An hour into our journey to Banlung from Phnom Penh, our bus got pulled over the by the police. Apparently the bus had knocked someone off their moped! After a lot of discussions and certainly some bribes with the local law enforcers, we were all told to get off the bus and stand on the side of the road...where we waited for over an hour! Luckily it was a cloudy morning, but with Amelia still poorly it was not ideal! We got ushered onto a replacement bus, and off we went again.
Thirteen hours later we arrived in Banlung. Of course there were many stops along the way, but with no proper roads this far North, just dirt tracks, the journey was awful.
To end a bad journey, the bus dropped us in the middle of nowhere, in the pitch black! There was only one Tuk tuk which got snapped up quickly, and a handful of motos to transport people. We made friends with a Turkish lady on the bus, nicknamed 'V'. V was also heading to the same place as us, so she called our lodge and they collected us. We were staying at Yaklom Hill lodge, which is situated just outside Banlung. The accommodation was very basic to say the least, electricity and hot water only ran from 6pm to 9pm, after that it was candle light and very cold running water! As you can imagine the jungle is a noisy place at night, but we managed to get a fairly decent night sleep, with only a rat waking us up in the early hours of the morning.

The next day we arranged for a tuk tuk to pick us (including V) up, and take us to Banlung, so we could arrange some tours and activities. We waited for almost an hour outside for the tuk tuk, only to hear it had broken down. So on that note, we decided to try and walk the 4km, which doesn't sound that tough, but it was getting towards the midday heat (30 + degrees c and very humid), so roughly 500 meters down the road we were questioning our decision. V has had a lot of experience with hitch hiking, so before we knew it she had flagged down probably the plushest 4x4 around!
We booked an afternoon trip around the local waterfalls, and a one day trip to the jungle for the following day.
Our trip to the waterfalls was by tuk tuk, which it shouldn't of been, the long journey to all 3 waterfalls were by dirt track, not something a tuk tuk with narrow road wheels, and barely any suspension should be undertaking! We even had to jump out a few times so the tuk tuk could make it up some of the steep hills. The three waterfalls, Cha ung, Kachanh, and Katieng were all flowing well considering we are in the dry season. I even got chance to have a quick, and very powerful shower at the last waterfall - a good opportunity to rid myself of all the dust and dirt accumulated on the journey.
We got dropped back to our lodge, and decided to follow the homemade signs via the scenic route to Yaklom Lake - an ancient volcanic crater lake. So with maps drawn out by the friendly lodge owner, V using a map on her iPhone, and signs supposedly leading the way, you would think it should've been a piece of cake right? Nope, the hand drawn map had no scale and no clear directions, V's iPhone map was next to useless, and the signs were non existent. We ended up wandering through local farms, seeing lots of wild sunflowers, and talking to locals with our very limited Cambodian vocabulary. Trying to find our way, we ended back at the main road, and using our thumbs to flag down our next ride. This one wasn't as luxurious, quite the opposite, but beggars can't be choosers! And this amazingly friendly couple, with their rusty old pickup truck loaded up with fresh fruit, were able to take us the whole way there, and wait for us whilst we had a swim in the lake and watched the sunset!

Welcome to the jungle! After spending a lot of time doing tours and journeys on tuk tuks we weren't expecting to be picked up, first thing in the morning, by a couple of ropey looking motorbikes. Before I knew it Amelia had been whisked away by a local Khmer guy on the back of his motorbike! Me and the other tour guide followed on probably the worst condition motorbike I've ever seen, it certainly wouldn't pass its mot! After roughly an hour we arrived in a jungle village where we had to pay 15,000 Riel (£3 ish) to the village chief to permit us to park the motos and hike the jungle. So off we went, following the local guide, in single file, trekking through the jungle...for five hours! We had a brief rest by a stream to scoff some tasty lychee, and after another hour or so trekking up and down difficult terrain, we eventually stopped for lunch at a jungle river, where some local tribal men were fishing. The menu was fried rice for me, and plain boiled rice with steamed vegetables for Amelia's dodgy tummy! As it headed into the afternoon the heat became relentless and we hit some steep down and uphill sections. The final decent took us to a fairly wide stream, the only way to cross, without getting wet trainers, was to carefully step across the rocks laid across the stream. This was made even more difficult by having to clamber across a dirty dead pig, being scrubbed cleaned by a local family.
The last stretch, a very long and steep dusty road, lead us back to the village we started from. The local kids were out playing by this point, throwing some quizzical looks our way, probably because we were dripping head to toe in sweat!! The motorbike ride back to Banlung soon dried us off, and we ended the day with a nice peaceful view of the sun setting over the jungle.

Heading back down south... to Kratie, pronounced Krachee.