Stung Sen Royal Garden Hotel Kampong Thom Kampong Cham

<br> Bonn Om Tuk, or Water Festival as we foreigners call it, is the largest, craziest, and longest Khmer holiday that happens every year around the end of October to celebrate the reversal of the flow of water out of the recently flooded Tonle Sap and the end of the rainy season. It takes place every year in Phnom Penh when hoards of people inundate the riverbanks of the Tonle Sap in front of the royal palace creating gridlock in every direction. For the past month every ...

La fin de mon séjour au Cambodge approche... Dans 2-3 jours, c'est le Laos. Enfin, c'est c qui est prevu...<br>Dans mes premiers posts sur le royaume khmer, j'en donnais une vision presque angelique : paysages magnifiques, Cambodgiens tout sourire, etc. Mais rien n'est jamais comme il y parait.<br><br><br>En meme temps que je parcours le pays, en bus, à moto (avec chauffeur, je vous rassure), en velo ...

Today is the day of the outdoor concert &amp; it rained all night &amp; all morning. We went with the Heartlands team on their ministry to a slum village where some of the team shared. They are desperately poor &amp; live in the smallest huts made of palm leaves &amp; tin. Next we went to the maternity ward where we took in baby sleep packs we had bought at the markets earlier. We got to pray with many of the Mum's , some of who had ...

KAMPONG CHAM<br><br>We are here for the rainy season &amp; it has rained most days, sometimes for a few hours. It has kept the weather at a really comfortable temperature - the nicest I have felt in Cambodia.<br><br>This morning we caught a bus to Kampong Cham which was 120km and took us 3 1/2 hours. Cathy &amp; I sat in the front seats &amp; did lots of squealing ...

Chalk up another loss! Unfortunately, when we put our packs down in the room Chris noticed a bag of laundry missing from his pack. On the bus ride the driver would not let us put our packs in the cargo storage below the bus, which was fine because last time we did that our bags were caked with dust. So we threw them in the back of the bus, far from us and very close to a crowd of locals. Every time we looked back our packs we sitting in a different ...

Our final destination is meant to be Kratie but we decide on a break in the journey with an overnight stay in Kampong Cham which turns out to have some charm and a lovely riverside atmosphere. And anyway, six hours on a bus with the Chuckle Brothers and Cambodian Karaoke love songs is about our limit. We took a room in a tranquil spot by the river with wonderful views of the ...

After checking out, Mr. Nois once again took me over to Ban Nakasang with his boat. Once there, I had to wait for the vans to show up. They did so at 09:00. The vans took me along with some other people to the Cambodian border. It was a half hour ride or so. At the border the van dropped us off at the Laos side. There I had to show my passport and pay $1US (I don't know what for). Then I walked over to the Cambodian side. Since I ...

"Why only one?"<br>"You must pay one dollar."<br>"Why only one? Why not one and a half, or two?"<br>"You must pay one dollar."<br>This frustrated bantering - and quibbling - was getting the girl nowhere despite going on and on.<br>We had arrived at Dong Kra law, the border crossing between Laos and Cambodia and a place where inevitable scams take place. I use the word 'inevitable' because if there wasn't such a financial discrepancy between rich nations and ...

Had an omelet and coffee at the Lazy Mekong Daze. $3.45. Much better than the Mekong Crossing. The German Nuclear Physicist: 55; big guy with long Grey hair.Works at a nuclear power plant in Germany. Loves his job. His best friends are his colleagues. However, he is looking forward to his fast approaching retirement. As a retired man, he thinks that he will be as free as a bird, just like he was in his youth. When that time comes, he is planning to spend a good part of each year in ...

Spent only a single night in Kampong Cham. The riverside pace of life suited me fine. Our hotel was next door to a bar/resturant called "Lazy Mekong Days", and the chilled Angkor beer soothed the travel weary soul. After the relative bustle of traffic along the highway in Kampong Thom, it was nice to look out over the Mekong, with its slow boats. Also ...