Terres Rouges Lodge Ratanakiri

... on it) and Drew got dragged to a shack thing by a local guy. It turns out the shack was a makeshift pub! All the locals were babbling to Drew in Cambodian and gave him a shot of rice wine which he graciously accepted. The gang was all clearly inebriated (one of them fell over whilst talking to Drew!) and found Drew hilarious! They then started giving him some food to try… Luckily, the bus seemed to be loading again so I managed to drag Drew away before ...

... workers had been invited to. We went along the next day and were two of about 3 or 4 foreigners there. It was class. It was for Buddha, a festival to raise money to build a temple. After we went to Tony's friends house for two hours of drinking and eating. Such delicacies as eel, frog, snails were served and while I was brave and tried eel, Niall tried the frog as well.<br><br>The second day we went out looking at the various waterfalls in the area. And actually got behind one ...

... bar drinking cocktails more acceptable with company) and after only 11 1/2 hours in a crowded bus , including 3 hours on rutted dirt roads, we faced the hostel-touters at journey&#8217;s end. Thanks to a chance meeting on the bus, Lakeview Lodge had already been recommended to us and we picked Mr Den out of the crowd for our $5 a night twin room with fan. This place is one of the old governor&#8217;s houses, just beside Terres Rouge which gets a good wrap in Travelfish ...

... with a local guide to show us the chunchiet cemeteries scattered throughout the forests. Family groups are buried side by side in the forest and there are effigies of the deceased. When a lengthy period of mourning is complete, villagers hold a big celebration and add two carved wooden likenesses of elephant tusks to the structures. Some of these tombs date back many years and have been abandoned to the jungle.<br><br>We then went look ...

... from the Yaklom Hill Lodge was patiently waiting for us, he explained that in the rainy season the bus sometimes doesn't arrive until 2am ! He drove us the 6km out of town to the hill lodge (very glad to be in a car - we had pictured making this journey on the back of motos, in the rain and pitch black).<br> <br>We settled into our eco-bungalow in the dark, with the solar panel powered light helping us do a quick check for spiders and ...

... it was falling dark we got stuck. No one else seemed to bat an eyelid at this, probably happens all the time. And in fact it was fine. 10 mins later a passing pick up truck kindly stopped to help us out. We clambered on board (somehow managing to get covered in mud whilst doing this) and off we went for the final hour. <br><br>This area is really rural and green and the ...

... it was unbelievable. We thundered down this road for about four hours, getting thrown around the bus as the vehicle got some air (took off). It did seem like a bit more of the 'real' Cambodia though - villages appearing from nowhere, with huts on stilts, children waving as the bus passed.<br><br>We got into Ban Lung and were immediately set upon by ten or so young Cambodians who spoke good English - "You have place to stay?". We eventually found a good place that was only $3 per night and it ...

... turned up 15 minutes late and only containing 8 people, excellent. I climbed in, got myself a window seat with leg room and waited while we made the circuitous route around town collecting the entire population, their shopping, children, dog &amp; luggage (still no chickens or goats dammit). We managed 22 people by the time we were 'full', an increase on the Laos load by 2, although these were actually only half people around the age of 7? We set off and for the ...

... us to another bus company, buys us a ticket, and leaves. A few minutes later a much nicer bus arrives, but people are in our seats. After some adjustments we finally got 2 seats together. Thankfully this bus had air con because the roads were dirt for almost the whole 5 hour ride. We stayed at Star Hotel in a huge, clean room with cable tv for $5. The owners were very pushy and kept trying to sell us tours and to eat in their ...

... would. It had just started to rain as we arrived. This was my first experience riding on the back of a moto with a full backpack. Not comfortable, but not as bad as I'd expected. <br><br>We got a dingy room at a good price, at a happening little hotel about a 10 minute walk from the centre of town. This was set up by a friend of our moto driver in Kratie. The place was probably the shabbiest we stayed in in all of Cambodia, but hey, when ...