Leaving Laos for Cambodia

I’ve left my happy chilled-to-the max hammock island for a new country and a big city: I’ve moved on to Phnom Penh. It’s tough to leave somewhere that you really like, but alas, it was time to move on. My last couple of daze on the island were a mixture of easy days and late nights and it was actually nice to be out past midnight for a change.

I joined up with a group one other single travelers that had been together for a couple days now and we went out to see the Khon Phapheg falls singing any song we knew at least a verse to. I’m actually surprised our driver didn’t just stop the car and get out, but I suppose at the very least it would have been amusing. The falls themselves were not overly impressive as it is the rainy season so there wasn’t much of a drop but the sheer volume of the water power was a bit humbling. Apparently over a million liters crash over the rocks every second. It is almost a strange concept to think that that much water can flow down a river continuously every day all year round. After we got back we were feeling a little lively so we went for some drinks and a swim in the Mekong. I swear by this point I’ve drank so much of the river that I’m immune to every disease imaginable. The natural progression of the night then lead of course to us wanting to dance but there wasn’t really any dance clubs on the island. For most people this might be a problem but I noticed that the bungalow next to the girls was not occupied and in fact open so we turn the bed up on its side, lit up some candles, and presto we had a disco. This actually lasted for a fair amount of time until a very confused Lao guy asked us quite politely to stop, which of course we did. The night then wound down with a slightly heated debate between me and Agnes, a PhD candidate at U of T in philosophy, over the merits of contemporary religion and post modern theory.

The following day my dance party conspirators left and I rented a bike to explore both Don Dhet and Don Khon (the two islands are connected by a bridge). The ride itself was nice, if not a little bumpy, but I did run into a little trouble with the bike. Most bikes on the island were single speed cruisers with no shocks but I had managed to find a mountain bike. Great I thought, shocks will come in very handy on all of the bumps. The only problem was that the mountain bike had been partially converted into a single speed: the back gears were gone but the ones on the front remained sans shifter. The net result was that the chain liked to fall off, which normally isn’t a problem except that without a derailer it is much harder to put it back on. I did of course have it down to a fine art after about the 20^th time but then the chain decided it had had enough of me and broke so I had to walk the bike back the rest of the way. Still, I didn’t let this get me down and floated the rest of the day away on the river in a tube relaxing.

The next morning I jumped on a bus and headed off for Cambodia. Like most bus trips I had no real idea of how long the ride was supposed to take, this one being about 13 hours. To be fair it might have taken 12 had our bus not broken down for about 45 minutes. None of us were really sure why, but we suspect it had something to do with the horn which is an essential device in this country. The one nice thing about the bus breaking down was that it happened right outside of a school so while most of the bus patrons went off in search of food that wasn’t chips and biscuits I went got out my frisbee and went to pay with the kids. I always love how at first you only play with one kid, the brave one who tries to throw the frisbee back to you. Then instantly everyone joins in and wants a turn.

I should also mention that this bus ride was probably the worst I’ve been on. Actually there is no probably about it, it was by far the bumpiest, I’m pretty sure the bus didn’t have any shocks. It was the first time I wasn’t able to read in transit, although not because I was sick, my whole body was simply bouncing around too much for my eyes to focus on anything small. This of course was on the paved parts of the road, the unpaved, well I’ll leave that up to your imagination. The upside I suppose is I spent a lot of time looking out the window and the geography of Cambodia is quite different than it’s surrounding countries. It is actually quite flat and reminded me of the Prairies except that instead of growing wheat there was rice. The plants also looked much more scraggly and tattered.

I think that’s it for now, I’m sure I’ll have something interesting to say soon though as I am going to the killing fields and S-21 tomorrow.