The weeks of the unusual (for me)

My first Koniginnedag missed in the last five years, I hope the amsterdamers are enjoying it as usual and I wish for them they had the same weather as here.
Long silence on the blog but after leaving Phnom Penh I realised that having Internet is not given to everyone. I have put 2 new albums in the pics but no time for the comments.

Before starting, just try to guess how many people managed to travel on the outside of this pick up for 4 hours...(answer later in the post)

The past two weeks have been really good, maybe they are a bit like the "honeymoon of the trip" when everything I tried turned out right.

First I have tasted the crispy cricket (miam miam, it was good; just kidding, actually no taste at all). Unfortunately there was no spider but I still have most to Laos to find one. I have also learned to cook the Amok chicken (a kind of mild curry with coconut milk) and fresh springrolls, look the picture it was a real "festin" (I had to make a 3 hours siesta to digest).

Two weeks ago was the Khmer New Year. Since all families reunite in the country side it is pretty difficult for tourists to really be apart of the celebration (it is a kind of Christmas for them). Luckily the wats (Buddhist temples) organise events that look like kermisses. I happened to be at one and go attacked by kids with white powder. Later on as we passed by a small village with my guide we got invited by a group of drunk men for a couple of beers, we had a very nice time with them.

In Mondulkiri, I had the opportunity to meet the NGO crowd that deals mainly with helping the local minorities and protect the jungle and wildlife. Mondulkiri is really beautiful and I had a great time there: riding a mortorbike on my own for the 1st time (had to go through a road full of rocks and that was scary); doing a two days trek through the jungle being attacked by leeches, walking through rivers, staying in a village in the middle of the forest, riding an elephant on its neck (having (almost) nowhere to hold yourself), having a shower under a waterfall.

I am now in Laos for almost a week and I can confirm all the rumors about this country, it is totally relaxed. People are so easy going that after a few days you take their pace and days go by and you wonder how it is possible since you have done (almost) nothing. The typical Laos experience is stay in a bungalow with a view on the Mekong or in the countryside, trek or bike in the morning, lunch, rest, have a swim (in the Mekong), go for a beer, a diner etc... but not too late since around 10 pm you are almost the only one still awake. That is for Don Det in the 4,000 islands. The same applies without the Mekong parts to Tad Lo in the Bolaven Plateau where I spent the last days.

Some other funny things en vrac:
Wash your clothes in the Mekong, they end up more muddy than before you wash them,
Following a buffalo in the dark on the only path on the island to go back to your bungalow, hoping he will not stop otherwise that means you cannot pass,
Going through a land border even if you have to pay $1 at both borders (Cambodia and Laos) for the workers to play cards with it,
Riding in a bus that even the iron scrapper in Europe would refuse,
Getting stuck in Snoul where you realise what in the middle of nowhere means.

Finally what I preferred in the last two weeks is this: the 4.30h journey between Snoul and Sen Monorom on the supposedly the worst road in Cambodia.
This is how the truck was loaded: the boxes with the water to keep the fishes fresh and alive pic at start of post), then the vegetables, then the bags ...

and then the 22 passengers (and I do not count the two chickens and the scooter). Yes, 22, it was so great, I could not fall since three persons were sitting on my feet, I was myself sitting half on a rope and the other half on what I assumed to be a melon; and although the trip was far from comfortable (wihtou mentionning that I was red with dirt and dust at the end) the views and the experience would not make me doubt about doing it again if I could.

After a week at the Southern Laos pace I will now move north to visit caves and try to do a 4 days trek in the jungle.
Considering Internet access, I think the next post will only be early June; I'll make a big update on Laos then.