Radio Silence

Many apologies for the week-long (more?) radio silence, but the jungles of Northeastern Cambodia and river islands of Southern Laos are not quite internet hot-spots.

...did that sound too pretentious? Or just pretentious enough?


For starters: a moment of silence for a fallen companion. Matt- your gift finally came to fruition. My camera is no more. No, it was not pickpocketed. It did not go down in a blaze of glory.
I fell on it.
Following several recommendations, I decided to rent a motorbike for my first day exploring around Ratanakiri Province (out of its capital, Ban Lung) in Northeastern Cambodia. I know I should be treating every experience I have with a fully "open mind" and avoid comparison, but I frequently find myself comparing my experiences here with those of Brazil. And here I found an interesting crossover: apparently both Brazil and Cambodia are of the conviction that little urban scooters (called "motodups") are definitely made to be suitable for dirtroad/off-road travel. Not true.
I headed out in the morning and made it to the local crater lake for a refreshing walk and morning dip. Met a friendly Khmer gentleman who's been living in Seattle for the past 30 years (sidenote: it's always a little chilling when talking to Khmer people and hearing about some major life event happening between 1975 and 1979... and knowing it was almost certainly caused by the genocide) having a picnic with his family, and he invited me to try roasted beehive... with bee larvae still inside. Surpringly, not too bad! (or sweet)
Anyway, after some time at the lake, I decided to go waterfall-hunting. Despite the copious (1) signage, I made a few wrong turns on my way to the first waterfall. I finally got directions from someone who spoke English and was on the right track. Due to the sandiness of the "road", I was traveling at a pretty slow speed, but I saw a turn a little too late and turned just a little too sharp and the moto slipped on the sand and we went for a nice little sliiiiide. I'm totally fine (and I certainly WAS wearing a helmet), but my camera - traveling in the knee-level pocket of my fresh-bought super-awesome $6 trekking pants - was not so lucky. Good news is I didn't lose any pictures! Bad news: I'll be relying on the kindness of strangers with facebook/email until I can get hold of a replacement.

Wooo!

After that little mishap, I decided to just head back to Ban Lung and weep my sorrow into one of the most delicious sandwiches I've ever had (sausage, carrots, cucumber, sauce, pepper sauce and probably some other stuff on a baguette lightly fried in oil (!) for 2500 riel, or about $0.60)... and then walk back to the lake.

The next day I left with a group of folks I'd met the first night in town for an overnight trek into the jungle. It was nice but a little less rigorous than we'd all been hoping. The most rewarding experience was on the way back. We had moto-ed to a local village at the edge of the national park (I was NOT driving this time!), where we left our motos and then picked them up on the way back. Waiting for lunch on the way back the second day, I noticed one of the village boys had an open gash on his shin. Talking through the guide, I asked what happened and his mom told me that he had been cutting wood and missed and nailed himself right in the shin (this sounds familiar...). The wound was pretty open and raw, and I kept seeing him picking at it, and then gnats swarming into it as soon as he stopped. I had my little first aid kit with me, so i asked if it would be ok for me to clean and dress it after lunch. With his permission, I cleaned it with an alcohol swab, put a couple bandaids over it and instructed him to leave them on for a day or two. Pretty remarkable to realize that people don't even have access to these most basic medical supplies.

I also quite hit it off with our guide. He began just calling me "little brother" and offered to let me live and hang out with him at his cousin's restaurant and just eat, drink and hang out with him for free. If that city hadn't been so damn dusty (I looked fake-tanned from all the orange dust), I might have considered hanging out for a few days.


From Ratanakiri I mosied over to Si Phan Don ("Four Thousand Islands") in Southern Laos. This is an area where the Mekong River fans out around probably literally about 4000 islands. Beautiful. I spent a few days sleeping in a river-side bungalow (for about US$2.25/night) wandering around a couple islands (Don Det and Don Khone) by foot and bike, seeing some of the very endangered Irrawady freshwater river dolphins, relaxing, eating delicous pumpkin burgers and making buddies with a handful of Canucks. Friendly folks who gave me copious/priceless tips for the rest of my journey... and tried reeeeeeally hard to talk me into extending my trip. Hmmmmm...


This morning I mosied (2 hours jammed in the back of a covered pickup with about 13 of my best friends) from Si Phon Dan to Pakse, from which I am exploring some of the waterfalls and coffee plantations of the Bolaven Plateau. At the moment I've just finished watching the sunset over the waterfall at Tadlo with a banana smoothie. And my room here is also about US$2.25. Ohhhhh what a troubling life I lead.


And an observation: I realized I'd had a real breakthrough when I saw a bathroom that was a brick hut sandwiched between two pig-pens with a porcelain hole in the ground and a bucket of water with a pail for "flushing", and I instantly thought 'whoa classy!' because the porcelain was actually white and the hut was made of brick, not wooden boards. Can you imagine how excited I get when I find a throne-style toilet?


I believe I can still use my camera to upload pictures, but I don't have it with my at the moment - I'll post some more next chance I get!