The plan for today is to ride from Kratie (Kracheh) to Banlung (Ban Lung) in Rattanakiri (Ratanakiri). This is not a big deal in terms of distance but we anticipate the road to be in poor shape, particularly between Stung Treng (Stoeng Treng) and Banlung. We start the day with a generous breakfast at the Red Sun Falling Restaurant, a great place for Western food in Kratie and the only one as far as I know, run by a guy named Joe from Chicago. They even serve delicious brownies but unfortunately not this morning.

17.11.2005

Mekong River in the morning

Breakfast

Getting started

We follow the paved but bumpy and narrow road to the north until we reach a fork after about 20km. The road to the left leads to Sambor and while the one to the right is National Road 7 leading to Stung Treng.

We turn right and after a few more kilometers of bumps and potholes arrive on the wide road that we are very pleased to find perfectly even with virtually no potholes and only little traffic. This latter road is currently undergoing comprehensive upgrading with substantial support by the Chinese government. It looks like it will be paved very soon. Accordingly, we enjoy a smooth ride at fairly high speed.

The upgrading of this road is a major effort and involves the construction of a number of new bridges, here right next to an old bridge which seems to have collapsed long time ago.

We reach another major fork after about 150km and within less than 2 hours, much to our surprise. From here, National Road 7 leads to Stung Treng town to the left (just 23km from here) while Provincial Road 78 to the left leads to Banlung.

We have a break and some food at the restaurant right at the fork before we continue. Recent and not so recent experience suggests that the 200km of dirt road between here and Banlung is in exceptionally bad condition. Therefore, we decide not to visit Stung Treng and to ride directly to Banlung instead to make sure we reach it before dark. However, much to our surprise we find that this notoriously bad road was recently repaired and now is a state-of-the-art dirt road that allows for smooth and fast traveling all the way to Banlung (with the exception of some of the numerous bridges, which you want to keep in mind).

We keep riding for some time until we find that Katrin’s bike has a flat tyre. Fortunately, even in this sparsely populated area it is only a few hundred meters to the next repair place. This garage is easily recognizable since the owners have attached an old tube to a tree next to the road.

We find that the punch is fairly big and decide to invest the only front spare tube we have, rather than fixing the broken one. It seems those mechanics have not a whole lot of experience with fixing this kind of tyre and they apply some fairly unorthodox (and time consuming) methods.

To my greatest delight, Toby reveals that he is in possession of some of these delicious brownies from the Red Sun Falling in Kratie. How he managed to get hold of it is still a mystery to me. These are the best brownies I ever had. Toby is such a cool guy.

Becky and Katrin having fun with our bungees.

Meanwhile the mechanics inserted the new tube into the casing and put the wheel back on the bike. However, when they try to inflate it they realize it has a punch, too. It does not matter at this point whether the spare tube was broken all along or in the process of inserting it with sharp devices. The process starts anew and this time around involves fixing the tube with cool but time consuming hot patches.

After a total of about 2 hours the tube is fixed and the bike ready to go. We consider ourselves lucky. All roads from Kratie to here have been in exceptionally good condition and allowed us to arrive here early enough to still have enough time to make it to Banlung comfortably.

We have been riding for another half an hour or so when Becky rides at significant speed into a fairly deep pothole which causes her and the bike to fall spectacularly. Luckily she does not get hurt. However, the clutch lever is broken.

Becky with broken clutch lever and downed bike. It strikes me how weak and vulnerable these bikes looks when they are down.

We do have one spare clutch lever but prefer to change after we reach Banlung. Toby manages to ride the bike without clutch.

We reach Banlung before dark and ride straight to a mechanic where we have Becky’s clutch lever changed and the chains lubed. Then we ride to the Hotel (I forgot the name which is unfortunate; it is nice and clean, with capable staff and beautifully located next to the lake) and check in, tired and dusty but very satisfied with how the day went. Later we have diner in the attached restaurant and meet up with Lim to make plans for tomorrows ride through forest and wilderness towards Mondulkiri.

It is one of these rare opportunities my job provides to visit Rattanakiri, and I travel the pleasure to travel there with my colleague Phal. Not the first time, since we went there before, in 2003, to undertake interviews. The plan for today is to travel to Stung Treng via Kampong Cham and Kratie by mini bus and ideally all the way to Banlung in Rattanakiri province. I tune out the work-related aspects of this trip and report what may be interesting for the traveler.

We leave Phnom Penh early in the morning with a mini bus run by Mekong tours. Tickets to Stung Treng were purchased the other day, at modest $12 each. We find the bus at the Mekong office close to the port at the riverside and both vehicle and driver appear capable. There are not more passengers than seats on the bus, something rather rare in Cambodia. Halve of the passengers are foreign tourists. We are confident to reach Stung Treng early enough to find a truck or taxi to Banlung today, the provincial capital of Rattanakiri province.

There is a nicely paved road from Phnom Penh through Kampong Cham and Snuol all the way to Kratie and we spend relaxed and eventless hours driving through rural Cambodia. At one point we stop and by accident meet this guy who is feeding milk to a baby bear. He tells us that he works for the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Sanctuary and that he is taking the bear there.

We reach Kratie and spend more time than expected, because the driver aims to fill seats left empty by passengers who stay in Kratie. We spend the time walking the water front and having one of those tasty fruit shakes at the riverside.

The next 20 km or so are pretty bad road.

This changes when we reach the stretch of National Road 7 that is under construction, with Chinese assistance. Though not paved, this road is wide and even. Many new bridges have been constructed or are close to completion. I guess the road will be paved, soon.

I keep quoting the same recent arcticle from the IHT. The article references an interview with Chanthol Sun, minister for public works and transport in Cambodia:

“Heading north toward Laos and then to China is Route 7 through Stoeng Treng Province, across the Sekong River where it joins the Mekong.

He is a firm supporter of Chinese road-building for its quality and speed and says Route 7 could be finished a year ahead of schedule. When it is done, he wants the Chinese to build eastward to link with roads to Vietnam.”

A new bridge is built not far from Kratie town next to the old bridge that has collapsed long ago.

At some point we stop and have a snack. One meal on offer at the roadside restaurant is made from what locals refer to as ‘crocodile that lives in the jungle’. People also serve grilled monkey.

The sun is setting down when we approach Stung Treng town and it becomes obvious that we won’t make it to Banlung today. We check in at the Sok Som Bath Hotel at the northwestern corner of the market.

We get lucky as in the evening we meet a driver who works for CIDSE and is kind enough to offer a ride in organization’s 4WD the next day. After early breakfast we head east on Road 78. In many places the dirt road is in pretty poor shape. However, it was just perfect when I came more recently. I assume that right now the Stung Treng – Banlung ride will not take more than 2 hours. Will post a report of this trip soon.

We reach a place where a truck got stuck in the middle of the road. People try to pull it out with another truck and we witness the steel cable breaking during one such attempt, with the heavy cable whiping dangerously fast through the air.

A Toyota Camry passes the truck with remarkable ease. Our driver tries with the 4WD and passes only after a number of attempts, and we continue.

There are some really heavy trucks on their way through the forest, very slowly dragging through the mud and further spoiling the road.

We stop at the driver’s house along the way. He owns a number of domestic animals, goats among them.

After some time a bunch of goats arrives, under the supervision of the drivers young sun. The infant goat wants to drink and with obvious routine and not very gently, the boy grabs the mother goat’s feed, pulls them to make it fall so the youngster can drink.

This is when we reach Banlung.

The market.

We spend the rest of the day and the next with work.

Next day we get up fairly early again to get the boat which leaves at 7 am to Kompong Cham. I have been traveling with those boats many times now and am getting used to it. And I still like it.

Ferries arrive from the other side of the river.

Moto driver are washing their vehicles in the river, just like everywhere.

Time passes by and I enjoy that I can just sit here, watching the environment without being expected to give presentations or having to fight with the translator. And I enjoy that the translator prefers to travel inside and I do not have to listen to what he is saying.

The water level is significantly higher than last time, due to the fact that we are getting deeper into the rainy season. The river looks like a typical Cambodian landscape that has been flooded. And this is basically what it is and what happends everywhere in this country.

Sometimes we pass fairly turbulent rapids and I am a bit concerned this boat might break apart. But it does not.

Some of those boats are badly overloaded and we have to reduce the speed significantly in order not to sink them.

For some reasons those children are dancing, which is quite entertaining for the people on the boat.

People are having a bath in many places at this time.

Of course we see many pagodas on the way.

Only when we are getting closer to Kompong Cham there is more activity on the river and on the banks.

This is the Japanese Bridge in Kompong Cham town, which I mentioned earlier.

A number of fishermen are trying to catch fish.

I am waiting at the bank for Reaksa and catch a taxi. However, when he comes out of the boat he is on the phone. It takes some time until he has finished his call and meanwhile the taxi left. So we look for another one. I avoid starting the same discussion again, since I do not expect to make any difference here. However, it pisses me off. From here we make it by taxi to Phnom Penh in less than two hours. I am more than happy that I am on my own again and have to take care only of myself.

We spend the night in the house of a family. This is rather simple but lovely and it is nice to keep in touch with the local population. After we got up and have a Khmer style shower in the garden we have some breakfast. This is the kind of breakfast place frequented by Khmer people. Those places can be found all over the country and Phnom Penh is no exception. They offer good and very cheap food and this is the way most Cambodians have breakfast.

Then we take the boat again to visit one village inhabited by members of the Jarai group.

The discussion we have here is among the best I have had so far. And one of the longest. It lasts for about four hours and takes place in one of those huts. People here are very poor. Under the bamboo bottom of the hut I can see and hear all sorts of animals. Indigenous people in Cambodia enjoy smoking very much, particularly women and even children. This village here is no exception and I am amazed by how much they smoke and how strong their stuff is. I know it is cheap but of course I join and smoke quite a bit of cigarettes, too. I should not be doing that because smoking is not very healthy. Moreover, I share my cigarettes with all of them and sort of encouraging them to smoke even more. However, this gets my some sympathy and makes it easier for me to get a good and open discussion.

This is after our meeting. Really, all of those peoples participated and I still find it stressful to manage big groups of people like this. However, they were extremely warm and friendly. I got to shake so many hands and they where very thankful that I came to their village. From what they tell me there has not been a foreigner before. However, I do not want to raise their hopes since there is not much I can do for them at this point. So I systematically discourage them to think I might have money or influence or that I am here to save them.

This is one of the more traditional huts.

Another hut with Jarai family.

We go directly to the building used by the commune council were we conduct the next interview with the councilors. This is far less interesting and very slow. Those people seem to be very depressed. Although I do not want to go into the details I found the following remarkable. All the councilors are Jarai and their first language is not Khmer. However, every council has a clerk, which is appointed by the Ministry of Interior. Of course there is no requirement that those clerks know the local language. So what happens is that all the deliberations and discussion in the Commune Council take place in Khmer, which is not the first language of the entire constituency. I want to point out how much power this arrangement gives to this Clerk. He has no idea about the local situation, culture or language. And apparently he feels that those indigenous people are very primitive and the best thing that can happen to them is to become Khmer. Talking in their language is what he is likely to consider both backwards and suspect, since he cannot understand it. He is the only person here literate in Khmer so whatever is decided in the Commune has to pass him to make it up in the system. He has a strange understanding what in their culture is meaningful to preserve and with his position he can enforce it in a very subtle way. I found this particular clerk extraordinarily unsympathetic with his arrogant attitude toward the Councilors, which are actually democratically elected (well, more or less) whereas he is just appointed. However, this guy appears to be the gate keeper or bottle neck in the system to both participation of people bottom up as well as dissemination of information top down. I felt sorry for those people that they happened to get this guy in charge of them.

After we finished this interview we go back to the district town, where we have some lunch and later some rest. This is at the restaurant.

This is the house where we spend the night.

After a short break we start again to go by boat to the next council with indigenous people in its constituency. The distance is not very long but it is raining very bad and we are very wet by the time we arrive.

We find the commune council and learn that most of its members could not make it due to the rain. Moreover, they were not able to inform the only indigenous village in the commune (inhabited by people of a group called Lun). So we can only take what we get and have a discussion with the people who are present. This includes about three councilors and a number of local people, about four of them Lun. Given the persistence of this government guy to attend all our interviews this is a very unfortunate setting to conduct meaningful interviews. However, we try our best and after all it is not too bad what I got out of this meeting.

Afterwards we walk around in the village. There is nothing like a road here and buildings appear to be in a bad shape.

This, for example, is the local school building.

And this is the commune council building.

It is still raining. However, we decide to try to make it back to Stung Treng in order not to loose another day.

Sometimes it is raining very badly. Given the speed of the boat it very painful even to expose small parts of the skin to the water the keeps flying through the air. I am happy enough to have my rain jacket with me, so that the remaining rain coats in the boat are enough for all of us. And I got my sunglasses, which allow me to open my eyes a bit. However, it is impossible to take pictures. Only shortly before we arrive in Stung Treng the rain is getting weaker and finally stops.

Some monks are having a bath in the Mekong.

After I have gotten myself some rest I go out to walk a bit through the town. This is in the evening. Over there is the place where the Mekong meets the Tonle San.

This is at the riverside where some moto driver have diner together.

This is one of many local schools, with bicycles in front and many students learning English enthusiastically. This is what youngsters do all over the place. There are not many good English teachers available. The way it works here is that the teacher says slowly and loudly one phrase and the entire class repeat it. However, his English knowledge is rather limited. This is the case almost everywhere and Phnom Penh is no exception. People keep approaching me asking whether they can speak to me to practice their English. This makes for interesting encounters. Most young people I meet claim they study English. The lack of teachers leads to absurd situations. For example, it is enough to have a white skin to be accepted as teacher, even if the person in question is not a native speaker and even lousy in English. Many freak among the expat community can survive here just because of that. They easily get a job as teacher and survive without caring much for their student or the quality of what they teach. Many of those individuals really can survive only in an environment as dysfunctional as in Cambodia. Who looses out systematically are those students.

It is sort of difficult to get to the areas in which indigenous peoples live in this province. One of those areas is Siem Pang in the north, directly at the border to Laos. The other area is in the east and we learned that it would be very difficult to get there in the rainy season and impossible to get there within our tight schedule. So we decide to visit various communes and villages in Siem Pang. There is no road to this area and the boat it the only way to make it. At the same time it is about 100 km from Stung Treng town and we do not have much time. So what we need is a fast boat. We are lucky, because what is available here is called fast boat and really deserves the name.

Those are fast boats. They are imported from Thailand and Laos and designed for maximal speed. Those boats have powerful engines and can easily make 60 km per hour. However, they are extremely sensitive when it comes to waves. They are mostly used to cross the border to Laos and this is what most tourists do when they come here.

We meet very early in the morning with the PoLA guy and leave to Siem Pang. We agreed with the owner of the boat to pay him $ 60 for two days and both ways. This is kind of expensive but the only way to make efficient use of our time at this point.

It is raining a bit once in a while and at this speed this makes it kind of difficult to take pictures.

After only a few minutes we are almost alone on the river and rarely see even a house on the banks.

Once in a while we see other boats. This necessitates that we reduce our speed, both because those boat’s waves make it difficult for our boats and because some of those boats are overloaded to the extent that the waves of our boat might cause them to skip.

Finally we arrive at the district town and talk to the district governor. This is only of limited interest and we do not get much out of that. However, it is important not to bypass the government, since we are working for some kind of government organization. Furthermore those guys make significant efforts to make possible our interviews. The conversation with the governor takes some time. He advises us to see one of the few local NGOs first, since it will take him time to contact villagers and Commune Councilors.

This is after our discussion with members of this NGO. This organization is actually called “youth with a mission”, which made me kind of skeptical. I saw already in Rattanakiri that there are countless Christian missionaries trying to persuade indigenous fellows to change their mind, culture and religion. So I ask what their mission is and they tell me yes they are Christians. However, they want to serve the community. I really do not want to make them look back but maybe their understanding of what constitutes community is something I do not particularly like. However, we had a good discussion and I learnt about the local situation.

I want to point out that I keep writing extensive minutes of all those interviews and that I am more than happy to make them available. However, it maybe not appropriate to do so on a web site, since I would have to ask for permission. But if somebody things this would be helpful I can send soft copies, of course. This is basically true of any interview I am conducting here.

This is a buffalo. Those animals are among the most valuable possession in the rural areas, since they make possible to efficiently working the field. They can be found all over the country and bigger proportion of those buffalos tend to indicate a wealthier population. Interestingly, very often particularly indigenous people tell me that buffalos is what they need because without them they cannot produce enough food to feed themselves over the year.

This is the main road in the district town.

Later on we have interviews first with the commune council and than with the local population. Unfortunately both the Council and the people attending the meeting are mainstream Khmer and Lao. So regarding my research there is not much I can get out of that. And I am kind of unprepared to deal with mainstream audience. So the only thing I can do is to ask general questions about decentralization and the general situation and the relationship between members of different ethnic groups and so on which really does not contribute much to my research but cause me significant stress. After all, it is always me who has to lead the discussion and make sure it keeps running in a meaningful way. The translator is in the favorable situation that he has “just” to translate. So he does not have to prepare anything and he does not have to do anything afterwards, when I spend hours typing the minutes. I tried to encourage him to ask follow up questions, but this is disastrous, because he does not accept that politics and research is not the same. So when he has the chance he will deliver a forceful speech about the rights of Khmer citizen which generally is not a bad thing. However, I tried to explain him that what we are doing looks like conversation but really is not supposed to be conversation. He does not care to keep judgment out of what he is saying but rather does not say anything other than what he thinks is good or bad. So again I am left alone with the conceptual part of this work. Moreover, he really does not make much effort to understand what we are actually doing here. I gave him books and all the stuff that took me month to collect but he is unwilling to read it. It is kind of scary that he is in charge of the translation and that everything that the interviewees or I say gets filtered through his poor understanding. However, he had a great time because he can relax anytime except for the translation.

In the evening we go around with this government guy and have some food at a small restaurant at the river.

We start at about 5 am, which really is very early for me. I do not get much sleep anymore anyway. So as soon as we sit in the car I try to go back to sleep again. Surprisingly the car is the same with which I made the trip from Strung Treng to Banlung when I came here the first time.

After we have been driving for some time we have some minor problems with the car.

We arrive in Stung Treng at about ten a clock. Last time I slept in the Riverside guesthouse ($3 per night), but I did not particularly like it. Particularly because it is not very clean. So this time we settle for the Sekong Hotel ($4), which appears to be much more inviting.

Then we call the guys in the provincial government and go there to meet them. First we meet with a guy from the Provincial Department of Local Administration (PoLA) who introduces us to a member of the major UNDP project PLG which is working to support the government’s decentralization program (Seila). This makes for some interesting discussion. However, the PoLA guy tells us that we will have to meet the governor of the province. This happened to me before in Rattanakiri. I have mixed feelings meeting such powerful people. Although it kind of pleases me to interact with the big shots I find it very stressful and do not enjoy it so much. Moreover, it tends to involve waiting, since those guys are usually very busy.

So we learn that the governor wants to meet us but do not have time right now and we have to wait. We are told that we can talk to him in the afternoon. This gives us some spare time, which I use to get another hour of sleep and to check my email.

Later I meet with the governor to go to the Governor’s office. Before we have a short break at this riverside place.

Our appointment with the governor is at 4 pm. When we arrive at his office we learn that he is still in the meeting and are ask to be patient. So we keep waiting. After we have been waiting for some time the meeting is over. Many tough looking people come out of the office, many of them in uniform. Than we can enter to talk to His Excellency. I am surprised to find that not just the governor is present but all of his four deputies as well. And they seem to be quite interesting in what we are doing in their province and we have a chance to explain. We are told that they support our project and encourage the PoLA guy we met earlier to give us company. I am kind of ambivalent towards having government officials present during my interviews. On the one hand it is very difficult to set up appointment and organize meetings without the local authorities. On the other hand most indigenous people are rather shy and governments have done terrible things to them. So it is not possible to get them to complain or even to make suggestions when the government is present. Moreover, it takes away credibility from my research. However, I am afraid to ask those guys not to give us company or not to attend my interviews.

I found it odd that the governor pointed out on various occasion that I do not need to be concerned for my security and he will make sure that we are safe. In fact I did not think what I am doing here is not secure but his persistent comments on my security make me more skeptical.

This meeting takes about 1 hour which is much longer than I expected. So afterwards there is no way we can start any kind of work. So what we do is to arrange the transportation for the next day. Furthermore, I realized that we ran out of money and we call our office to send some money to a local business, which works out nicely. Still later I check my email and walk around in town.

This is on the road to Kompong Cham in the morning. The pick up truck with all those people on it is a fairly common sight. It looks very dangerous to me and I think it is quite risky. However, I did not witness any accidents so far which involved such a vehicle.

This was a very strange sight to me: A number of monks in front of a new pagoda under construction working hard and burning stuff but I do not know what.

Another strange sight: I never saw such a car on any road in Cambodia. It is hard to image a car more ill suited for the traffic conditions in this country.

This is the center of a district town somewhere between Phnom Penh and Kompong Cham town. Those vehicles are among the most common means of transportation for common people. This is used not only to move people but all sorts of goods in a frequently very risky manner. Given the high speed and the chaotic driving behavior on the road an accident involving one of those vehicles cannot but cause dramatic situations.

This is taken from the Japanese Bridge in Kompong Cham. To the right at the banks is where boats arrive coming mostly downstream the Mekong from the northeastern provinces, Laos or Vietnam. There is a considerable number of fishing boats.

To my knowledge there are only two modern bridges like this in Cambodia: this one and a very similar one which is located in Phnom Penh. Interestingly, both are called Japanese Bridge and both are constructed and financed with massive Japanese support. I wonder on occasion how much influence Japan actually exercises in Cambodia and it seems to be quite significant. And sort of partisan. The Japanese election observer team was the first to announce that the election was free and fair. (Until recently I thought it was the European observer team, which was the biggest and I was wondering whether all these observers are actually from Italy. Was that the impact of the Italian presidency over the European Union?). However, there where many accusations in the newspaper calling the Japanese position biased. Moreover, the Japanese ambassador and the leader of the Liberal Party in Japan (which is heading the government) have made very clear on occasion that they would like to see Funcinpec party changing their mind and agree to form a government with Hun Sen.

This is the national road in one of the urban centers of Kompong Cham province. Kompong Cham is the province with the biggest population. It appears to be more urban and wealthier compared to most other provinces. Kompong Cham has 18 seats in the National Assembly. It used to be a Funcinpec stronghold but during the last election there was a dramatic fluctuation from Funcinpec to Sam Rainsy party. CPP has actually increased their share but not significantly so. Kompong Cham is not so far from Phnom Penh and the road is in an excellent shape.

This is the short cut from Kompong Cham to Kratie. This is road is what is people call red soil road or dusk road. It is good quality as long as it does not rain.

Those are buffalos, a highly valuable possession in Cambodia. They provide powerful labor in the field allowing higher productivity.

We arrive at the port in Kratie early enough to catch the speed boat to Stung Treng. Those stairs lead down to the place where boats approach the port and passengers enter and leave the boat. People are doing there laundry and having a bath. Bathing is taken very serious by most Cambodians. The general rule is that man bath in public while women do not.

This is at the banks of the Mekong River not far away to the north from Kratie. Many people here make a living with fishing. Fishing is a common occupation among Muslim Cham and Vietnamese. Due to the location close to Vietnam it is mostly Vietnamese people who fish here. However, there citizenship status is highly uncertain. They live on boats and do not settle permanently. That leaves them with the option to escape to Vietnam in case they are subject to prosecution, which has happened several times in recent history.

Most Cambodians like to travel inside the boat. However, I prefer to sit on the ceiling. I share this preference with most Western tourists and there are always a few of them on the boat.

My co-traveler, who spend his time inside told me later that there was massive smell of petrol inside and that some people started panicking because they where afraid the boat might explode and the boat sink. This by the way has happened between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap some time ago.

Even out here in the wilderness the next pagoda along the river is never more than a few kilometers away.

Those are bigger boats at the banks shortly before we arrive in Stung Treng town, which is the provincial capital of Stung Treng province. I saw on occasion that timber is moved from big trucks and loaded on those boats.

This is the crowd on the roof of the boat. Last time it was fewer people sitting outside and I figured this might be due to what was going on inside the boat.

This is the port in Stung Treng. I like this huge tree. At the bank covered with blue tarps are what is called fast boats. Those are used to cross the border to Laos and really they are fast. And loud.

A crowd of people is waiting to offer all kinds of services, food and refreshment. And transportation to Banlung, which is the provincial capital of Rattanakiri. And this is where we are going.

We hop on the truck. The translator prefers to travel inside, while I go for the back. This truck is packed with people and baggage.

The spare tire is flat and we stop at the mechanic to take care of it.

This is the spare tire.

This garage is a petrol station at the same time, just like almost any small business at the road catering to passing travelers.

Those are some of the other people traveling to Banlung.

This is how it looks like most of the time. The forest gets cleared to allow for agriculture. This ‘slash and burn’ method is highly controversial.

Once in a while we pass one of those huge trucks, which are made in Russia, I believe. I recall having seen many of those when I grew up in the Eastern part of Germany. Those heavy trucks do not do any good to the road.

I manage to entertain the other people for quite some time with my camera.

The road is in a pretty bad shape.

Once in a while we stop for a short break.

This is on the back of the truck, which is sort of crowded.

We arrive late at night in Banlung. We follow the recommendation of one of those people and choose the Mountain Guesthouse two in Banlung.

This time I was traveling with the Administrative Assistant of our project. He was so kind to give me company and help me out with translation. I had arranged the ride to Kratie via minibus the other day. Kratie is about half the way to Banlung, which is the provincial capital of Rattanakiri. What we had to pay for the ride to Kratie was cheap 10 dollars per person. It was open how we would proceed from Kratie. Our expectation was that we would have to spend the night there and continue the journey the next day to Banlung via Stung Treng. Stung Treng is half way between Kratie and Banlung and the provincial capital of Stung Treng province.

We met at 6:15 am and went to the port by moto. We left at 7 am with the minibus. This is where we had food after we have been traveling for some hours and passed Kompong Cham already, which is the provincial capital of Kompong Cham province. The guy to the right is my co-traveler.

This is how it looks like when people cook

This is our quite comfortable means of transportation. The guy to the right is the driver.

This is how it looks like in Kompong Cham. There are many plantations of rubber and timber.

Those are the last cars of about 15 trucks accompanied by police cars. You don’t get to see police cars in the countryside very often and not in such high numbers. My co-traveler indicated this might have been Prime Minister Hun Sen himself.

This is how it looks like in our vehicle. The guy to the left in the very back is from Israel. We got to know him during this ride and met him later several times in and around Banlung.

We crossed a number of bridges which where mostly constructions similar to this one.

Those are pictures randomly taken with my camera out of side from the top of the car somewhere in Kratie Province. This ‘read soil road’ is not the main road but some sort of shortcut. Once in a while we pass a settlement of very simply shacks.

A truck had damaged the road and local people came to repair it.

We were able to pass after only a few minutes of waiting.

We arrived at the port of Kratie at about 11:30.

We learned that a speed boat to Stung Treng would leave at 12 and we managed to get tickets for 5$ (Khmer) respective 8$ (Foreigner), I believe. I was impressed to find this boat. It looked fast to me. Almost like an airplane. However, I was glad that this vehicle would not loose contact to the fluid ground.

Most seats in the boat were already occupied and I found it to be a privilege that we could travel on the roof.

Those are settlements along the river. There were a number of bigger ships as well, mostly wooden ones.

This picture shows a very specific weather phenomenon which I have not seen before. We are aiming at an area with very heavy and dense rain. This rain however is limited to a very small area and its boundaries can clearly be distinguished.

This is the cockpit of the boat.

I got myself a seat because I did not feel like having a shower. Moreover it became sort of stormy outside. Inside this boat is not so much different from an airplane.

This is the rain front from the other side. We hit a good number of them before we reached in Stung Treng. The boat is actually quite fast and reasonably comfortable. I heard this is particularly true when compared to the road, which is the other option for traveling from Kratie to Stung Treng.

After maybe one hour we reached this settlement, which I could not find on any map in my tourist guide.

The course of the boat was not steady and obviously the captain tried to avoid hitting the ground. I tried to figure out pattern in how he was steering the boat, but could not identify any. However, most of the time we were traveling very close to the main land.

It is about to rain again when we meet this boat. This happened a number of times to pick up passengers or discharge goods like chicken (more or less alive) or a spin for those long and slim boots.

Again, we travel most of the time close to one or the other bank. Frequently we pass side arms of the Mekong.

We pass those bigger wooden boats shortly before we arrive in Stung Treng. I have seen this sort of boat earlier close to Phnom Penh discharging wood. What seems to happen here is that they are loaded with something, most likely timber.

This is when we arrive in Stung Treng. A good number of people are waiting to promote guest houses and transportation or to sell snacks to travelers and carry cargo. Given this situation it does not generally appear to be a problem to find accommodation or a ride to the next destination.

It is still not even late in the afternoon. I was surprised how easy traveling to Rattanakiri actually turned out to be. It did not take us long to settle for a ride on the back of a pick up for 5 dollar per person. We have company of those people. The fellows on the ride hand are Frenchmen. The guy to the left is the guy form Israel I mentioned earlier. We had good conversations about the relationship between France and Cambodia today, about the United States and the war in Iraq.

This is how it looks like most of the time during the first part of the journey. Later on we traveled through partly dense and almost impenetrable jungle.

Another of those bridges. This exemplar is pretty long compared to most of the other bridges I saw.

This is when we have a break. At this point we are already pretty much in the forest. However, we passed numerous clearings apparently created by mankind involving fire. Most of the time there is a small house on those clearings, housing obviously pretty poor people. The house in the background is pretty much the wealthiest house I have seen on the way.

It is getting dark very quick.

At this point a number of short rains showers had already hit us. It is a bit colder around here and together with the wind caused by the speeding car it becomes kind of chilly.

The quality of the road was pretty poor and we had a hard time holding on to the car. I tried to take pictures of the road using a small stand on the of this pick up’s cabin. However, the flash is not strong enough.

However, shortly after this shot it started to rain very heavy and did not stop. This was about the strongest rain I ever encountered. This was an interesting experience particularly on the back of a truck. I was happy to have rain jacket. Together with my sunglasses I was even able to open my eyes. However, I did not see much. The jacket did not prevent me from getting wet. This was like going for a swim in a rain jacket hoping to remain dry. However, it helped me not to become cold.

It was still raining when we arrived in Banlung, which is the provincial capital of Rattanakiri. This was at about 8:30 pm. In general I was surprised that we made it here during only one day.