First stop was Siam Reap to say hello and goodbye to Lina and Fed. It was surreal to say the least, to meet up with them, great to catch up with each other and really rather special to reminisce on when I'd left London nearly 2 years ago. They had put me up on their sofa in Streatham for my last weeks in the country and had shared much of my excitement and worries int eh final preparation to leave the country, including my motobike training. In fact, it was on their computer in their flat with their cat on my lap (or trying to bite my toes, depending on what mood she was in!) that I had typed the the first entries of this very blog. It feels like a lifetime ago.
From Siam Reap we made the long journey south to Kampong Cham where I spent a month in language training at the very beginning of my placement. We then headed north-east to Kratie (pronounced Kra-cheh) where we stayed a few nights with some other volunteers. Kratie is a sleepy, pretty town with a lovely riverfront and many colonial buildings remaining from when the French inhabited the country having been spared a lot of bomb damage during the war years which destroyed a lot of other provincial towns. It was one of the first towns to be ‘liberated’ by the Khmer Rouge (actually it was the North Vietnamese, but the Khmer Rouge later took the credit) in the summer of 1970.
We spent a day sweating on bicycles to visit a gorgeous island in the middle of the Mekong as well as taking a boat trip to catch glimpses of the allusive and rare Irrawaddy dolphins. Apparently there are only between 60 and 70 animals left in these parts. An already endangered species, they are now termed a species in distress in Cambodia. They are intelligent creatures and apparently aware of their dwindling numbers and therefore have stopped breeding. We pondered whether to visit them at all as some reports suggest the tourist trade has become a factor in their demise but we were assured that if we went with a responsible boat who cut its engine rather than trying to get closer and closer to the shy creatures then we could do little harm. It was so very peaceful after the boat had cut its engine and we drifted for perhaps an hour as the dolphins swam around us, cautiously breaking the surface of the waters every now and then.
Onwards to Ratanakiri and we were made aware of the difference between this area and the parts of Cambodia we are more used to. The main road became a bumpy dirt road for a good few hours and we were surrounded by forest. Lazy, I know but here's what the Lonely Planet had to say... "Tourism is set to take off, but that is if the lowland politicians and generals don’t plunder the place first. Ratanakiri is the frontline in the battle for land, and the slash-and-burn minorities are losing out thanks to their tradition of collective ownership. The forest is disappearing at an alarming and accelerating rate, replaced by rubber plantations and cashew-nut farms. It is to be hoped someone wakes up and smells the coffee – there’s plenty of that as well – before it’s too late." So, a really beautiful place which will either take off and become another reason for Cambodian's to feel pride in their country... or it's natural beauty will be raped and sold off as with many other places in the country!
We were lucky to be able to stay in another volunteer's house in Banlung (provincial town of Ratanakiri) and we enjoyed the simple wooden Khmer style house and its gorgeous balcony for four days with a touch of envy it must be said. The resident volunteer gets to enjoy it all the time and watch the sunset over the hills and forests from the balcony every night. It was a tad different to Sisaphon and Phnom Srok! All in all, a very relaxing place where we ate a lot of avocados (Banlung market was inundated with them! - the first time I have seen them in Cambodia!) and hired a motobike to explore the countryside. We explored beautiful waterfalls, met some elephants and traditional ethnic villagers and visited the volcanic crater lake Boeng Yeak Lom a few times. The lake is magically beautiful, perfectly round with gorgeous clear water. We attempted a jog round the perimeter and managed about half way before walking became a more comfortable option, then enjoyed a swim in the cool waters.
Finally reaching the end of the holiday season and stopping off for a Phnom Penh party on the way home, we had managed to tour through the whole country in one week! I found myself looking forward to getting stuck back into Phnom Srok life again.
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