated funds. He wants to go over the receipts with me etc etc.

Don't know how long will stay here before facing the Ratanakiri Soap Opera!

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