Sou'sday
We are now in Banlung in the heart of Cambodia's Ratakaniri province.
We began our journey here in Kampong Cham. The bus from Siem Reap was not too bad and we arrived in a quiet town by the Mekong river. We had a nice cheap room and drank ice coffee by the river before walking down to a famous bamboo bridge. The bridge is built every year out of bamboo after the rainy season to allow access to the small island in the river. The bridge feels flimsy as you walk across but takes the weight of many cars, although it does wobble as they go past. The island that evening was having a New Years party with locals having beer picnics, dancing and swimming in the river. They were also playing lots of Asia's favourite song - gangnam style, which they play everywhere and we both now hate with a passion. We left early, got some takeaway noodles with some unknown meat and retreated to our room after a tiring few days.

Next stop was Kratie (pronounced kracheh) another small town along the Mekong. Both Kratie and Kampong Cham seemed deserted as a lot of places were closed due to New year. We struggled to find somewhere decent to stay and settled for somewhere for 7$ a night. We walked around the market for a little while before heading to the river for dinner. We stopped at a little stall, with pig innards hanging in the window that were indeed featured on the menu! We however decided to go for the pork in special sauce and grilled fish, pretty safe.
The main attraction in Kratie were the Irrawaddy river dolphins - which are actually in Kampi 15km away. So we got up early and cycled the 15km to the village of Kampi. It was a surprisingly pleasant cycle through the cambodian countryside and villages, where the local children constantly shouted hello and waved and high fived us!
An hour and a half later and we arrived at the dolphin site pretty sweaty. We had a brief argument with a cambodian guy who tried to tell us that we had to pay an entrance fee to sit down, a fee that a massive group of Cambodians were exempt from. He eventually gave up and we enjoyed the views of the Mekong before hopping on a long tail boat to take us onto the water. We spent an hour cruising around watching a dozen or so dolphins splashing around. We were surprised to see so many as the Irawaddy river dolphins are endangered and there only around 85 left. They are a lot different from normal bottle nose dolphins, instead sporting a massive bump of a forehead. Some of them came quite close to the boat but it was pretty much impossible to catch a photo! By time we went to head back it was pretty hot and the bike ride was more of a challenge (especially for max who constantly moaned how much his legs hurt) so we stopped on the way back to grab some Kratie specialty Krolan (rice, beans and coconut milk in a bamboo tube) there were bus loads of locals also pulling up on the side of the road to get some, apparently they love it so much they come all the way down to Kratie just to get some. We didn't really see what the fuss was about, it's a bit bland really. Dinner was much nicer - salted fish and egg (which is actually a fish omlette).
We had planned to get a bus to Ban Lung the next day but the bus was full so we instead spent the day pretty much doing nothing, recovering from the bike ride. Venturing out to get our daily iced coffee fix (how have we both turned from coffee haters to coffee lovers?!!)
We finally made it to Ban Lung the next day after a 7 hour bus ride, and cambodian buses are seriously uncomfortable! We arrived late so went with a guy who was offering 4$ rooms. Everyone else seemed to be accepting offers from these guys so we went with it. We also wanted to escape the swarm of massive flying insects. We later found out these were termites released because of the rain. The room was decent so we settled in for the night.
We hired some bicycles for our time in Ban Lung and the first day we grabbed some pork baguettes and had a mini picnic by the lake behind our hotel with more ice coffee-seriously it's the best! That night we cycled around to find dinner and ended up on a street corner with a cart outside selling food; the women spoke absolutely no English so we sat down and let her bring us whatever it was cooking in a giant drum! It turned out to be a noodle soup that was delicious with a meat a bit like goat. We also tried sugar cane juice here and it was the most refreshing drink we have tasted and in fact was a lot like orange juice! Not what we expected but very very nice. We then went for a beer in a bar overlooking the valley where they were serving the previous nights termites fried as bar snacks! They tasted nice like vinegar according to Max.
The next day we cycled to Yak Lom Lake, a mere 7km this time! Although Max's bike had a flat tire so his butt was bruised and sore after an uncomfortable journey. We pushed on up a big hill and back down and was awarded with one of the best days of the trip so far. A massive, empty, volcanic lake with crystal clear water. We cycled to the other side away from all the locals and found a quiet boarded platform with steps into the lake. Here, we sat all day and jumped off of the steps swimming and reading. We did bring some mangos to eat but they ended up being an unknown fruit to us yet (we will let you know what they were when we can because we think they are unripe mangos but they haven't ripened just yet so they're a mystery fruit at the moment). After a lot of swimming we headed back around 2pm when it was getting busy and cruised all the way down the hill to get home. We had a quick shower, a game of pool (hayley won, I am a disgrace to everyone) and went for some more caffeine by the lake again. The women who run the place remembered us and chatted to us as much as she could in Cambodian before going back to sleep in her hammock. We tried to order food but from what we can gather she needed to go shopping and only had salad but we weren't sure as she only actually knew two or three words of English. So instead we went for some classic fried noodles on the main road and went back to collapse in bed.
We tried to get up early again the next day to cycle to the waterfall but just couldn't get out of bed! We did eventually make it out for the 8km ride. It was mostly off road and we cycled past rubber plantations, small villages and lots of logging (deforestation and illegal logging is a problem in the Ratakaniri province) the waterfall was great fun. A 38 metre drop with a lagoon at the bottom. The water looked brown and murky but was actually crystal clear and got its colour from the rock below. So we jumped in and swam across to the waterfall, clambering across some really slippery rocks to be able to stand under the waterfall. It really takes your breath away and is tough on sunburnt shoulders but really great fun. We spent a few hours splashing around and having a laugh, once again enjoying the whole thing to ourselves. Eventually a huge group of naked local village children came down and we soon left! The ride to the waterfall had been mostly downhill so the ride back was gruelling!!!
By time we got back to the town centre we were dripping with sweat and went to the market in search of some ice cold water. We also walked around and grabbed some lychees (hopefully maggot less this time!) and some more baguettes before heading down to coffee lady by the lake. We sat here for a good while recovering and enjoying the lovely views over the lake.
Unfortunately we returned to the hotel and the bike rent lady was there and tried to tell us we had to take the bikes back and pay her more money. Apparently we had broken the bikes when they noticed the flat tyre that had been there since we got them! We said we needed to go to an atm and the lady's husband tried to tell us we had to walk! 'Bike finish. You rent for three days your fault' there was no way we were walking. If they wanted the money for the bikes we were cycling (it was dark and our hotel was a little out of the centre of town-we nearly had to throw down!) When we returned we tried to pay for the bikes and our room. First of all they tried to tell us we owed 7$ for the bikes rather than $4 then they billed us $5 a night for our room rather than 4$. Apparently the 4$ rooms were shared bathrooms, however we had been told on arrival 4$ and there was no mention of a $5 room! It may only have been $4 difference to the bill but after all the events of that night we were not happy! So we politely told them it was not our fault they had taken us to the wrong room and they couldn't now change the price. The woman eventually agreed although I think we had upset them somewhat. Thank god we're leaving for Phnom Penh!!

Chow for now!!