Exploring along the Mekong

Once again I was faced with the fact that after I started working, the time I want (and need) to do the travelling I want to, is not there anymore. But on the other side, with work comes money. So when I was looking around on the web to figure out where to go after Siem Reap, I came across Cambodian Pride Tours. The tours they offered seemed down to earth and could give us the opportunity to experience real Cambodia with the limited time available.
Instead of going taking the short and much travelled road to Phnom Pehn via Battambang and Tonle Sap River, we decided to take the longer road and do the Mekong Explorer.


The day before our journey started our guide was supposed to meet us at the guesthouse, but since he was on an other trip, Sithy, who is running the company, met with us. We had received plenty of information before hand, but it was nice to be able to go over the trip and check if we have everything we needed for the 5 days.


7 AM is early at home, but in Cambodia I think it is kind of late in the morning. Any way, that is when we started travelling from touristic Siem Reap towards the Mekong. We where the only two people on this trip so we had both a guide and a driver at our disposal the whole time. And they made it very clear that if we wondered about something, or if we wanted to do something different than what was in the iterary, we should say it straight away. It would not help us complaining about it afterwards and they were there to give us the best possible experience:) We liked them from the beginning!

One of many narrow bridges. Notice the kid on the right side.

Day 1 was mainly driving and we quickly understood why the driving would take as long as it did, the standard is not the same as back home. But on the bright side it gives plenty of time to look around and ask all kind of stupid questions. Which were all answered politely and the guide had no problem sharing his stories with us.

The goal of the day was Preah Rumkel where we stayed at a homestay, ate at Anlong Cheuteal where a family prepered food for us visited the Sopheakmet Waterfall and swam in the Mekong. A very relaxing evening looking over the Mekong.

Sopheakmet waterfall, tha Lao border is in the middle of the water somewhere

One thing I found disturbing visiting this place was the dam we saw the Chinese are building on the other side of the Mekong in Lao. How will the dams upstream Mekong effect the behaviour further down. Today in the rainy season the water in Tonle Sap River flows from Mekong River and to the great lake Le Tonle Sap while it is the other way around during dry season. Amazing isnt't it? But of this change what will be the consequences I dare not think about it. Also there are freshwater dolphines in this area, but they are almost gone.

Our "restaurant" where we had lunch, dinner and breakfast:) Cambodian style:)

I must have the most sporty boyfriend. Even though he had not tried kayaking before he jumped in a river kayak and did not want to go with a guide. We were ready to experience the flooded forest of the Ramsar Wetland. The kayaking was much longer and more thrilling and challenging than we anticipated and we ended up being wet (to our guide's amusement:), tired, sun burnt and very, very happy. I love coming up close with nature like this.
Luckily we only kayaked with the stream and a boat came to pick us up and take ut back to where we started.

Ready! :)

Picnic lunch with our guide, the boat driver and the kayak guide.

A quiet part of the flooded forest.

On our way from Strung Treng to Kratie I wanted to visit the Mekong Blue. A humanitary non-profit organization giving a way out of poverty for women and families. They do so by teaching them how to weave silk. Because it was Chinese New Year when we visited, just some of the workers were there, but it was still amazing to see their work. Sadly I did not get the chance to buy a scarf cause they were really lovely, it would have been a perfect souvernir.

We also visted the famous 100 pillars pagoda where our guide showed out to be a really good story teller. And as he pointed out to us several times,  Cambodian people believe a lot of weired and unbelievble stories, so they are an important part of their culture and lives. At the end of the day we were suppose to visit Koh Trong, an island in the Mekong, but as we sat in the boat waiting and waiting for it to leave and our guide looking more and more often on his clock he decided we would not have time to explore the island before we had to catch the last ferry back. That is just how it goes when ferries do not have schedule. We understood, but we could see our guide felt bad. Then he came up with the idea that we could do it early in the morning before going to Phnom Pehn and he was back to being happy again:)

Beautiful sunset from our hotel in Kratie

In Kratie, our guide's home city, we did heaps of every day activities:)

Visiting the local market and fish market



Wathching TV Cambodian style, three channels at once

Farming. Yummy vegetables!

Floating villages inhabitated by people from Vietnam

Tasting home made rice wiskey

 When visiting the man who made rice wiskey we wondered what he earned of his production. A small destillery in his back yard. He earned only the rice that he used a second time to feed his pigs. It was shocking to hear how little he got from all that work. The wiskey was good so our driver bought a couple of bottles;)

Sugar cane juice, YUMMY!

Making rice noodles

We also had a really nice Cambodian dinner in the home of Sithy's parents. They were really nice and the food equally good. At Koh Trong we got invited into the garden of our guide's old class mate and he told us of how to do agriulture on the island.

Cycling around the island, no traffic!

The things you see

Our last meal together, we were sad to say goodbye

All in all, this trip is my favorite of all the things we did in Cambodia. Not only because of the places we visited and the things we did, but also bacause of the laughter and knowledge our companions brought to the table, the small things like chatting and hanging around. They really gave us the best experience we could ever wish for, and they did it with their heart:)