Goodbye Cambodia, Hello Lao - Happy And Sad Moments

Hey folks!

It’s quite a while ago but I would still like to tell you about what I did during my last days in Cambodia before going straight to Lao. After leaving Kampot which was definitely the place I enjoyed most in Cambodia, it was time to go to the capital Phnom Penh. I checked in at another Mad Monkey hostel (highly recommended 😊) and went for dinner in the evening. While enjoying the very tasty Cambodian food, I met Bianca, I really nice Canadian girl. We started talking about this and that and eventually ended up in the rooftop bar which was much more crowded than the one in Kampot but also quite enjoyable. Bianca and I decided to visit the two best known historical places in town the next day together: prison S-21 and the Killing Fields, two locations with a terrible history. From 1975-1979, the Khmer Rouge, a radical Communist group, killed around 2 million fellow citizens after their violent seizure of power. The captives were imprisoned and tortured in S-21 and after they had – as a consequence of their torture - confessed to their “guilt” of crimes they had never committed before they were transferred to the Killing Fields to be executed there. It was such a shocking experience to walk through all the prison cells and hear the incredibly sad and violent stories of captives on the headphone. So was it to see a tree against which the Khmer Rouge beat babies to break their necks and the large number of skulls displayed in a huge glass cabinet. I really had to swallow a couple of times and to relax afterwards. It was the first genocide I literally came in touch with and visiting these two places left me extremely thoughtful. I’m so sorry for all the Cambodians who lost their family members due to these crazy left-wing people who luckily received a just punishment some years later.

We arrived back at the hostel in the afternoon. I didn’t have any concrete plans for the evening but then a series of very unexpected but a serious of unexpected things happened. It all started when I was sitting at the pool. I was looking at the front door of the hostel when I suddenly spotted someone who was just about to enter the building. For a few moments, I thought to myself: “Who are you? I’m so sure we have met before…” And then I realized that it was Ryan, a Welsh guy who had stayed at the same hostel and been to the same elephant tour as me in Chiang Mai. A second later, his girlfriend Ellie came around the corner and we were all so surprised to see each other again 😮 What a coincidence! A very nice one though 😉 Just after some more minutes, while I was checking the latest Instagram posts of my friends, I saw that Lisa and Jule, two German girls I had met during my last night on Koh Rong, were in Phnom Penh as well, just like Alex, Jule’s Danish “temporary boyfriend” 😆 I quickly contacted them and we decided to go to the night market together. When I was just about to go upstairs into my room, I spotted another very well known face in the restaurant – it was my English friend Charlotte! I had a quick chat with her but we didn’t get to catch up properly which was certainly a pity since I had really enjoyed her company in Kampot 😢

Anyway, I quickly jumped into a tuktuk to get me to the city center and then went to the night market with Lisa, Jule and Alex. The market was really nice with good food. We spontaneously decided to spend the next few days together so I got some tickets to go to Kratie, a small town in the North, on the same bus as them. I arrived back at the hostel just in time for the happy hour at the rooftop bar so I went upstairs more or less immediately and joined Ryan, Ellie and their friend Emily for some drinks and card games which was absolutely enjoyable. After midnight, I went to a night club with some others but didn’t really like it there so I went to bed pretty early – compared to most of the previous nights obviously 😜 In the morning, I said goodbye to Bianca and joined the Welsh trio for breakfast before Alex came to my hostel and we were picked up by a tuktuk. Lisa and Jule joined us a few minutes late and after driving around for a while, we found ourselves in a small bus. The bus ride took several hours and was quite memorable, especially because we were accompanied by a chicken sitting in a big dark box and no one of the Cambodians coming with us was able to speak English 😅

We arrived in Kratie in the dark. After having dinner at the hostel, we went for a short walk along the Mekong and immediately realized that this town is a very quiet one. We didn’t see a single person during our walk! For the next day, we decided to go on a boat cruise together as we wanted to see some of the rare Irrawaddy dolphins that Kratie is famous for. After driving in a tuktuk for some 40 minutes, we finally arrived at the boat terminal and jumped into a small boat. It was a quiet tour as our guide only spoke Khmer but he stopped at some places where dolphins were coming out of the water every now and then. Unfortunately they never jumped so we only got to see their necks and backs but that was enough to tell that these dolphins looked very special and totally different from other species. Interesting 👍 On the way back, we stopped at small temple which wasn't a very special but still not a bad one and after returning to the hostel, we tried to see the sunset but it was super cloudy so we didn’t see anything special. We spent the rest of our last evening on Cambodian ground at the hostel.

Early in the morning, it was time to jump on the bus which was supposed to get us to Lao. After driving for some time, we literally stopped in the middle of nowhere and had to wait for quite a while. As it was already noon, we were a bit hungry, so we tried to find something eatable in the small village, and we did find a pizza place! What a surprise! Alex and I tried to order some pizza there but this was much more complicated than we would have expected. The lady selling the pizzas didn’t speak a single word of English so I had to call a friend of hers to make an order! Crazy 😂 Anyway, we eventually got our pizzas which were truly the worst and most disgusting ones I have ever seen – no one of us finished eating their pizza. Still an interesting experience though 😉 Some time later, we were finally picked up by a new bus to get us to the Lao border. Checking in and registering at the border took a little while but eventually we made it into Lao without any major problems and it was time for a new country!

The time had come to explore a new country – Lao! I arrived on Don Det, one of around 4000 islands in the very South of the country, with my temporary travel mates Lisa, Jule and Alex and a Belgian girl that had joined us on the bus. We obviously had to take a boat for the last part of our ride from Cambodia and it was quite adventurous as the boat was very small and shaking all the time. However, we arrived safe and sound and after we had found a guesthouse to stay at, we went for diner at one of the numerous restaurants on the island. Afterwards, we went to the only place where something is going on on Don Det at night and met a bunch of Dutch travelers. We joined them for some games of pool and table tennis. I also met a German couple who were just about to do a working holiday in New Zealand so I was happy to give them some advice. On our first full day, we decided to go on a trip to the neighbor island, Don Khon. On the way, we also got to explore the landscape and the main characteristics of the two islands. Life is very calm and basic there. It somehow felt like a time travel. Many houses don’t use any electricity and there is a lot of farmland – all the farm work is still done by hand - including lots of Asian buffaloes. We also saw a lot of children playing next to the houses and driving around on bikes. Once we had arrived on the other island which is accessible by bridge, we made our way to a nice and big waterfall which was great to watch. We also relaxed in some hammocks for a while and then slowly returned to “our” island where we jumped into a pool before going home. After another evening in the “city center”, we spent almost the entire next day at the pool, so it was a very chilled day. After our favourite bar had closed before midnight, the others went to a hostel to go on partying but I somehow didn’t feel that good so I decided to go to bed. From that day on, we went different ways without a particular incident causing that. I just felt a bit out of place. I don’t blame anyone for that split, things like that just happen. What I cannot accept though is that people treat me like a criminal or an evil being, and that’s what that Belgian girl did. Her behavior was just unacceptable.

Anyway, enough on that topic. I rent a bike and went to Don Khon once again to see another waterfall and make a small trip through the center of the island. In the evening, I went to one of the numerous bars right next to the Mekong, got a lemon shake, my favorite Asian drink, and enjoyed the beautiful sunset before ending up in the “party bar” as usual. I decided to stay for one more day, once again got a bike and once again made my way to Don Khon. They got a small beach there and I checked it out before riding to the very top of the island. Unfortunately I took the much more difficult trail through the middle of the jungle so it was really hard to get there. At two places, I came across broken bridges and I had to get off my bike and carry it over the remaining parts of the bridges really carefully. The view of the Mekong at the view point in the North of Don Khon was definitely great though, and so was the food I got in one of the restaurants there. After stopping at the pool for a quick swim, I spent my last evening in the center of Don Det, just like I had done the days before. I wouldn’t have needed to stay that long, but I really enjoyed the calm, rural life and the welcoming, easy-going people. I got the impression that life in this part of the world will never change, no matter what’s going to happen in other countries in the future. Even when there was a problem with the electricity for a couple of hours, everything went on just like any other day. Highly recommended place 😊

In my next post, I will tell you about the famous Thakhek loop which I did by scooter. Have a look, you won't regret it 😉

Cheers,

Max