Dec 18, 2010

Busrides, waterfalls and crater lakes - Day 70-73

After we figured we had seen enough of Stung Treng (fyi everyone who tried to stop us from going there: we really liked the town!) we took a bus to Ban Lung, the capitol of the Ratanakiri province. After an extremely bumpy bus ride on a little dirt road through the woods, we arrived in Ban Lung in the dark, and were greeted by a hoard of Guest House owners. Somehow we then ended up on the back of a motorcycle (three separate ones that is), and found ourselves at Lake View Lodge.

Ban Lung is slightly bigger then Stung Treng, and full of life and activity all day around. (In Stung Treng you only mostly saw people after sunset, when they'd all gather for a pick-nick in the 'park', ie. sidewalk). The first day we mostly explored the market, but on the second we rented some (semi broken) bicycles, and tried to find somewhere to swim.
Although we had no map, we actually found a waterfall where we could swim, and basically stayed there all day with a couple of local guys. After finally managing to leave the place, although not wanting to, we biked back into town, had a late lunch and showered (the heat...! But especially: the dirt. Red dust gives you an awesome fake tan) before jumping on our bikes again and head for crater lake.

The Crater Lake was very round, and very deep. (50 meters) The best part was though the warm water - we could have stayed in the water for ages. Which we did. Thus having to bike back into town in pitch dark.... probably not the smartest thing to do, but it was an experience.

The next day we said goodbye to our 'siblings' at Lake View Lodge, and got on the 6.30 bus towards Phnom Penh. Yet another delightful 11 hour bus ride with people in front of you throwing up.. constantly. Who said the roads in Laos were bad?? As long as we kept our eyes on the road, and could distract ourselves by eating fresh pineapple and baguette, while making the entire bus listen to our music from our loudspeakers, we had quite an okay bus ride though, and 11 hours on a bus doesn't even feel like a long time after China....

So at the moment we're in Phnom Penh, the capitol. It's big, it's busy and we're on a semi tight schedule. So I'm off to explore the city with Ruut and Sophia now... if Sophia's woken up, that is.






















.....and then we couldn't upload anymore pictures since we're over the limit. Mom, buy us more space?

2 comments:

Unknown said...

ok,
start uploading. You should have lots of space now.

Lisa said...

Flickor, fantastiska bilder! Och Hanna och Fia, det var awesome att tala med er! <3 Ska bli fint när ni äntligen kommer hem. Väntar på alla storyn!

Puss, må väl!