Cambodia: Ratanakiri Province 17-20 May

The final stop in Cambodia was to be Ban Lung in Ratanakiri Province, in the far north east corner and almost on the border to Laos. Stu and I wanted something a bit more rural than the other places we’d been in Cambodia, and this place sounded ideal, offering lakes and tree houses and villages. Perfect for a final stop and at last a chance to see some real Cambodian life without the tourists.

The bus journey, booked through a travel agent in Siem Riep, was comedy from the beginning. It was ‘VIP’ (code for supposedly more comfortable and upmarket bus), cost $16 and was supposed to take 12 hours. We waited outside the hostel at 6am, and got picked up by the wrong shuttle van. The mistake was realised just before boarding the wrong bus and we were rushed back to the hostel just in time to get the right shuttle. We were driven out of town to a strange bus stop on the outskirts, and piled onto a bus which was made us grin at each other in its non VIP’ness. Dripping air vents, freezing cold air con as usual (why??), seriously crazy loud, tinny Asian pop videos blasting through the speakers and people piled in the aisles sitting on bags of rice. Oh well, I’d seen worse. Around lunchtime after about 6 hours we stopped for some food and were told to get off the bus and wait for another one. It turned out to be a minivan with seats so small that my knees were crushed around my ears, I felt so sorry for the taller guys on it, and all I could think of was that there was another six hours to go. The minivan drivers are pretty maniac and go crazy fast, so everyone on the bus had hair highly raised. 

Just when we got used to the new bus, we arrived in the main bus station of a town called Kratie which is famous for dolphin watching in the Mekong. There we were told to get off and wait for the next minibus, which wasn’t going to leave until it was completely full of passengers, so we had to wait for people who turned up wanting to go to Ban Lung. It was around 3pm at this point, so we hung around the seriously local bus station which actually turned out to be a really good moment just to hang with locals in a place where next to no tourists ventured. Cambodia is a really poor country and the local station really reflected it but everyone was going about their daily business with vigour, sometimes giving us a bemused glance but mostly just scuttling by. There was a toddler at my feat playing with a plastic truck, bare bum exposed to the world and his dirty shirt trailing in the muck of the station, but as happy as could be. When the wheel of his truck broke off and rolled away, I went to fetch it and fixed it back on for him. He looked intently at me with his big brown eyes for about five seconds, and then carried on with his game with a slightly furrowed brow. His mommy smiled at me sweetly.

Kratie bus station 

We had some rice and iced tea in one of the cafe’s around the station, and still we waited. We waited and waited, and sweated and waited. Eventually, after around three hours we were told to get into the most beat up looking minivan that I’d seen yet. When you sat down on the chairs, huge clouds of dust enveloped you. We were squished in with the locals at the back, and the van pulled away. But we definitely hadn’t set off for Ban Lung yet, the minivan drove around town for another 45min picking more people, sacks of rice and anything else that could squeeze into it. Just when you thought it couldn’t get any more full, they asked the mother and baby at the front to squeeze in the seat behind because they wanted to push a motorbike... yes a full sized motorbike into the front seat of the small minivan. Just to make it extra exciting for everyone, they tied another motorbike onto the back with ropes. And it was with this load that we eventually, around 7.30pm, pulled away from Kratie for Ban Lung. Stu and I were squished into the back seat with another traveller from England, Josh, and two other local men. 

The rest of the journey was pretty eventful, stopping every now and again to drop off a bag of rice or to happily squash something or someone else in the van. If you wanted to go to the toilet, you had to climb out of the window as you couldn’t get by the tightly packed load with motorbike in the front. Man oh man, these are the bus journeys you remember and is what makes travelling what it is, eventful. The time 11pm rolled by (seventeen hours on the road) Stu, Josh and I were looking at each other with wild eyes. Eventually, eighteen hours later we arrived in Ban Lung, at midnight. The driver dropped everyone else off individually, including the motorbikes, and then drove us to a random hotel in the town somewhere where as soon as the door opened a man stuck his head in for the hotel pitch. We had already decided that we were going to stay in Tree Top Ecol Lodge, and the other two Westerners had a hotel booked already but the driver and everyone else pretended not to know where any of these places were. At this point I snapped a little (never a good thing in Asia, really doesn’t help anything) and told them... ‘WE ARE NOT STAYING AT YOUR HOTEL’. After some more mumbling and driving around they eventually dropped us off at our place.

Tree House Eco Lodge was in the Lonely Planet (usually I avoid accommodation recommended in there) but sounded so cool I really wanted to stay. Bungalows and walkways set up in the trees, all made of beautiful wood so you felt like a monkey living in the canopy. It was $15 for a three person bungalow and $10 for two a person, so Josh, Stu and I shared one. It was so idealic, really well made wooden bungalows with big comfy beds, high ceilings, and a bathroom that was only half covered so you could shower with the sound of frogs and trees in the wind. It had a balcony looking out into the canopy too. I had to wake the managing the place up, sleeping under a mosquito net in the main reception area because it was so late, but he happily led us in the dark with torches to our house. There weren’t three happier people in all of Cambodia to be getting into bed that night!

Tree Top Eco Lodge - Ban Lung

Tree Top Eco Lodge - Ban Lung

Tree Top Eco Lodge - Ban Lung

Tree Top Eco Lodge - Ban Lung

 There is a restaurant and main decking area that looks over some forest and a ravine, and we woke up the next day very happy to have some breakfast in this most chilled of places. The breakfasts were around $3 each, so pricier than normal for Cambodia. Main meals were around $4 I think. We decided to go to Yeak Laom Volcanic Lake that day and met an Austrian girl who had been before, so we set off to hire bikes. Walking out the bungalows brought you straight into the fully Cambodian town of Ban Lung. It was low season so really hardly any tourists around at all, which was fantastic. We hired three bikes for $4 for the day, and went off to the lake. It’s a volcanic lake, so created when an ancient volcano erupted and then left a huge round dent in the earth. The road there is properly paved, and really easy to cycle. Maybe a tiny bit hilly for those that hadn’t done any real exercise for months (me).  It cost around $3 for a ticket to enter and to park your bicycle. This is was a bit of a tourist destinations for Cambodians and so had some food stalls as you came up to the gate, with some really cute excited kids all milling around to see the Falangs (white people). The walk around the lake is really pretty and easy too, about 3km all the way round, the path surrounded by long thin bamboo forest. They have designated areas for swimming but we just found a secret little spot somewhere shaded by bamboo and away from people and got straight in. The water is so much warmer than you expect it to be, and very clean and blue. It’s a perfectly round, flat lake and so very easy and lovely to dip in. There was a convenient leaning tree there for us to climb up and jump off of too. 

Yeak Laom Volcanic Lake

Yeak Laom Volcanic Lake

Yeak Laom Volcanic Lake

On the cycle home we stopped off at the small lake in the town at a place that was famous for coconut shakes, but they didn’t have any coconut that day. Still, we had a seriously delicious fish Cambodian curry, spicy with lots of coconut in it, and some iced fresh lemon juice. We had a little cycle around the town, with people smiling and waving at us as we went by, especially the children. Out of the main tourist towns, they are still so excited to see Westerners. Before we left that morning, we saw the family running Tree Top Eco Lodge eating some amazing looking food, and so we asked them if they could make it for us for dinner. It was traditional Cambodian feast, with very fresh fish soup, some spicy tangy fish kind of dip, fresh vegetables in some tangy flavouring and lots of rice. It was seriously delicious.

Another thing to see in Ban Lung is the waterfalls just outside of town. Most people decide to motorbike there but we wanted to cycle, but by the end of the day we could see why people use motorbikes. The Austrian girl came with us too. It was scorching hot, and we got lost more than once down some side roads leading into rural villages. We spent ages looking for this one waterfall, but that was okay because just riding through the villages was so fun, with everyone smiling and waving and little kids really getting excited and running down the road after us. The villages are so simple, just wooden huts raised on stilts from the rain in monsoon season. Chickens, pigs and dogs wander around freely, and there are no paved roads. In some places the sticky red earth made huge crevices in the road which made it a little difficult to cycle. Because it took us so long to find the waterfall down came the full force of the afternoon rain. I love travelling in the low, wet season. The rain cools you down and freshens everything up, and there are way less people around. We took refuge in a tiny village shop, and again the family were so curious and friendly, inviting us to come inside and hide from the rain, talking to us in Cambodian and us back to them in English buying sweet popped rice snacks. Eventually we fell into silence and just waited for the rain to pass, watching some village residents walk or ride by looking curiously in at us.  

The village police station 

Waiting in the shop for the rain to pass

Village cycling

The waterfall was pretty when we eventually found it, water cascading from quite a height and if you stood under it then it stung you with its force, which Stu found out. The area is great to wander around in, very green and luscious. On the way back, we rode past a giant field with some trucks overturning and working the red, clayish ground. There were some small boys playing near the road so we stopped to wave at them and get some cute pictures. Stu took out his huge camera and one of the boys just burst out crying, while the others gathered around us excitedly and posed for pictures. It was really cute, poor little thing, obviously scared of these Falang Westerners with a big black piece of machinery in his face. The other little boys ran over to him and tried to cover his mouth to stop him from crying. Really sweet. We rode away waving as he was obviously scared of us.

Poor little one at the back about to cry

We got back very hot and sunburnt, after a really happy day. The little girls of the family came out to the deck back at the Lodge, with two fat cute puppies for us to look at. One of them was really nimble with Stu’s camera, she was a great little photographer and somehow knew how to work his massive fancy camera. She must have learnt it from tourists visiting there. We watched a huge purple flashing storm roll over the valley towards us, taking pictures and playing with the puppies.

The next day we were to cross the border into Laos by bus. We booked it through Lodge, straight to Don Det in the 4000 islands. I was genuinely sad to leave Cambodia, I keep saying how much it surprised me how different the experience was to how I was expecting it. I highly recommend going off the beaten track into some rural areas. The towns and villages are really friendly, and you hardly need to speak the same language to communicate which I’m learning more and more on my journey.