Archive for Cambodia
Pech Nil
Posted by: | CommentsA Cambodia inspired 50 word tale.
She stands staring silently seaward searching ceaselessly for her lost love. Drowned in a voyage to find her sea-claimed spouse, only her sorrowing statue remains, worshiped by Sihanoukville bound travellers. No solace in the fragrant incense or bountiful fruits offered by the faithful hoping for protection from life’s cruel blows.
Ban Lung, Pictures
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A rainbow ends at the Riverside Guesthouse where we stayed in Stung Treng in north eastern Cambodia.
Locals enjoying one of the many waterfalls in Ratanakiri near Banlung.
A small boy looks wistfully at his older brothers and sisters splashing around in the pool at the base of the waterfall.
Enjoying the crystal clear warm waters of Yeak Laom crater lake in Ratanakiri during the P'Chumm Ben festival. Girls often bathe fully clothed in Cambodia.
Margaret and Allan wandering through the woods around Ratanakiri
Margaret strolls into Ban Lung. Dinner with friends in a local restaurant.
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Ban Lung, Cambodia
Posted by: | CommentsThe rains here are almost over now. The rivers have overflowed into enormous sheets of water and the rice fields are submerged. Only the taller bushes and trees break the smooth surface reflecting the clear blue sky. The people of Cambodia look forward to this annual flood and depend on it for agriculture and next year's fish. The weather is warming up nicely, back up to a pleasant 30oC.
We are still exploring Cambodia during holidays and time off work. During a recent major Buddhist festival, P'Chum Ben, we took a week to explore the far north east.
Encircled and enfolded by rich green jungle foliage the crystal clear crater lake shimmered blue in the afternoon sunlight. In the surrounding hills, in northern Cambodia, thundering waterfalls plummeted down into torrents which fed the tributaries of the mighty Mekong.
Highway 7, a well surfaced road, stretched 400km north from Phnom Penh, through Kampong Cham, to the small town of Stung Treng and from there to the border with Laos. We overnighted there in a $3 per night guesthouse before braving the road east to Ban Lung, the regional capital of Ratanakiri Province. The road to Ban Lung was a two hundred kilometre long track of slippery cloying red mud which stuck to the wheels, eventually filling the wheel arches and bringing us to a halt.
Two storey open front shop houses on either side of its wide dirt main road gave Ban Lung the appearance of a Wild West Frontier town. In many ways it was. The dirt road continued east into Vietnam through a frontier closed to foreigners. We were there to enjoy the scenic beauty of the region which boasts jungle clad hills, the home to cloud leopards, tigers and elephants. It was lovely. Strolling around the crater lake gave us spectacular views. The Ban Lung locals frolicked in the pools at the base of the thundering falls, the more adventurous squeezing behind the solid curtain of water. Further a field we watched the indigenous hill tribe people heading to the market to sell jungle fruits and vegetables and village crafts.
