Christmas with a difference

  Ban Lung, Ratanikiri, Cambodia
Sunday, December 24, 2006

The road to Ratanikiri was everything we had been led to expect but thankfully, unlike the day before, our transport did turn up. Around eight hours of bumping around a joke of a road that would be more accurately described as a farm track, we arrived into one of the dustiest, and as it transpired, most pleasant towns I've ever been too. Welcome to Ban Lung, population 15,000.
Being fairly tired, we didn't have a Christmas Eve night to remember so turned in early for the next day. Christmas Day and, by far the most active I've ever had. Along with Sasha, this guy we shared a four wheel drive with on the way up here, we hired some bicycles and headed for a spectacularly beautiful volcanic lake, which I just had to swim across. Christmas lunch was bought from food stalls and consisted of sausages on sticks and hard boiled eggs.

Christmas lunch

To reward ourselves, we later headed for the only expensive place in town for dinner. We arrived just in time to be treated to a dance and musical performance by local tribal minorities, and then sat down to roast chicken and wine. More than we were expecting from somewhere that, only five or six years ago, was almost impossible to get to.
We kept the bikes for a few days and spent a bit of time cycling to see waterfalls. One time we couldn't find what we were looking for and sat down to rest near a dirt poor village. After a few minutes, the villager's curiosity got the better of them and they wandered over to have a closer look. The children were beside themselves with excitement and every time we smiled, waved or said "hello" we got an unbelievably delighted reaction.

Village urchins

It would have been quite strange as the adults were just standing looking at us, albeit unthreateningly, if it hadn't been for one pleasant young man who decided to practice his English on us.
Despite the town being at the arse end of nowhere, with practically nothing to do or buy, I was sad to leave. The people were just so friendly and charming - this was best displayed one Saturday night when we were eating in a restaurant and at the next table were three guys, aged around 20. They were chatting away to one another and when they laughed, almost as soon as they had started, they stopped, turned to us and sincerely apologised for making too much noise! A good rule of thumb in Asia seems to be the smaller the town, the nicer the people, maybe because of less exposure to tourism. As I'm originally from a small town, its a shame the West is the opposite.