Christmas in Kampuchea

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Christmas for us: we were on Si Phan Don, 4,000 Islands on the ever -widening Mekong for Xmas eve, and we walked around past little Thai riverside restuarants filled with Westerners in Santa hats and shiny trimmings having piggie bbqs. We hung out with some drunk Thai and Japanese kids for a while who sold us some books. The next morning we got up surly and went to the tip of the island to board longtails to the mainland to begin our minivan pilgramage to Cambodia. We both agree that waking up riding in the wind and sun on the back of a longtail or motorbike taxi is the best way to greet the morn. We took a total of five different minivans stuffed to the gills with peoples and bags of rice and othr sundries where our feet should've been. We would drive two hours or so, then stop for food for about an hour, rinse and repeat all the way to Siem Reap. That was our happy Christmas. We tried to hang our stockings on the dashboard of the minivan, but they kept getting knocked off by all the tarantulas coming out of the grill. They like grilled tarantulas here. (No, we didn't.)

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Photos

overloaded is the norm
Salespeople will actually specify travel as 'Cambodian style' if you have someone almost on your lap.

Northeastern Cambodian countryside
from the bus window