Tuesday 7th December 2004
Woke up just before 6am and watched the sun rise. Sam's dad drove me back into town on his motorbike with Sam, his wife and Tevy following on their way to visit some other relatives. I had some breakfast at the guesthouse and spent some time checking emails and sorting out travel plans. Sen Monorom is off the itinery now. It would mean having to take a pick-up truck to Snoul and then take another from there to Sen Monorom. Not only was that going to cost in excess of $20, it would also have taken about two days just for the traveling and I had no choice but to come back to Kratie in order to move on to Stung Treng and Ban Lung, which I didn't want to miss. I decided it was not worth it. Next time I visit Cambodia I will build it into my itinery properly.
I'm taking the fast boat up the river, north to Stung Treng tomorrow at 11.30am. I can get a taxi from there to Ban Lung, which I am looking forward to and by taking the boat I'll be fulfilling my desire to travel a leg of my journey through Cambodia on the Mekong River. This will be my last chance to do so. I hired a motorbike for a few hours today. It was the first time I have ever tried to ride a motorbike and I fell off! Luckily I suffered not even a scratch and neither did the bike, so I quickly got up brushed myself off, ensured a few witnesses to my little accident that I was okay (they were very concerned about me!) and got back on my way.
I rode about 10Km along the road to Kampi and visited the Wat on the top of a hill and 280 steps up called Phnom Sombok. The temple is active and it is a very peaceful place above the canopy of the forest. The view was magnificent.
I got back about 4.30pm and stayed in the Star Guesthouse restaurant until about 9pm. I met a very distinguished gentleman called John from Worcester, who was very well traveled and had some interesting stories to tell.
