Norden House Yaklom Ratanakiri

... covered in the stuff! Plus, about a couple of hours from Ban Lung, the river cuts over the road so we had to navigate that. It took us an hour to go about 20m! Not because there was a queue or anything, but (it seemed) we were waiting for the bus driver to pluck up the courage to go through it. <br><br>The fun part of the journey, however, was when we were waiting for the bus driver to go through the river. All the passengers were off the bus (as it was too ...

... a very very bumpy road, on a local bus for 6 hours. Horrible horrible horrible.<br><br>Ban Lung itself is great. Its very poor and very dusty but something lovely about it struck me. When we got there, there was the usual accosting us off the bus and we went straight to our choice Tribal (don't ever stay there) with a really great motodup (driver). That very evening, we met Tony, an Australian volunteer working there. <br><br>He invited us to a local festival that he and his ...

With the CWF semester over, and 2 weeks before I leave Cambodia, I decided to head to Ratanakiri in North East Cambodia for a look-see. I really wanted to get to Mondulkiri but it seems to be way too difficult in wet season and I didn't fancy sitting in the back of an open truck for hour on end eating red dust. Definitely on my agenda for my next visit to Cambodia though.<br><br>Joe decided to come along with me to Ban Lung (thanks for that Joe- certainly makes sitting in ...

Today we left Kratie and headed up to Ban Lung or Ratanakiri. We got to our guesthouse and just figured out what we were going to do for the next two days.<br><br>The next day we rented out a motorbike and hit the dirt track roads and headed north to Voen sai. The scenery on the way was really nice unlike the road. Pot holed and a lot of mud to contend with but we made it without a scratch. We then left the motor bike and headed out a little ...

... took about 2 hours, and we picked up some more travellers before heading onto the dirt road into Ratanakiri Province, we finally arrived in Ban lung, in an almighty thunder storm, after a flat tyre, at 10pm. The road was quite bumpy in places and went over some wooden bridges with 10T signs next to them, I'm not sure how much a coach full of people and their luggage weighs, I'm not 100% sure it's less than 10T ! <br> <br>Thankfully ...

Well we are well and truly in the rainy season now. It doesnt rain all day (well not everyday) but there are some almighty downpours. It rained a lot the day we crossed from Laos to Cambodia and for some reason we have chosen to head to a remoter north eastern part. So the road wasnt brilliant, and after a few hours of rain we were sliding about all over the place. Then just ...

Well what a journey. The roads from Kratie to Ban Lung were terrible by Western standards. More potholes and very tiny wooden bridges with disconcerting signs such as "10 Tonne limit" or "8 Tonne Only", which our bus crawled over as slowly as possible. The scenery was vastly different from anywhere else in Cambodia. Even though the roads were really dusty - like a red mist most of the time, which is still embedded in some clothes and on my bags - the surroundings were lush. So much green ...

Oooh, page 3! Ok, so another indication that you're in a 3rd world country - nobodies that bothered about the condition of the roads. The shortest journey is an adventure and the methods of transport a bit like Blackpool Pleasure Beach - ugly, dangerous, scary, adrenalin inducing and ridiculously good fun! My first foray into travel in the country was my trip into the Wild East maybe 100km from Strug Treng. I bought a ticket for a minibus &amp; was impressed when ...

The bus to Ban Lung turned out to be much less of a nightmare than we though at one point. We bought bus tickets a day in advance, got seat numbers, and were told the A/C bus left at 12:30. At 2pm an over crowded, non-air conditioned bus showed up. The guy started ushering us towards it as we started complaining. It turned out there was no possible way to fit us on the bus and it left with us standing there still complaining. The guy ...

The funny thing about traveling to Banlung, was that it cost almost twice as much to get there as it did to get back. It was $12 to get there from Kratie, but only $7 to get from there to Phnom Penh. But this is Cambodia, and don't ever try to make sense of Khmer bus fares (FYI: you are getting ripped off...but it's so cheap anyway, so relax!).<br><br>Banlung was shrouded in red dust,just as every one and every source had informed me that ...