Running to Adventures around the World
The drive here, one of the few daytime buses we have taken, was utterly stunning. I’ve never seen anything comparable before. Tall, missile shaped mountains protrude from valleys that are cut in half by rivers.
As the bus wound its way along mountain roads, every passenger was staring for hours in wonder out the windows at the breathtaking emerald landscape.
Day 1
Wake up in Thakek after yet another interminable bus ride. We plan to do a 4 day motorbike journey in a loop from Thakek up to Konglor cave and back around.
Neither of us have a motorbike license, nor have we driven a bike for that matter. But if 7 year olds can drive them, how hard can it be? Paul ate something bad yesterday and can’t really leave the bathroom. Decide to postpone our departure.
While he rests, I organize our motorbike, then take a run around the town. Get chased by a dog. See Thailand across the Mekong River. So close, but we won’t actually visit Thailand for another month. Wander through a market. Dripping sweat, and dressed in my running gear, I get some strange looks from the women selling skin whitening products and vegetables. There’s really not much else to see in Thakek.
It was never going to be easy. We had read countless horror stories of the bus from Siem Reap, Cambodia to 4000 islands, Laos. [Read more…] about Navigating the Mekong on a leaky longboat, aided by the light of an iPhone
Our journey to Koh Rong, which means Monkey Island in Khmer, began with us boarding a local supply boat loaded with water, meat, ducks, and oh so much beer. No one spoke English, or really acknowledged us, but we found two other foreigners, and the four of us thought that that was a good sign we were on the right boat. And if not, at least we could be lost together.
Since the boat was full, we clambered up the outside of the vessel to sit on the roof, where mercifully, there was a supply of chairs being brought to the island. We had an easy 3 hour ride to the island, which has one main beach, but is otherwise pretty untouched. Wanting to avoid the main beach, we had booked into a place called Inn The Village, a guesthouse set in a traditional Khmer fishing village called Daem Thkov.
