Northeastern Cambodia - Kratie and Ban Lung

On the road

After my bar work in Sihanoukville I decided to join Berti and Gex (Gerhard) to the northeastern part of Cambodia to go trekking for 3 days. Unfortunatly Simon and Flo could't join us because they got sick...

Our trip to Kratie took first about 6 hours to Phnom Penh by bus and than another 5 hours by taxi. The traffic in Cambodia is really crazy. I've seen some driving schools but I really don't have a clue what they need it for...

We bargained for the taxi and the driver told us that it is 30 dollars for the car, it doesn't matter how many people are sitting inside. So we put our backpacks in the boot and looked forward to a nice trip in the cab but out of the blue there sat 4 people on the front seat... We wondered if we just take them to the next street corner but no... we've been driving like this for 5 hours. 4 people in the front, 3 people and 1 backpack in the back. How comfortable can it be....

The next day we just took a bus to Banlung where we wanted to go trekking. The bus there was quite crowded... means: Gex and Berti had seats in the alley. So there've been five to seven (!) people sitting in one row (because sometimes parents had their children on their laps).

And did I mention that it is normal in Cambodia that at least one person pukes during the journey? Never mind...

Ban Lung "city"

I have never ever seen such a dusty "city" before... But there are also real great things in Ban Lung. For example the Great Lake (an old vulcano crater which is completely round and has clear water), some nice waterfalls and that you can trust absolutely nobody...

But thats a seperate story:
It was the beginning of a beautiful day and our trekking group just met for breakfast in the restaurant of our guesthouse. I left my valueables in the room (yes, you already know where this is going to...) and actually I carried a lot of money with me because there is no chance to get any money in Banlung (and that is a provincal capital!!!). So I just had 40 1.000 riel notes with me (about 100 dollar).

Anyway, during breakfast we had to order our coffee three times because they always "forgot" about it. As we ent upstairs finally, our door wasn't looked any more. I don't know why... but my first thought wasn't that we got robbed. I thought we didn's close the door properly. A few hours later I just counted my money and how could it be - there've been 20 notes missing... Gex had a look at his stuff and realized his mobile was gone.
They really do know how to do it... They don't take everything - because my camera and my mobile have still been there, they just take a bit and hope that you don't realize.

Yeah... now I'm 40 Euros poorer but hopefully wiser as well...