Laos and Cambodia - Saturday 3 July to Friday 9 July

Saturday 3 July – Pakse, Laos to Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Decided to hire a bike and go to the Bolavan Plateau. Packed the necessaries into one pack and stored the other where we hired the bike and by 10am were riding out of town. Once we left the main road there wasn’t much traffic. We stopped at a waterfall, treehouse resort and ethnic village. The village was very interesting but we felt it was a bit staged. Continued up the road past some interesting villages. We love the way the pigs just wander about then it got a bit boring and we were both thinking this isn’t much when we came to the turnoff to the village of Tad Lo which is gorgeous. There was a magnificent 100m wide waterfall falling about 7 metres. We stopped at a backpackers just over the bridge and the room was gorgeous – all tiles and clean with a balcony overlooking the river but the beds were boards – so hard. We checked and there was a mattress there – we thought later maybe they had put it on upside down because they sleep on the floor on sleeping mats and maybe wouldn’t realise it is supposed to be a bit soft!! Continued up the road and saw a sign for Palamie Guesthouse and a man came out to greet us. He had one rattan room and three wooden rooms without bathrooms and two brand new rooms – beautiful wood and brick only four months old and the bed was soft and had a mosquito net over it. It had a big verandah overlooking rice paddies and pigs wandering around. A lovely bathroom with hot water – huge room. We didn’t need the fan as it was cool enough. Par who runs (and built it) used to work at the Lodge up the road. He speaks English and was born in this village as were his mother and grandparents. Lovely chap with a wife and two children. It poured rain just as we got there so our timing was impeccable. Walked through the village and had a look around then found a little restaurant in another Guesthouse and had a lovely meal. What a beautiful place!!

Sunday 4 July – Tad Lo to Attapeu
The morning started realising why so many roosters end up cooked on sticks in the market!! Seriously, it was brilliant – cows out the front, we fed our pineapple scraps to the huge pig then packed up and went back to Tims for breakfast. At Tims the barbeque was half a bomb (all American), the pot plant holder was a whole bomb and the vase was an artillery shell nicely decorated with lots of littled drilled holes!! We were sitting watching the pigs and piglets, dog under the table and cat on the chair and on our laps eating banana pancakes when an elephant went past!! Stopped on a dime when the mahout realised we wanted a photo – just skidded to a stop! We headed back up to a big waterfall but as we went past an extremely poor, muddy looking village a couple of the kids yelled out waterfall and pointed up through their extremely muddy village. We could see a slight trickle over a big rock cliff so decided to give it a miss. Apparently the hydro electric people let water go in the evening. Even when we went past the waterfalls which were so beautiful yesterday the water flow appeared to have diminished. We arrived at the turnoff to where we wanted to go about 1.30 but it was 70 odd kms of dirt so we opted to continue to Attapeu and go back up again tomorrow. We did 185km today and it was long, hot and hard on the bot! A change of scenery down here – this is the most bombed area of Laos. Saw a fellow with a motorbike and trailer and he had found a huge part of an exploded bomb – chased him down and took his photo. We stopped at a Government place that does the Unexploded Ordinance clearance and they had some bits and pieces of bombs. Arrived at the capital of Attapeu Province around 3.30pm and found a lovely guesthouse then went to a bar on the river. We watched young girls eating fried crickets dipped in sauce. Had a rest – it was a long hot ride then headed to the noodle bar. We got a beer and they seemed happy to have us and put the fan and tv on for us then they disappeared. About 5.30 we asked if we could eat but apparently Papa was in the shower then suddenly he appears outside soaking wet taking our order and telling his wife what we wanted – hilarious. They do noodle dishes so Peter had the noodle soup and Dell had the fried noodle. They have promised us a great breakfast tomorrow and laughed their heads off when we asked if they would be out of the shower!! People like this make it all worth while!! Just an aside – no one in Laos seems to wear sunglasses.

Monday 5 July – Attapeu to Pakse
Had breakfast at Papas – he was doing a roaring trade – cooked us a lovely omelette and baguettes with cheese and jam and croissants. He was very happy we came back. Left about 8 and had an uneventful journey back about 47k to the turnoff to the dirt road. Stopped to take a photo of the water buffalos all sitting in a big puddle of water – really like the water buffalo. The dirt road was a very good road and Peter really enjoyed the ride. Saw a squirrel and an eagle. Found the big waterfall. The volume of water going over was amazing and it was extremely high. For a while it felt like riding through the jungle but tractors were clearing both sides of the road which took some of the ambience away! We rode right over the Bolavan Plateau through some villages and a town. Were grateful when we got back on to the bitumen as our butts were very sore. We stopped at two more waterfalls one of which was quite stunning – you could clamber down steps to the bottom – beautiful. We arrived back in Pakse around 3, found a different guesthouse, returned the bike, retrieved our packs and booked the bus to cross the Cambodian border tomorrow and went back to the Indian restaurant for a lovely meal.

One thing we noticed about Laos was that there seemed to be quite a few schools – quite shabby looking but they didn’t seem to be used. We didn’t really see any school children and not a lot of people spoke English.

CAMBODIA
Tuesday 6 July – Pakse to Kratie Cambodia
We were collected from our guesthouse at 7.50 after a lovely breakfast Peter bought in the market for practically nothing. The minibus fooled us as it had lovely leather seats and four of us in it but it delivered us to a crap minibus which already had 7 people in and Peter’s seat had no back. After a couple of hours we dropped people off and five of us went on to the border. We had heard terrible things about the border. When we went to check out of Laos a young French bloke was doing a lot of yelling. The Laos Immigration wanted $2US per passport bribe. The French guy gave me some change and we all paid $1US. Then we had to walk across the border and went to Health who wanted $1US but we all said no. Then we went to get our visa. We had been told it was $23US so we paid it (it is really $20 but they have always charged $23 here). The French guy was doing a lot of yelling – very brave or very silly as he was dealing with the military. Immigration then wanted $1US each so we gave them 20,000 kip which just about used up all our kip – it is useless out of the country as no one will change it. They put five of us in a minibus and we went to the next big town – Stung Treng and then we had to get out of the minibus and they finally let us on the big bus!! Arrived at Kratie at 2pm after a lunch stop – there were some stalls which were selling the fried crickets but also fried tarantulas!! With all their legs still intact! We walked around the corner to a guest house and then went out for a walk. Kratie is on the river so walked along there and through the large market which was across the road. We then went to a local restaurant with a lovely family and had a beer with ice and were just thinking how nice it would be to have some nibblies when the chef cooked us up some finger food and gave it to us for free so we decided to have dinner there and they cooked us up a lovely meal. The family were watching a soapie on tv and it was so funny to watch their reactions to the sad bits and tragic bits and funny bits!! People really are the same all over!

Wednesday 7 July – Kratie to Phnom Penh
We caught the 8am bus after having bought some baguettes in the local market . The landscape was amazingly flat with heaps of rice paddies. We noticed lots of brickworks as we were coming into Phnom Penh – most of them didn’t seem to be working. We went over a big bridge and the bus dropped us in the middle of the city – quite a busy city. We decided to walk to find a guesthouse and the tuk tuk drivers were polite and left us alone when they realised we didn’t want one. The traffic was chaotic and we had a bit of trouble with the traffic coming from the left but just when you get used to that a bike or two will go up the road the wrong way. We walked around looked at guesthouses but finally settled on The Spring which was Lonely Planet’s choice and this time they got it right. We took a fan room on the 5th floor for $6US. It was quite a walk up but a lovely room. Went out for a walk and ate dinner in the local market.

Thursday 8 July - Phnom Penh
It was so hot through the night that we decided to move to an air conditioned room on the 1st floor for $10US a night. We started our day with a visit to the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum (S.21). Over 17,000 people were tortured and killed in this place by The Pol Pot regime. It used to be a school. Suffice to say that it was rather overpowering and we decided not to watch the film and not to visit the killing fields. How this was allowed to happen is beyond us and why it happened is a question that 30 years later the Cambodian people still don’t know the answer to and no-one has ever been punished (we heard a couple of weeks later that the bloke that ran Toul Sleng got 30 years but will be out in 19!). A couple of top people in the Khymer Rouge were arrested in 2007 – Pol Pot died of old age. The UN has a lot to answer for in this and Australia also supported Pol Pot for a time. We then went to the Russian market which was huge. We bought a few things then took a tuk tuk to the river area and had lunch then walked to another market where Dell bought a pair of second hand Oasic sandles for $16US. We were wondering if people nicked them from outside temples!! Back to our room then out for dinner. They have big beasts (cows) on huge spits outside some restaurants. We went into one of these and got a jug of draught beer for 6,800 reil ($1.70) but their menu wasn’t in English so we ordered one dish – marinated meat, chips and egg then went up the road to where the menu was in English and had a lovely meal.

Friday 9 July – Phnom Penh
Happy Birthday Carol
The women wear their pyjamas – they are think they are trouser suits but they are PJs!!! - even have little bears and lovehearts or are floral. When we dropped the laundry off they had a dish full of skinned frogs on sticks sitting out the front in the sun! Walked the city looking at the sights and in the afternoon went to the palace. We wandered the palace grounds and went into a few temples. One had a 95kg solid gold Buddha with hundreds of diamonds. There were lots of gold dishes, small buddhas etc and we wondered about the lack of security but I guess no one would touch a Buddha. Went back to our guesthouse and booked the bus for tomorrow then caught a tuk tuk to the river area and found a wonderful little restaurant called Bojangles and had the best meal. We really like the Cambodian food – very different flavours. A few of the beggars came back to us a few times through the day and by evening we were saying we already gave to you and they laughed and acknowledged. We really enjoyed Phnom Penh.