I like to ride my bicycle

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Well - we just love it here. We've spent the last 3 days cycling round Don Det (island where we are staying) and Don Khon which is the one connected by the old railway line. Our bikes are fairly Retro with handy baskets on front - picture Maria Von Trapp cycling round the streets of Salzburg and you've got a clear picture. Don Det is mainly farmland - yesterday we cycled around the whole island - our side is well developed compared to the other! All we passed were paddy fields, Water Buffalo, pigs, chickens (I nearly killed one - silly animals don't move out of the way of oncoming bikes), cats, lizards and farmers. We've seen a couple of people who have monkeys for pets too - lucky folk. The views are fantastic and the people here are really really friendly. We saw one Laos boyo in a Cork GAA jersey!


On Don Khon there is a 'beach' area - hard to believe you're not at the seaside and actually in the middle of a river! We've been swimming there and took a trip out to a neighbouring Cambodian island where we could see dolphins swimming around - they are an endangered species and there aren't too many of them left in the Mekong, largely due to explosives that the Khmer Rouge launched into the river. Anyway - we got free Cambodian whiskey while we dolphin-watched and 2 lovely boat trips there and back.
There's also a waterfall which was impressive but you can't swim near it and we were roasting so moved on in search of calmer waters.


Apart from that we spend our days hammock swinging, reading and diving in and out of the river - we can dive off our balcony right in which is super!Yesterday some of the children belonging to our bungalow owners were in swimming with us - the boy tied a few ropes onto the balcony for us aswell - the current is quite strong but safe enough if you know what to do.

As we cycled home yesterday a wee boy hopped up onto the back of Paul's bike and a wee girl (she was about 2!) hopped onto mine and travelled along with us for a while...their mother didn't seem too bothered so neither were we. The children at our house are great fun - one of them sings her little heart out from morning till night and one day Paul gave the little boy a guitar lesson. Cute indeed.

Restaurants don't really exist but lots of the households have printed up a menu and put chairs and decking out so there are plenty of places to get a bit of nosh. From about 6 on the island is pitch dark and apart from a few places that have electricity and outdoor lights, it's mainly candles and torches. We cycled home yesterday in the dark with our little torch leading the way from Paul's basket. Two days ago we had to cycle for about half an hour in a storm which was fun and actually a welcome relief from the heat. Today has been the first day that we haven't gone for a big long cycle but there's still time for a small short one before darkness descends.

We're hoping to head for Cambodia in 2 days - we're finding it hard to tear ourselves away from this place. It's perfect.

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Comments

[Erika]

amazing
I love that you guys are just winging it. It sounds completely perfect--especially the part about people just putting menus outside their houses. What's the best meal you've had so far?