Paradise Lost and the Highway To Hell

Don Det did have some elecrtricity, and so did have email access but we didn't bother using it. The elecricity only came on for a few hours on a night. We wandered around both islands Don Det and Don Khon in an afternoon. Don Khon had a good waterfall, but the old railway that the French had left was not so impressive.

On Don Det we stayed at Mama Rastas guest house, run by a crazy lady who kept touching and squidging Sam. Don Det is the travelers paradise, quiet and not set-up for tourists. Don Khon is a little more established, but only just! We spent a second night in a hut on Don Khon before heading for Cambodia.

Up early and off on one of the longest and hardworking journeys I have ever been on. We traveled from Don Khon by boat back to the Laos mainland. From there we got a minibus to the Laos/Cambodian border. A short wait after everyone was checked through and we were in Cambodia. First impressions... Dirty! Another ferry ride and a gang of us were squeezed onto the most clapped-out minibus on the planet. Most of us were going all the way through to Phenom Phen. More than a 12 hour journey ahead of us, and we'd already been traveling for 6 hours.

The journey was mostly over dirt track, this is the MAIN roads in Cambodia. We thought that Laos was bad, no way! Laos is sophisticated by these standards. The ramshackled minibus had a totally buggered suspension, so we often found the minibus leaving the road, all four wheels in the air! The pot-holes on Cambodian roads are HUGE, dropping a good 2 - 3 feet. This was bad enough during the day, particularly with all the windows open and clouds of dust pouring in.

Night on Cambodian roads is something to be seen. Driving at breakneck speeds down pitch black roads, pot-holes and buggered van, well I'll let you create the image. Whatever you think times by 10 and you maybe near the nightmare of it all. Add in being stopped by strange blokes with torches in the middle of nowhere, random wandering animals, and our driver not speaking more than 2 words of English. Then you are getting close to how crazy this journey was. That we made it the whole way without major incident is amazing. The worst thing that happened was that they kept loosing the stack of egg boxes strapped to the roof.

Oh, just to mention the petrol fumes. We travled with a big can of petrol sloshing around in the back. When we complained about a Cambodian guy smoking next to the petrol, he, his cig and the petrol moved onto the roof. Such a sensible move! Anyway we are safe now, and heading for the beach to meet Huw and Brendon and to get some much needed RnR.