Kurt got feeling better the day after I got to Don Det, and decided to come down. I guess he took a songthaw, which is more local transport and shared the journey with many local people and animals. While I waited for him to come I rented a bicycle and went around the Island and across the old French railway bridge to another small Island, Don Khon, where there is a nice view of a large set of rapids. There is also fresh water dolphins in the area even further south and boat trips can be arranges but I heard they were expensive and only offered brief glimpses of the dolphins if anything at all. Don Det was a great place for lazing around and that's exactly what we did. One day I rented a tube and just floated in the river. I saw some people jump off the branch of a large tree into the river the day before and thought I'd give it a try. It was right across from our guesthouse so Kurt videoed it with his camera. It was maybe a 15 ft drop into the deep river, but the hardest part was the climb. Immediately after exiting the water I noticed a large spider web blocking my path, worse, there was a large spider on it. I don't know much about spiders but this one looked scary to me. I tried to take a picture but it didn't turn out, and decided to take the wide path out of the water to the tree. My first step onto the tree I noticed a hive of large red ants brewing about right where I want to put my foot. After thinking over the prospects for a minute I thought there was no turning back right now with Kurt ready to video my jump so I found a good hand-hold and swung my foot wide around the ants. After shimmying up to the jumping point I realized I still had my sunglasses on my head. Too late to turn back, I held them in my hand and jumped. They came out of my hand on impact but I quickly caught them and no damage was done. The rest of our time on Don Det was spent relaxing. Met up with a Scottish and English guy whom we had met on the slow boat, talked a bit more with the Israeli's (there's a pic of me with a birthday hat on, holding a sign written in hebrew that is a birthday wish to one of the girl's sisters), and read in the riverside hammocks.
The day of departure for Cambodia came and we woke up early to meet at the beach at 8am. I took my malaria pill on an empty stomach, which I had done before, but this time it didn’t agree and I threw-up before breakfast came. I could only chew down a bit of dry baguette and I began to worry about the 13 hour bus ride ahead. Luckily the nausea subsided within an hour and we were on our way. It was 20 USD for the whole trip from 4000 islands to Siem Reap. As advertised we were supposed to be taking a double-decker bus the whole way from the border to Siem Reap. In SE Asia you just have to go with the flow. Everything is late and rarely as advertised. A single-decker bus arrived to take us and we soon found out that they had overbooked the bus. Luckily Kurt and I got a spot, but some people were forced to take mini-vans. The Cambodian border was a lot less wild then I had heard. We had to pay a dollar to leave Laos, then a dollar to get past the influenza station (they took some people’s temperature and if it was too high you would supposedly be quarantined, although Kurt and I agreed that with a decent bribe they would probably let you through. $23 dollars for the Cambodian visa and another dollar for the entry stamp and we were officially in Cambodia!
After another 8 hours on that bus, we stopped in a city and were told we had to transfer buses… The trip we paid for said we didn’t have to transfer, but if we wanted to get to Siem Reap we had to go with the flow and put our trust in people who we didn’t always understand. So we packed into mini-buses, 3 rows of bench seating all packed, I had my big backpack at my feet. Kurt and I were in the front with the driver who spoke decent English and we had a good conversation about the unique driving techniques of Cambodia. The sun sets at about 6 here and that’s the same time we left that city for Siem Reap, at that point scheduled for arrival at 10pm. The big vehicles here drive more or less in the center of the road, trying to leave the shoulders for motorcycles, bicycles, cattle and horse-drawn wagons, and home made vehicles which are basically big rotto-tillers with a wagon attached. The horn was used mostly when approaching vehicles from behind; warning them to get to the shoulder (because we weren’t slowing down), head-lights and signal lights were used to notify oncoming vehicles that we weren’t a motorcycle and needed are larger portion of the road. The horn was also used for scattering animals, although we did hit one cow… Our driver seemed slightly embarrassed but the cow was OK. With about 3 hours left to our destination, the battery, check engine, and brake lights illuminated on our van. Our driver seemed to think it was overheating and pulled over to the side of the road to pour a bunch of water over the entire engine. We let it cool down a bit and jumped back in and kept driving another hour or so, all the lights were still lit, and Kurt overheard the driver say something about the brakes… We stopped for supper and the driver proceeded to take apart a bunch of things under the hood with the help of some locals. We got a bite to eat and tried to chat with the local kids using our guidebook which had some phrases in it. They loved it and really enjoyed correcting our pronunciation. It took about an hour to put whatever back together under the hood and then the damn van wouldn’t start. Tried to boost it with the other mini-van but it still wouldn’t work. We eventually got it boosted by a big double-decker bus, luckily all check engine lights were off. The driver tested the brakes once we got going and they seemed alright. No air-conditioning the rest of the way though as he was still concerned about the van overheating. We finally arrive in Cambodia at midnight and quickly found a place to crash. We met up with Kurt’s Cambodian friend today, and he promises to be our guide for the Angkor Temples tomorrow as well as a visit to his village the next day. Our buddy Russ just arrived too, with an infected foot but a good tan from the southern beaches. We’re looking forward to some local experiences and some goods drinks. I’ll post about Siem Reap after we get a feel for the place and see the temples and village.
Ps Thanks for all the comments!!
