Don Det, Laos

Saying goodbye to beautiful Cambodia we pile into another minibus (which had some strange smoking mushroom graffiti on the windows) and head off to Stung Treng, a nice little border town perched on the Mekong, where we have to wait for the next bus. We have some noodles from a street stall while hanging about for a couple of hours then our minivan turns up. By now there's far more people than seats in the van. Taking up the back two rows are some bags of things heading to Laos; the seats in front of that contain Talitha, another girl and two guys from Denmark; in the front is the driver then me and a Monk sharing the passenger seat. Although not comfortable in any way it was certainly another journey to remember.

We pull up at the tiny border post - there's no-one else at all here, just a few police in small buildings and a few sitting around in the shade. We fill out a quick form and give it, with our passports and two photographs, to the hand in the window. They shuffle the papers about for a while then hand the documents back, gesturing us to the next hand in a window. The visa costs $35 for 30 days. There should be no other charges but they decide they're going to charge us $2 to stamp the visa! Not wanting to pay this unofficial fee out of pure principle I tell them that I only had enough for the $35 entry, so they tell me I should go back into Cambodia! What can you do?? I root about in my pocket, produce $1 in change, put it on the counter in front of the hand and tell him that is all I have. He takes the change and stamps my passport. I head over the border and into the waiting minibus with a ridiculously BLUE roof.

Our Cambodia minibus - Monk having a quick smoke

The Cambodia / Laos border

The customs windows 

Access granted

The BLUE roof of our Laos minibus

On the road again we get settled... for 10 minutes then we stop in a little town. The driver ushers us out to walk but doesn't really explain where we're walking to. The road in the town is under repair, and is non-existent, so we assume we're walking to another minibus at the other side. We dodge the building materials and the residents dodging the building materials, walk a little further and there it is, the Mekong, flowing lazily around 4000 little islands, one of which is Don Det.

Our little long tail boat nips through the islands and lands on a sandy shore framed with quiet restaurants. We jump out and have a quick drink in one of the restaurants, admiring the beautiful Mekong. I'm approached by a tiny kitty when leaving the restaurant, possibly the smallest cat (that's not a kitten) I've ever seen. I name him Oscar and promise to see him later with some food (I never found him again). There's no roads on Don Det, just dusty paths between shops and bungalows down each side of the river bank. You can walk from the eatst to the west side of the island in under five minutes. We look for accommodation on the sunrise side, but find nothing. We find the kind of place we're looking for on the sunset side; two little bungalows right on the river in a resort called Tena, for 30,000 a night. Extremely basic, literally a bed in a hut, mosquito net, a fan and a hammock on the balcony; toilets are in a separate block. Talitha only stays one night and moves to a nicer place, preferring to have a toilet in the room. I'm a tramp, and will sleep anywhere (as long as there's a mosquito net). We dump the bags, have a shower and relax in the melting sunshine. That night we meet a Canadian guy, who's wearing a t-shirt with a logo that later becomes a big part of my life (keep reading for more on this ;) - he's travelling with a half-Vietnamese girl who puts to rest the little mystery of the little question-marks on some Vietnamese characters. We laze about drinking with them for ages. Later we come across a little cinema where you slob out on the floor with a beer and "happy" chocolate brownie; we watch Pineapple Express; which was extremely entertaining! (because of the brownie?). You can get anything "happy" here: shakes, cookies, brownies, pizza - you name it. It just means it's had a liberal sprinkling of cannabis when made. Take it slowly though they're pretty strong; half a brownie each was more than enough!

Everyone out the minibus! walk this way.. 

Arrival at Don Det

Laos Laos (Whiskey) and coke and some mint and lemon drink

I'm going to take you home

This is where is spent most of my time in Don Det

Laos sunsets are spectacular

  The next few days for me are spent reading, writing and relaxing; literally doing nothing. Don Det had a strange effect on me: I'm not sure I've ever been that lazy in my life! Talitha was, on the other hand, in party mode, so she darted off here and there! One day we hired some bikes and cycled to the waterfall on the next island down, paying a small charge on the bridge to cross. The waterfall's not like any I'd seen on the trip so far, it was a powerful Mekong monster crashing over sharp rocks. You can't get particularly near it for the "DANGER" signs! Truly awesome; and this is in the dry season; it must be scary in the wet season. After this we ride over and check out a viewing spot for the rare Mekong dolphins. We didn't see any, despite the many suggestive, badly photo-shopped pictures of tourists frollocking with them, so we head back to Don Det.

That evening we tried a little tubing, with one tube. We tried on the west side of the island, attempting to swim upstream with little progress; constantly aware of the raging waterfall 5km down the river! We leave the water and walk up the north side, hoping we can get into the current at the top point; and float with the current down the west side, to our bungalows. This also failed as the fast current splits on the north west side pushing us east around the side of the island with no places to exit the river. Still, it was great fun splashing about for a while, and at least I can say I did a little tubing in Laos! 

Our last few days together before we part company

The beach a little further down from the waterfall

FROLLOCK WITH THE DOLPHINS LIKE THIS!

Deforestation

 

Totally tubular

Here's the sunset from our final night - no words can describe it, and these pictures certainly don't do it justice.

Ban Lung, Cambodia

We try and wake Emily up to say goodbye, as she's heading back to the UK, but it's impossible so we just leave. We're picked up by bus #1 at 5:30am (without checking our tickets) and we're taken to a hub where the main bus would leave from, where they decided to check our tickets. Wrong bus! We're quickly whisked back on bus #2 to where we started just in time for the correct bus to collect us. Quite a relief! We get on bus #3 (making sure they check our tickets) and we're taken out of town to a dirt patch, where we switch to bus #4. This has all the usual features you could want while bus travelling through Asia including Arctic aircon and deafening Thai karaoke DVD's. The countryside up here in Northern Cambodia is barren; scorched trees and burning land make way for huge rubber tree plantations for the Chinese, who help by building roads up and through Laos to China. This journey should take us 12 hours in total at a cost of $16 and at 3pm we're already nine hours in and we stop at a town called Kratie. A standard town with a simple bus station, beautiful temple, and some street vendors and cafe's - I like it. We're told bus #5 isn't going to leave until there's enough people to fill it so we head out and grab some delicious pork and rice from a little family home/shop around the corner.

Bus #5 - with driver waiting patiently for people (bus #4 behind)

Once done we head back to see the situation; some more people have gathered but still not enough to go so we wait. There's a family waiting also, and their 3 year old driving his toy truck around in the dirt. The wheel falls off and Talitha pops it back on for him. We have a drink, pet the local wildlife and chat to a local who told us he's contracted malaria in Ban Lung and wouldn't go back there.Well, he's still alive, so that's good!

I  think around 6pm we finally get enough people crammed into the back and cabin of the bus and we set off with the setting sun. Inside at the front is a motorbike (of course) and strapped to the back is another motorbike. To exit the bus for toilet you must use the back windows. I'm right at the back-left corner, pressed up against the seat in front; luckily I have a window and I can put my head out in my usual dog-like fashion. Poor Talitha is crammed next to me so I have her bag on my lap. Next to her is a stocky English chap we met on the way; equally as crammed. I truly love these journeys; they're far more memorable than an easy journey on a comfortable coach; I find myself smiling at the sheer ridiculousness as the bus bumps its way along the unlit road through Northern Cambodia. I had a great moment with my head out of the window, trees dashing past, wind massaging my hair follicles, looking up at the brilliant stars and listening to Rano Pano by Mogwai - everything was perfect.

Everything was perfect, until we arrived at Ban Lung and the bus driver (after dropping everyone else where they wanted to go) decided to take us to his friends hotel. Bearing in mind it was now midnight and we'd been travelling for 17 hours we firmly said thanks but we're good, and we'd like to go to the place we'd booked. He refused to take us, so having no idea where we are we refused to leave the bus until we were there. Reluctantly the driver eventually dropped us off and we unloaded the bags and woke the lodge owner up. We'd booked a room for two but had now adopted Josh. Luck would have it they had a triple cabin (double and single bed) for $15 where we crashed out, big style.

Treetop eco lodge - triple room

Ban Lung is a busy working town with a friendly feel, the occasional tourist can be seen wondering about. It's pierced by an unusually wide main road and surrounded by lush green forests. The eco lodge is perched on a hillside above a valley amongst the trees. The walkways to the cabins weave through the forest. Taking breakfast on the open wooden balcony is lovely. The owners, their kids and their pets all hang out there with you. The dogs are particularly cute.

The mother - Ludu

Walkways

Communal area

We meet an Australian girl and grab some bicycles to head to a volcano lake for a swim. It's a quick jaunt up the main road to get there then off a side road, down some steep hills then up, up, up! Working up a little sweat on this 7km ride feels great - it's been a while since I've done much cycling. We arrive at the lake much to the happiness of some local kids who hug our legs and laugh hysterically! The lake is a perfectly circular 3km surrounded by thick shrub and forest. There is a path all the way around with main bathing points, all containing happy locals having picnics. We find a spot a little further around with some fallen trees we can jump off into the clear warm waters. I've not been fresh water swimming for a while; you dramatically notice the extra work required to stay float when not in salt water! 

Josh in a tree 

That evening we get a now typical Cambodian thunderstorm followed by a beautiful sunset, we sit about in the communal area and catch up with emails, chat and be entertained by the children and animals. Earlier that day we'd seen the family eating a delicious looking feast and we asked if we could have this for dinner, over anything on the menu. They agreed and went to the market to get the ingredients. It was huge plate of vegetables and edible flowers, with some smaller dishes of spicy fish and cooked vegetables with rice. Very delicious and filling.

Next day Josh has left for Laos leaving the three of us. We ask the Australian girl if she want to move to the single bed in our triple room, but she declines, needing her own space, so we move to another double room, nowhere near as nice in a series of rooms but still good for $5 each. Later we're back on the bikes again, this time searching for waterfalls. We have a basic map, which looks good, but turns out to be quite misleading, missing junctions and it completely not to scale! We have fun exploring though and get lost in some dusty friendly villages; everyone would say hello to you! Eventually we find the right track to a particular waterfall; we cycle past cleared land ready for rubber tree planting and down through more dusty villages before the heavens open and we take shelter in a tiny shop in the middle of somewhere. We have a quick peanut snack and drink then say bye to the shopkeeper and head down to the waterfall when the rains stop.

Little Hoochie, little Hoochie, on the dusty road... 

Land clearing 

Quick e mart

  The Cha Ong waterfall is big and rocky! You can't swim in the base but you can stand under it like a power-shower, although it feels like it's removing a layer of skin. There's also a huge overhang behind the waterfall, it's not often you get to see waterfalls from this angle. It's slippery to walk about on the mud and rocks. As far as waterfalls go it's a beauty! We sit at the bottom for 20 minutes gathering up some scattered sunshine then slip our way back up for a quick photo in some (we're told) matrimonial huts then it's back to the bikes for the journey home. On the way I ask some local kids, who ran over, if it's OK to take a picture; they all said yes, but one didn't seem too happy when I started snapping.

Matrimonial huts - roles reversed  

Not happy!

Relaxing beer after a hard day 

Our last stunning Cambodian sunset

Siem Reap, Cambodia

The journey there was bad; the absolute worst part (for me) was the stench. I'd heard of durian (the stink fruit) but had never been exposed to one in an enclosed place. A lady monk sitting next to me was happily munching her way through one and the pungent aroma penetrated every part of my soul. It was so bad at points that I kept gagging. No-one else had quite the reaction I had, I thought I was going to be sick and Talitha said I looked extremely pale. In the end I sat at the back of the coach where it wasn't so bad, and I could put my nose up a freezing cold aircon vent. I'm pretty sure these things are banned in public places, but maybe monks are allowed. When the coach stopped I was always first off.

Durian - the worst smelling thing on the planet

During the whole trip there was a massive thunderstorm raging and we're waiting to get back on the coach when an angry Thor produces a gigantic FLASH and CRACK all around us and immediately the loudest thunder I've ever heard, shaking the ground. The lightning hit the restaurant, or as near as. My ears were ringing afterwards and people were almost huddled into one area in the middle of the restaurant making nervous excited noises. Quite an exciting and scary experience!

Savage rainfall

Arriving in Siem Reap we're greeted at the coach by a smiley tuk-tuk driver, who later becomes our guide, driver and facebook "friend". He takes us to the "Backpacker hostel" (great name!) and we're shown to a dormitory which is a row of hammocks in the loft, with no lockers anywhere and peoples stuff lying about. Not sure I trust my camera and laptop to be left in here. We opt for a triple room, which works out the same at $5 per night each. The room is huge containing three double beds. We'll take it.

A room full of beds

Next day we shake off the few "pub street" beers from last night with a quick breakfast of "toast and cheese" when an eager Walter turns up (in an amazing T-shirt) to take us to Angkor, bang on time at 9am.

Cheese and toast

Tooled up with shades, hats, water and brollies we head off. Twenty minutes in the tuk-tuk and we arrive at the edge of the old city of Angkor. The whole area is littered with ruins and Walter starts with a few smaller ones to get us in the mood; dropping us off at one side and patiently waiting for us at the other end. The scale is immense with the ancient Khmer capital covering an area of 1000 square km and some estimates of 1,000,000 people living here. Where the trees have taken root on and under some temples they twist and drip their way around the stones - it looks incredible!

Most of the morning is spent around these smaller ruins until we stop for some lunch at Walters favourite food joint (i.e. the place he gets commission / free food). I have what Walter has: a special "morning glory" not on the menu which is spicy delicious!

After lunch we decide to leave Angkor Wat for sunrise next day so do the bigger Buddhist temples at nearby Angkor Tom. For me these are even more impressive than Angkor Wat; the Bayon temple is especially magical.

Hug a Monk

You couldn't plan this

That sunset we walk up Bakheng hill. Although not treated to a sunset we saw an impressive storm
approaching followed by monster rains; pre-planned umbrella goodness! Once they realised the sunset wasn't going to happen we're kicked off the hill by security and head back down to meet Walter who takes us back to Siem Reap; the tuk-tuk rain covers in place.

 Sunset

Walter organises a $12 traditional Aspara and all you can eat buffet evening for us at the Koulen II restaurant. We arrive in his tuk-tuk and walk in to the hue covered seating area, with a giant buffet selection of any Asian food you could ever want to eat! Full of hunger we attack the buffet with the usual vigour, going back for seconds (and in Talitha and Em's case thirds). I don't have the same skills in plate design as the girls though.

Stuart = ugly

Talitha = beautiful

Once bellies are full the traditional musicians leave the stage and the show starts. The dancing is hypnotic, the moves being so carefully orchestrated and depicting everyday scenes from Cambodian life, like fishing and farming. The costumes are stunning, as are the dancers themselves. I would recommend this to anyone with an evening to kill in Siem Reap. During the show the storm picks up pace again and the rain on the metal roof almost drowns out the musicians! The wind howls through the open sides of the venue and brings fine sprays of rain to everyone! The ceiling lights shake and wobble with the thunder. Highly dramatic are the storms in Cambodia, unlike anywhere else I've been so far.

Pre-show musicians (possibly playing gamalan?) 

Aspara dancers

Roof lights moving and shaking in the storm

After the show we head to pub street for a couple of beers. The rain has created rivers of roads and the tuk-tuk drivers can barely get the tuk-tuks down the road! Wading though the water we get to the bar and have a beer. Later we move to another bar over the road as the premier league final is on the TV. Not normally one to watch the football I'm not so interested at first but it turns out to be a historic game between the Manchester rivals - with Manchester City clinching the title in the last two minutes! The staff in the restaurant go crazy, all Manchester United supporters of course.

Beautiful ladies

Next morning we're blearily up at 4am to see the Angkor Wat sunrise. Pitch black and a little cool on the way there the rain has stopped but the clouds are still around. On arrival we're given (English) names and numbers of food stalls to go to for breakfast once the sun was up; the one that stood out for me was John and we promise to go to his stall. We perch in a temple on the right of Angkor Wat, defying the "best view here" cries from locals who had set up mats on the ground near the left hand lake.

Waiting for the sun

The clouds stubbornly refuse to budge and we never get to see the actual sun over the Wat but there's something about this place; just being there and seeing such a famous view it's breathtaking, for me the same as the Taj Mahal at sunset. The sun rises and the silhouette of the famous towers take shape.

Once light, as promised, we're off to John's cafe for an omelette and baguette then before the crowds and heat arrive we nip over to the Wat for a look around. Inside it's huge, but quite serene, and we go our own ways for a little "me-time" with Shiva and the incredible architecture. It's a shame you can't go up into the towers, although someone later said that it was possible at certain times. The heat levels rose dramatically as the sun burned away the clouds and I wondered out into the gardens for some shelter under the trees.

Rapidly I developed almighty stomach cramp and ran to the nearest toilet; It could only have been the buffet last night. I later found out that Emily had the same issue not an hour before. In the toilet this sign amused me greatly;

Old habits die hard in Asia