Ban lung, Ratanakiri Province

11 hours of driving in a bus to a destination thats not on the main to-do-list of tourists, servicing 4 more provinces on the way. Let me tell you how that works.
The bus was already crowded when i got in, my big backpack finding some space under the seats because the trunk was already full. I was the only white person on the bus, but luckily i got a seat beside the only women that could speak english and studied in France. So at least i could have some conversation on this never ending trip. On the way random people got picked up and if theres no more seats..well, just sit on a ricesack or on little plastic chairs handed out in the middle row. As entertaining programm we had wonderful cambodian karaoke videos with even better music or movies with  some kind of action involved ( either shooting, fighting for a girl or karate) Imagine all this for hours and hours in a  rather loud volume...jep, you go crazy! Ahh, and never mind the honking every minute, the bumpes on the road, people sitting beside you hearing their own music out of their phone..but without headphones....thinks falling of you from the overhead compartments while driving through a rather big bump....and right when the person at your side leaves the bus and you think..nice..now i can  stretch my leg..one of the people sitting in the middle comes up to this seat. And again..the bus was half empty after 10 hours of driving..but this guy just didn´t want to move..not even when i asked him to signing at all the empty seats around us. He  just smiled nervously and shook his head. I couldn´t be bothered to move because i had so much stuff with me..so i just pluged my earphones in, watched some episodes of Malcom in the Middle and hoped that this journey will finally come to an end.
Eventually we arrived and i just fell out of the bus to meet 2 girls from Czech Republic that where in search of an accomodation like me. Several moto drivers offered to drive us for free to the Lake view lodge, that sounded really good so we said yes. Oh, and yes, that works..they can drive around with their whole family on one moto, so  never mind one little tourist with a big and a small backpack. Off again into the night, arriving at a rather disgusting place which we decided, after a  short observation of the rooms, not to stay.The owner wanted us to pay the motodriver now, but we just waited for a moment of distraction by other customers and walked off into the night again, where we were " rescued" by an american guy that lives in Camboda and who offerend us a lift to a nice place. The treetop lounge. One bungalow left,meant for us,,( only with 2 beds, but we could move a matress in ) we happily stayed at this place with a cosy  terrace restaurant overlooking the valley. In 15 minutes time we met Chris who was travelling alone and had a single room but with 2 beds. So after a beer or two i moved into his room and we all shared the costs. Everybody happy ;-)

lunch stop..sticky rice in bamboo...nice..

hmm, not so nice..fried tarantula..anybody fancy that?

ah, well, cockroaches..fried...i guess thats not too bad ..

Ban lung adventures..to the jungle and back
The nice thing about traveling alone is that you´re never alone! You meet people every second and have new friends every couple of days. Some even have the same way for a while and if you get along good...even better..your travel together and get better deals and can save money. So it came that Chris and me booked this very interesting jungle tour with homestay. Well, the jungle trekk was pretty amazing and quiet excausting, but that was nothing compared to the way we drove with our motorbikes..through red dust that covered every inch of you and roads with massive bumps and holes in it..over bridges constructed with bamboo or single wood panels ( very trustworthy ;-) ) we drove far into the countryside, even crossed a river by boat before we arrived to meet our hosts. A family consisting of grandparents, parents, approximatly 8 children, and the mothers sister with a child. They couldn´t speak a word english and even when we tried to communicate with our few sentences in Khmer...no answer...just a very shy glance followed by either giggles or no expression at all.  Hmm, well, for dinner we had rice and noodles that we bought in the little corner shop ( shop is actually too much of a word here...it was just the front porch of a women selling instand noodles, some cans and lighters). It got dark, we all were wondering around the fire to get warm ( yes! it was bloody cold!!) and at 7 pm it was time to go to bed. So everybody climed the steep steps up to the house, a big house compared to the others, but with nothing in it. Everybody just slept on the floor, by night seperated by sarongs that build a room. We as guests even got  a thin matress..we heard some music, looked at some pictures and then it was time to sleep. This was the longest night ever!! So many people in one room, babys crying at night, one of the girls had a midnight phonecall session with her friends ( on speaker) but all that wasn´t even that bad. I was just so cold that i thought my toes will froze and i can´t walk the next day. Well, i still could walk, and the day was quiet warm again. We had breakfast ( rice and noodles), visited the ricefields half of the family was working on, played a little bit with the kids and drove home. It was an interesting expierence, and its hard to believe that people in the 21. century still live like that, but i was certainly glad beeing back in civilisation.

my motodriver..sweet 17 years old..

the famous red dust that covers everything

jungletrekk, don´t forget the machete

thats how you look after the ride ;-)

rice field 

our homestay

rice and noodles, mjamm

kids 

new architecture for a trustworthy bridge

Hanging out in our beautiful guesthouse for the afternoon, freshly showerd and enjoying a very western cheeseburger was definitaly a nice ending of the little stay in Ban lung.
It´s time for the créme de la créme: Angkor Wat...here i come!