Tag Archives: heading north

Day 203 – Plains

The guest house's dog took a liking to Flo...but well enough behaved to not follow into the room :)

The guest house’s dog took a liking to Flo…but well enough behaved to not follow into the room 🙂

We got annoyed with ourselves this morning for failing at breakfast. Or maybe it was just that yesterday’s one was so good that it was impossible to live up to it. The cute little community run cafe we wanted to go to had moved out of town a while back and we were a bit headless in finding another place to go. It was pre-coffee time, after all. So we ended up in the cafe of the resident fancy hotel, paying almost NZ prices while getting airport quality food, 🙁

Nonetheless, the day came into its own from here. The main goal was to cross the empty wasteland that is the central Mekong lowland. 300 km of the main highway following the path of the Mekong until Thakhek, where we would stay for the night to leave on another loop off the main road to explore the central east.

These things are the slowest vehicles on the road here. Mostly because they are totally overloaded

These things are the slowest vehicles on the road here. Mostly because they are totally overloaded

The ride was pleasantly uneventful, we found nice lunch and once again arrived at our guesthouse in the early afternoon. We went with the nr. 1 recommendation from the lonely planet a bit out of town. They had a room, albeit a rustic and simple affair with bare concrete floor and a bed which’s springs were covered by not much more than a layer of rice paper (or that is how it felt like). The whole place was packed with high energy, mostly culturally insensitive 20something backpackers. Then again, they have a bonfire every night. 🙂

Dinner in town was a bit of a disaster – but we used that opportunity to have a good talk about changing our food strategy. I am pretty sure we got it back on track with that.

We thought to finish a quick blog post before hitting the bed that night. I had a beer and we popped down in the common area. By chance I had overheard a young German couple talking about going to Cambodia some time later and used my chance to get rid of our last remaining Cambodian Riel. We got talking over that and soon it was clear that we would once again not manage to catch up on the blog. Tabea and Nils were great company and we spend the rest of the night talking about life, travel and the world.

Day 199 – The far East

Newly sealed, great views, literally no traffic

Newly sealed, great views, literally no traffic

There was only a brief debate, but the rustic charms of our “shack” had worn off and I did not feel like needing another full day to recuperate. Thus, we hit the road again. Baring due north. Until very recently, there was no road, let alone a sealed one, connecting the eastern regional capitals of Sen Monorom and Ban Lung directly. Travelers would genuinely get lost trying to navigate a vast maze of cart and oxen tracks and some payed a handsome “thank you”-fee to a local guide getting them out again.

Huge areas have been transformed to palm plantations made possible and accessible by the new road

Huge areas have been transformed to palm plantations made possible and accessible by the new road

None of this anymore – a fully sealed road winds gently down the plateau and through the Lumphat Wildlife Sanctuary connecting the provinces of Mondulkiri and Ratanakiri. But other than this one black strip of tarmac and some trappings that come with such infrastructure, there was still not much else out here. Especially now in the dry, it all is one long savanna / light forest as far as the eye can see. During the whole 150 km journey, we encountered maybe 30 other vehicles. It reminded us at times of the Australian outback. Only the 110cc bikes and rice tractors underscored that is was not that.

Crossing one of many tributaries to the Mekong

Crossing one of many tributaries to the Mekong

We enjoyed the ride, the solitude and the encounters with the hardy Cambodians living out here. We also made immensely good pace – so good that we hit the turn off to Ban Lung a good time before lunch time. With only 100 km to go and such easy riding, we decided to skip Ban Lung and go directly to Strung Treng. Another provincial capital of the province baring the same name, the Mekong town of Strung Treng is the launch pad for early border crossings into Laos.

One of many fires we've seen in Cambodia

One of many fires we’ve seen in Cambodia

We booked into a brand new Chinese (as in ethnicity, not nationality) owned guest house a kilometer out of the town center. It was cheap and we could book via Agoda. The room was lovely, clean and, best of all, motel-style on the ground floor with direct motorcycle access! The only downside really was the lack of a restaurant, but the ride to town was short enough.

We went to town that night to a forgettable Chinese restaurant and headed home early to get everything in order for the border crossing tomorrow. We even found a post office to drop off Nina’s next batch of post cards.