Beyond Borders.....

The 7Am tuk-tuk ride was surprisingly refreshing, the cool air that would soon turn blistering hitting our faces as we cruised through town to the outskirts where the the bus station was. It was more like one of those weird Greyhound stops in the middle of nowhere, but with a ton of people surrounding it selling everything from food to toys to watches. As soon as we stepped off a random man, who appeared to be a ticket vendor, sold us our ticket to Kompong Cham and led us to our bus. Seeing as our bus wasn't leaving anytime soon we ditched the bags and found a sandwich, which wasn't half bad seeing as all it was was bread, lettuce, chili sauce and tomato. As more and more people crammed on to the bus we began what would be the beginning of our journey into Laos and the shorter leg of our loop.

The scenery throughout Cambodia is very similar, depending on the time of year you have green rice fields or brown fields surrounded by greenery. This time of year they tend to be brown. Wooden houses with grass or tin roofs stand on stilts and line the dirt or gravel roads, while water buffalo and cattle trample or stand in the middle of them. Happy children run around naked having little or no perception of a war in Iraq or the horrors Pol Pot inflicted on their country some 30 years ago. Happy little kids indeed. Whole families of 5 cram onto mopeds that could barely push one fat American down a hill. Pickups are filled with countless people both inside and out, while long tractors with make shift trailers seem to be the slower, local transport. Every few kilometers a family is sitting next to their shop selling the same things the last shop was selling: M-150, Sodas, Water, Shampoo, and Petrol in a Johnnie Walker bottle. This is the closest thing you'll find to a 7-11 in rural Cambodia. All of these images become commonplace throughout Southeast Asia and are burned into your memory as you drift between wakefulness and sleep on the countless buses you have no choice but encountering.

Kompong Cham: The bus rolls into a small town and drops us at another "bus station". It was only upon arrival that we were informed that no bus would take us to Kratie, only taxis. Seeing as we had no other option we got the first taxi driver to give us the back seat for 25$. It was only a 4 hour ride but when they fill a car, they really fill it. We found this out later. Naively thinking we might be the only passenger on our ride, we settled in for the long haul only to drive right around the corner to a gas station. The driver looked around, yelled a little at some people and drove off. We did this numerous times in addition getting him some food, picking up laundry and paying his cell phone bill. The last stop we actually got some takers. Four takers actually, and seeing as they paid about a quarter of what we did we weren't giving up our backseat. He shuffled two ladies in the front seat of his Toyota Camry and opened up the back door smiling to put the others in back. UnnUhh. Unnuhhh. Heads madly shaking no. Since we were going to get fucked anyway we figured one was better then two and negotiated him down to 20$ plus one more in the back seat. Peeved and distresses he obliged. On lucky male got to sit with us in the back, while the other shared the drivers seat. Really, two people in the drivers seat of a manual Toyota Camry for 4 hours on a fucked up dirt road. Good shit. We did drop two of the passengers off about three hours into it giving our driver full control of the automobile again but for the most part it was a strange trip. Especially when your driver is sitting in the middle and your wondering if he can really reach the pedals.


Kratie: We roll into town around 3:30, starving. Really, really hungry. Seeing as this is just an overnight stop on our way into Laos we stay the guest house where our driver dropped us. We drop our stuff and run to find food only to be accosted by the owner telling us to go see the dolphins, now. Really, right now. He allowed us to eat a sandwich and some rice before pushing us onto moto for a 20 minute trip through beautiful country. As if my ass didn't already hurt enough, the moto ride was icing on the cake. Stepping of the bike, my legs were shaky and ass numb. The sun was slowly making its way to the other side of the earth as we stepped onto the boat. An English couple and a guide accompanied us and the conversation was anything but dull as we pushed out and in 2 minutes saw a pack of the rare Irrawaddy River Dolphins. A dolphin is just a dolphin, but is not everyday you get to ride in a boat on the Mekong at sunset, unless your a fisherman.

We meandered back as the sun was setting and the rain was falling afte getting our share of dolphin sightings. Since we were leaving early and there really wasn't much to do in Kratie we found some real food and called it a night. Well actually we had TV and a bag to finish, I made it through the bag but only about half of Independence Day. You know th eone where the Fresh Prince punches an alien.

Yeah! Another day on Buses! Although this trip was to be a relatively short one compared to the next leg.... We were picked up in a extremely nice A/C Mercedes mini bus only to be driven around the corner and dropped at the gas station where the real mini buses were waiting. No A/C and certainly no Mercedes. The old bait and switch. We finally left after a few more farang found themselves in the same predicament. The ride was relatively short up to the border town of Stung Treng where we were forced to wait a few hours at Mr.T's guest house by the river until we were told to walk down to the river and get on a boat. Boats are a whole different experience in Southeast Asia. This is not a Catalina Ferry or a Havasu speedboat, these are sketchy floating wooden objects with any type of motor attached to them. At least 30 people piled on for the short river crossing ride. At the other side, Matt conjured up some drama by saying the bus driver wasn't going to take us and something about the police. Nothing unfolded, although we did end up waiting around for a while as usual. On to another mini bus and we were off, a gravel road with logs in the middle acting as a center divider that our driver swerved in and out of. After an hour our driver reached what seemed like a border only to get back in the car and turn around. Hmmm. Then he turns down a really fucked up dirt road. Hmmmm. "End of the earth" was Matts description and while it was no Volcano National Park it was pretty out there. "Maybe he's taking us out here to kill us" was probably the general consensus of the van which consisted of Matt, myself, a Australian named Daniel and a very strange French guy named Thomas or "Frenchie" as I dubbed him. After 20 minutes of impending doom we reached signs of civilization (ie. houses) and finally the border.

Sketchiest border crossing ever. The Cambodian side was a gate at someones house and a shack. The uniformed guard stamped our passport and collected our dollars as his stamping fee, which is complete bullshit. Frenchie waited till he got his passport stamped and then refused to pay. The guard didn't like that too much, but there was nothing he could do, Frenchie kept pointing to the "paid" stamp on his visa and walked away. We got back in the bus and drove 15 more minutes along the river to Laos. The Laos border wasn't much better. A bunch of guys playing what looked like boccie ball wearing shirts that said "Police" in small letters with little race cars on them. They didn't seem to happy about our interrupting their game. The officer (?) begrudgingly dropped his balls and came over to the shack. "Passport, Visas, and 2$". We all made our attempt at not paying but to no avail; he wouldn't give your passport back without the money. Frenchie tried a bit harder and even tried asking for a receipt. If anybody was getting shot or detained today it was him. We all made it and jumped in the back of a truck to our final destination: 4,000 Islands. We all smiled knowing we had made it into Laos and not the easy way either. We even applauded Frenchie for his not paying the dollar; unfortunately, while we assumed it was political he was really just a cheap bastard and wanted to save the dollar, not fight corruption.

Twenty minutes later we arrived at the rivers edge and jumped on a boat to Don Det the main island in the "4000". Another interesting yet blissful boat ride brought us to the islands edge and we stepped on the beach free of touts. We had been recommend a place but it turned out to be shit so we took the next decent spot and jumped straight into the river. Enter the 15 year old with down syndrome, funny guy throwing water and pissing all over the place, Matt was convinced he was going to sneak into our bungalow and kill me.

The river was bliss and the sun was setting fast so we headed to the sunset side of the island for my first Beer Lao actually in Laos. Bliss. The crowd was a jovial one, drunken and friendly. I asked the owner were to get a bag since rolling papers were listed on the menu. But he only sold papers. " The Reggae Bar will get you what you need" was al one needed to hear. Duh. To the Reggae Bar!! It was quick and easy, he even rolled one for us as we rolled continuously for the rest of the evening. Food happened at some point as did a few more Beer Lao's. Of course since they turn off the lights when the bar/restaurants close around 11:oo the walk back was very, very dark. No electricity means no fan, so as you can imagine it was a hot night and even hotter morning.

The next morning was bliss, a cup of coffee and some potatoes followed by a long period on the hammock reading and smoking. At some point we came to the consensus that we should take a bike ride so we got our lazy asses up, rented some bikes and headed over to the waterfall. A nice ride on a sunny dirt path through dry rice paddies lead us to the falls which were wide and rapid. No swimming here. A short lunch and detour to the beach and we headed back, this time on the shady path along the river. Hammocks called once again and the only thing that got us going later was the prospect of food and drinks. We found food and drinks followed. It is/was the low season so very few tourists were out and about making the "nightlife" very dull. But you don't go to 4000 islands for the night life, you go for the river ......... and the hammocks. So ended our last day in the islands. Fueled by promises of brilliance in Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng we deiced to leave the next morning. - Peace and Love - Z