cambodia - laos.

In fact, the rain did not change at all, so we stayed in the hostel, frustrated, bored and somewhat looking forward to our return to Phnom Penh. On the morning of our departure, we figured we had about US$11 left and still had to buy tickets and nutrition for the day. We bought tickets and thus had about US$2 left. we decided we had to keep that money for the internet cafe in Phnom Penh if we wanted to get into contact with Eddie, one of Jojo's mates from New Zealand. After 6 hours and 1000 times hungrier, we arrived in Phnom Penh and found Eddie in the hostel "Lazy Fish", beautifully situated at the lake side. We immediately bumped in our savior and had curry as our first meal of the day (which for me actually is a lie since I had a chewing gum before).

We had a couple of drinks and went out the next day and bumped into another friend of the two who was doing a world journey and (20 seconds later...) ran into Chloe as well. Gathered, we went back to the guesthouse and had a good night. The next day, Jojo and I did the same programme we had done before (Killing Fielgs, etc) and visited the S21 concentration camp which was truly gruesome, considering the methods and instruments of torture being shown in the museum. Eddie and Chloe were just as stoked and in the evening decided to go to Siem Reap, a fact that seperated them from us for a couple of days.

The following day, Jojo and I went to the north to the Mekong to see the least spectacular "must-see" in Cambodia - the endangered species of the fresh water dolphin. Lame. hey look like floating turds in the anyway brown Mekong. It would have been nice, if they would have come close to the boat but they decided to stay about 50m away which made it really hard to see them at all.

The next morning we left Kratie for the (by far) more interesting Ratanakiri province in the North East of the country. The trip there was and adventure itself. Examining the map of Cambodia in our "Lonely Planet", we had always wondered why this part of the road was dotted but not a proper line. We were about to witness the worst road I personally have ever travelled on. The bus was crammed to the max and we got shitty seats above the enigne which made the temperature increase about 30 degrees. The holes in the street and the oversensitive suspension of the bus enabled some good "jumpin-out-of-the-seat-action" and after 5 hours and several bruises later we arrived at our destination.

Ratanakiri is the purest part of Cambodia I have seen in the weeks staying in this lovely country. We went on a tour and took showers under epic waterfalls, spotted fantastic towns, lovely people and a perfectly untouched mind of Cambodia. I am always amazed how people who have literalyy nothing try to comfort you by giving you everything they have, rather than taking it themselves.

The tour finished at Yeak Laom, the most wonderful lake I ever swam in. It is perfectly round and surrounded by jungle. The water is clear blue with sight of up to 5 meters. The temperature was lovely and made the day one of the highlights on our journey which has now lasted over one month. Slowly, Jojo and I made our way to the center of the lake and started soking in the silence which was only broken by our hands touching the surface. After this expierience we decided to stay another day and to come back to this place that poses serious competition to all the beaches I have seen in Thailand or Malaysia.

After a good night of sleep we went to have breakfast with John, a Canadian we had met on the bus to Ratanakiri. We rented motorbikes and camke back to the lake, trying to do some exploring. We went to an empty Pier and started doing jumps into the lovely water. As time went by it got a little crowded (about 20 people in the water...judge yourself) and we went back to the place we had descended from, running into a group of locals that asked us to sit. The were incredibly drunk and played music on their native instruments. As Jojo got the drums, the amazement on the part of the locals lost all boundaries and soon we also were intoxicated with beer and rice wine. When one of the locals humbly asked me if I could maybe buy some more beers I was aware of the fact that we had in fact been invited to everything we had drunk so far and it felt as if I blushed slightly and immediately went to buy another crate of beer. That was the point my mind got aware of how lovely these people actually were.

Next point on our programme - Laos. We met Chloe and Ed, who had been so nice to pick up our Visas+Passports in Phnom Penh, in Stung Treng, a small village on the way to Laos. We stayed for one night, playing a lot of Chloes favorite game - La Bataille Corse. Favorite because she never looses. Le lendemain, a minivan picked us up to bring us to Don Det, one of the 1000 islands in the South of Laos. From then on theres not much to say since we travelled a lot and saw little which is about to change tomorrow, when we will eventually arrive in Vang Vieng to do some tubing on...whatever river there is. Oh yes, I almost forgot. We invented drinking poker without chips. KEY!

At the moment I am listening a lot to Kashmir and Sigur Ros. Someone made me aware of a very true quote of Nietzsche who said:

"In music the passions enjoy themselves."

Love that one.