Eastern Cambodia

the eastern part is a region of stark contrast. the hilly, forested northeast looming large over the flat agricultural plains that characterise the rest of the country.
the eastern part only has a paved highway up to kratie, from there it takes a lot of patience and bumpy rides to reach both mondulkiri and ratanakiri provincies (the northeast), which are both amazing.
kratie, just like most provincial capitals in the east (stung treng, kompong cham),is pretty small. only a couple of thousands inhabitants and not bigger then a very small belgian village. They are al places of little interest but you need to use them in order to get somewhere. there`s only one bus (space for 22) and a couple of pickups going to Sen monoroon (mondulkiri) each day, that`s it. So we had to wait in snuol for a couple of hours untill that bus finally came. It was the last tarmac we saw untill we came to laos!.

the way into mondulkiri involves a pretty good, but dusty, dirtroad which passes through some beautiful nature (higlands, jungle,...). there`s no other way of getting there (except by dirtbike probably). There are only 6-8 tourists going there each day, and that`s in the dry season(in the wet season they almost get no visitors, to difficult to reach probably). so it`s one of the few places unspoiled by tourism. When we came there after a long day we immediatley felt it was quite cool after sunset which we liked after the boiling heat we endured. Sen monorom is a nice place, set amid rolling hills. The area has plenty of minority villages and waterfalls.
In the whole provine the`re only 2 people living per sq km. and half of the 35000 come from the pnong minority group, the rest are other hilltribes. almost no khmers here...
we rented ourselfs a bike and drove out to the sen monoron falls. on the way back we got the first of 2 flat tires and after a couple of hours fixing and eventualy changing the whole old tire we ste course to the bou sraa waterfalls, a couple of hours east of sen monoron. The road there supposed to be one of the countries worst. it`s probably a reminder of how all roads were only a couple of years ago. It takes almost 2 hours to cover the 35 km over rocks, broken bridges,..., but its a magnificent trip. the falls are equally beautiful, it`s a dubble drop waterfall and it`s one of the largest in the country. after that we headed back to sen monoron and drove up a hill to watch the sunset with edwin and astrid ( from holland, 35 and 31) who we met on the bus the day before and proved to be excellent company during our stay.

TREKKING IN THE JUNGLE...
The 4 of us decided to team up for a 2 day trekking in the jungle. We booked it with a young english guy (jack) who just opened his bar `the middle of somewhere` ( the only one in town) and trekkings just a couple of months ago.,. very cheap,, but we needed to carry all our supplies (food, drinks, cooking gear, sleepingbag,..) and we had a phnong speaking guide. We figured as long as he knows where he`s going, no english is necessary...
The trek went through the jungle, plains, grasfields (beautiful!!). across rivers and over the hills. it was pretty hard but worth the effort! We only didn`t have enough water with us so we needed to boil some riverwater from time to time. but mixed with some herbs it made quite a nice tea. Around 16u we arrived, feet full of blisters!, in a hut in the middle of nowhere. It`s the home of a family of 11. Inside the big hut there are 2 platforms, a meter high, covering each side of the hut where they live and sleep. On the floor they have a fire, burning at all times. and the animals (chicken, dogs, pigs,...) walk where they want and during the night they sleep under the platforms. We had the worst night in a long time, partly because the rooster started at 3u30 and he sat only a meter away. 16 people and even more animals sleeping in 1 hut, quit a sight i guess.
Jack is the only guy running treks here, other treks don`t come here, so we were the 4th trek going there in 2 months. Before that they had never seen a tourist. This was not some homestay in a village where they`re used to seeing tourists. This was real and something the 4 of us had never experienced before, just sitting opposite eachother and staring for minutes... Their livingstandaards are below everything you can imagine, and the children had a terrible cough. almost 30% of the pnongchilderen don`t make it to 5, but once they do, they `ll grow to be old .
The way back was pretty hard cause we only walked an hour before lunch (at 10am). the guide stopped and started cooking at a beautiful waterfall. so we thought, after this it`s only 2 hours max. we couldn`t be more far from the truth. it was 5 hours crossing hills during the hottest part of the day... he probably stopped there because it was a nice setting for a meal. Some english would have come in handy here... but we had a great time!!! (and i never longed for a pepsi so hard for a long time!!) i recommended the trek to many people already. And Jack told us he splits his treks up between 3 families so they don`t get to used to it. now they only get one trek a week or less so let`s hope it stays this way...

More people from Holland...
There is nothing linking mondulkiri with ratanakiri province(one is above the other) that even looks like a road. You can only go that way by dirtbike (but there making a sort of road which will be good for tourism there) which is very expensive and takes 2 days. So we had to go all the way back to Kratie. from there we took a bus up north to stung treng(this road will be paved in couple of months i think). Nothing to see there so we arranged transportation for the next day to go to ban lung (ratanakiri). There is no bus going there, only some pick ups and an occasional share taxi or minibus. the minibus supposed to leave at 7am but there were only 5 people going so the driver waited for more but of course none came. So eventually we left at 12.!!after 4 hours we arrived in ban lung, the provincial capital. Ethnic minorities, waterfalls and jungle combine make ratanakiri a popular place to visit. Believe it or not, again we met 4 amazing dutch people, 2 couples (ivo-pepijn en marc-petra) between 31 and 41. we had an amazing 3days there together, enjoying diner, talking and drinking. The six of us went on a trip with a pick-up and guide through some minority villages, lao and chinese villages, cemeteries and other stuff. In one village we drank some ricewine with all the people of the village. They were all sitting together and praying for a sick baby (don`t need no medecine...) Ban Lung is the most dusty town we`ve seen in Cambodia!! Everything (bushes, trees, houses and us too after a ride in the back of a pick-up!) is constantly covered in red dust. it`s horrible. 5 min after a shower you`re covered in it again.
We also spend a day at boeng yeak lom (5km from ban lung), an circular crater like, surrounded by the jungle.the water is really clear, 5 m viz. so perfect for some swimming, relaxing and reading. We did a trek in mondulkiri and now way we`re NOT going to do one so soon again...
Next day we left ban lung for stung treng. Same stories. minibus wasn`t full and again nobody showed up later. after waiting 3 hours we finally left. because of this we were too late to cross the lao border the same afternoon. another day lost in stung treng...

Yes we love Cambodia!!
As ou can see it`s really timeconsuming to get around the northeast provinces, but work is in the progress so in a couple of months (or years for the remote regions) the dirtroads will improve or even be paved. So it will get a lot easier to come here. But inevitabley with that, the area will lose a lot of it`s charme so we`re glad we could do it before that happended! But for the people it would be good to have some tourist yearround. Everything is changing rapidly...

But then again, outside the cities and especially with the minority people, (if you think away the motorbikes and sometimes the power) it seems that time stood still for a couple of 100 years in cambodia. all of them live in huts, and their one and only concern is to put food on the table. that`s also the one reason 85% of them works (they`re all farmers or at least employed in the `foodindustry`). and animals (mainly chickens, pigs, waterbuffels, cows, dogs,...) walk around freely just around everywere you look. They live among the people just like their children, who in most cases don`t go to school but work the fields. Most people only come over to see the temples and maybe phnom penh and sihanoukville, but there`s so much more. We loved Cambodia!! And most people are really genuine friendly, and the children,.... absolutely adorable!! they just wanna play and most don`t even now the word `dollar`(in contrast to vietnam)

for more on the bordercrossing and the first week of laos tune in tomorrow...