Kratie 16-11-08

Dear all,

Another hot day, though I am getting used to it. After the 4 comfortable trips to Japan and Australia I was afraid that I could not stand any longer the heat and humidity of Asian countries, but I still manage to accept it. And though Cambodia is most probably the poorest country I ever visited, I appreciate the kindness of the people. As our Vietnamese guide told us yesterday (that was already in Cambodia): the people in Vietnam - doing economically quite well lately - are not smiling anymore; whereas the people in Cambodia are poor, but smiling. He has no intention at all to return to Vietnam.
Things in Cambodia are getting better, very, very slowly. Still a lot of corruption , bribery, intimidation by the political leaders. Though Internet is extremely slow (256 KB), it is available.
I was afraid for the dusty dirt roads because of my contact lenses, but though there are many of them, which we use as well with our bus, I did pretty well so far. And so far only 2 nights without electricity is not so bad. The place I am sitting right now - Internet café annex restaurant for Western tourists - is full of insects, but so far in our rooms we found - and killed! - only a few cockroaches (not sure about the spelling: cafards in French; kakkerlakken in Dutch) .

Today a morning off. We went with the 4 of us - often we spending our 'free' time with 2 singles of our age sometimes accompanied by our Dutch tour guide ; with the other 10 co-travellers we have hardly anything in common - to the island Koh Trong opposite our hotel with a - of course - simple ferry. We made a walk on our pace, took a lot of pictures of children, longhouses, rice fields and a ... marriage! Guests from Phnom Penh came over, high educated, thus speaking English and French, and they kindly invited us to have a talk with the bride & broom. What a contrast: those well-to-do Cambodian people in the environment of this very basic island. We have been invited tonight for the party on our side, but Arjan is certainly not going to eat the meat, he saw it being prepared, not that hygienic..
On the same island was a Vietnamese floating village: simple wooden houses floating in the river. Unimaginable how people can live under such circumstances.

This afternoon we went all of us for an excursion with a boat to watch the endangered Irrawaddy dolphins and lucky us: we have seen them! Nice boat trip with lots of fishermen. On the way back we made a stop at one of the numberless temples, where a service was going on by the local rowing organisation, who just won a championship. The long rowing boat was brought in to the temple and the sportsmen were singing and making (simple) music. A monk was leading the service. Lots of monks everywhere, but for me - Ingrid - not always possible to communicate - if they speak English - since they are not supposed to approach women. Happily the interpretation of such is pretty large!
Nice sunset over the Mekong river tonight.

Tonight diner at the same place as yesterday, there is hardly anything else acceptable for our Western stomachs. But good - and cheap - food, so such is OK to us. The service is slow, and the meals are coming one by one: I was served first and finished already before the last one was served: Cambodian - like many other Asian countries - do not understand that we order each a meal for ourselves and want to pay for ourselves: often Asian share all the meals in between them and split the bill in equal parts..

Tomorrow off to Phnom Penh, with lots of other adventures!


A&I - Kratie, 16-11-08 - hot