Cambodia (October 9th - November 6th)

Strung Treng

October 10^th 2008

Here we are, Strung Treng, first stop in Cambodia. Well, it’s definitely not the best town in the country; at least, we hope so. Concentrated around the market, the worse in this town is the smell. Garbage carpet the floor all around the market, becoming more and more smelly as the day goes by, as the sun is stronger.

No time to waste here. We find a taxi to go to Ban Lung (Ratanakiri), since there are just no buses today. 8 people in the car, 4 at the back, 4 at the front; the driver has to seat on a passenger’s lap!

4 hours of a bumpy slippery track and we hit Ban Lung.

Ban Lung

October 11^th 2008

The best moment here was when we visited the gem mines. A 1m diameter hole, 10m deep, leading to a circular room, around 5m diameter, 1m high. And those guys spend the whole day digging in here. Some of them just take the buckets full of soil at the surface where they carefully search for the precious gem. I went down the mine with 2 of them. OK, it’s funny for a one-day visit, but it looks like a really tough and quite dangerous job.

After that, a good swim in a lake inside a crater to get rid of all the dust. The place is really nice, not as busy and dusty as the rest of the area. And the water is warm, perfect for a swim at the end of the day. Still, we run out of the water pretty fast when we saw a snake swimming in it.

Pics : http://asiatrotteurscb.canalblog.com/albums/01__ratanakiri/index.html

Kratie

October 14^th 2008

Back on some more reasonably well maintained roads, to Kratie, a small city by the Mekong River. Opposite Kratie, on the river is the tiny island of Koh Trong, a sand bank where people live. Impossible to get lost there, there’s just only one road around the island. And we saw some very interesting things there, like people doing rice noodles (we had no idea how it was made), a floating village, people making some small floating chandeliers out of bamboo and flowers. Later at night they’ll set them on fire and let them drift on the river, hundreds of them, to celebrate the end of the rainy season.

Still on the Mekong River, we jumped on a small boat to see the last Irrawadi dolphins, fresh water dolphins living in the Mekong. Cambodian people used to hunt them using dynamite, o now there are only a handful of them, around 75. There are beautiful, but not easy to spot since the water is very muddy, all brown, and they don’t get the head off the water too often.

Around 35km out of town is the 100 pillars temple, an old wat by the river, with loads of columns all around the temple, supporting nothing. They just stand here, white and red, covering the park of the wat.

Pics: http://asiatrotteurscb.canalblog.com/albums/02__kratie/index.html

Sen Monorom (Mondulkiri)

October 16^th 2008

If a place is called “…kiri”, does it mean in Khmer that the roads to get there are terrible? This time, it was even worth than the way to Ratanakiri. But sitting on the roof of our pickup truck, it was actually funny.

In this area is the biggest waterfall in Cambodia. The back wheel of our motorbike wasn’t straight, so even on a flat and dry track, we drifted. So when it became wet, muddy and steep, we decided to leave the bike there and walk to the falls.

They weren’t very impressive, but we couldn’t get at the bottom of the lowest one, since the way to get there was drawn.

After a day of riding and sliding in the mud, rocks, gravels, drifting, we wanted to have a rest in a nice place with a sauna. Just before we got there, 500m before the sauna, the bike drifted and we felt. I hurt my knee and was so pissed off I didn’t want to get any further. Anyway, the sauna was closed. Damn tracks and damn bike.

Pics: http://asiatrotteurscb.canalblog.com/albums/03__mondulkiri/index.html

Kompong Cham

October 20^th 2008

In the area of Kompong stands one of the last wooden pagoda in the country, Wat Maha Leap. Most of the wooden pagodas were burnt down to ashes by the Khmers Rouges, and this one survived since it was used as a hospital.

The pagoda is beautiful, with pillars made out of whole trunks, black wood with golden paintings. The ceiling is decorated with pictures of the life of Buddha, also represented by big statues inside the temple.

Around the wat, the hospital is still standing and still used, huge statues of Buddha (lying or sitting) and stuppas and a primary school make it a very busy place, full of children laughter and monks prayers.

Pics: http://asiatrotteurscb.canalblog.com/albums/04__kompong_cham/index.html

Phnom Penh

October 10th 2008

Even though we don't like big cities that much, we stayed there for quite a long time. First, because I got sick, then because we met the father of a friend here who took us a lot around.

National Museum, Royal Palace, Tuol Sleng, ... there are lots of things t odo and visit here.

We also spent a weekend in Sihanoukville, on the shore to eat sea food and enjoy the beach ... with a non stop rain.

Pics: http://asiatrotteurscb.canalblog.com/albums/05__phnom_penh/index.html

Kampot

Novembre 1st 2008

We came here to visit Bokor Hill Station, what used to be a very popular place for rich French weekenders. It's now a ghost city, with ruins of casinos and hotels, and signs of the sad history of the country: the Khmers Rouges also came here, and also killed a lot of people here too.

A long day in the jungle to reach this place makes it even more worthy.

Pics : http://asiatrotteurscb.canalblog.com/albums/bokor_hill_station/index.html

Kep

Last day in Cambodia. Sea, nice hotel, beer and excelent seafood. Just what we needed.

Pics: http://asiatrotteurscb.canalblog.com/albums/kep_et_ses_alentours/index.html