Back to Cambodia

I last left you in Hoi An on my way back to Cambodia.  It required a 50 minute flight from DaNang to Pleiku.  An overnight stay and the first place I hit rain the entire time I have been in Vietnam.  Which is rather amazing since while I was gone it rained constantly in Cambodia.  Phnom Penh flooded and over 100 people died due to flash flooding in various locations throughout the country.

Pleiku was the first place in Vietnam where I was off the tourist circuit so I was having a difficult time communicating.  Almost no one spoke English.  It took multiple tries, but finally got a taxi to the bus station, and a place on a mini van headed to the Cambodia border.   It was approximately 90 kilometers but the trip took nearly 3 hours.

[caption id="attachment_173" align="alignright" width="150"] Yaklom Lake, Ratanakiri Cambodia[/caption]

When we were within a stones throw of Cambodia, people started to speak Khmer, so things were looking up.  I coordinated travel to the Eco Lodge where I was going to stay.  It was the easiest border crossing ever, I was the only white person crossing, but I already had a visa.

It had rained on and off the entire morning from Pleiku to the border, but it had stopped at the border.  Within an hour we arrived at the Yaklom Lodge.  Come to find out I was the only one staying there.  Excellent I thought, quiet time to myself.

The problem with an eco lodge is this, no electricity, it works off of solar power, but it was overcast the day I arrived, and rained the entire next two days, so no power.  They ran a generator each night for 3 hours.  So, it was dreary, dark and damp the entire time I was there.

[caption id="attachment_174" align="alignleft" width="150"] Yaklom Lodge Ratanakiri, Cambodia[/caption]

But no matter, I got reading, planning, praying and napping done.  It was a good time to be unconnected from the internet and spend some time with my own thoughts..  I realized that I have made the mental shift, I am moving back to the states, and these past three weeks, have created the space for that transition to happen.

So, my third day I coordinated a moto to pick me up and take me to the bus depot to catch a mini van to Phnom Penh.  I was told the trip would take 10 hours at a cost of 50,000 Riel or $12.50.  It was an interminably bumpy 9.5-hour trip.

It was through some of the most gorgeous green rice fields, on roads I had never traveled before.  I had not gotten out to see much of Ratanakiri due to the rain, but this scenery was amazing.  However the serenity of it all was broken up by 9.5-hours of Khmer Karaoke.  I thought because I was in a mini van I would not have to listen to or watch Karaoke boy was I wrong.

As is always true, even of the best trips it is good to come home to my own bed, my friends and my life.  But this life has less than 90 days before I take my belongings and relocate to SoCal.  Life is a daily adventure I say.