Ratanakiri

The 4 of us left Phnom Penh for Ratanakiri on Monday. We hitchhiked all the way to Kampong Cham, 3 hours to the east. It was my second time hitchhiking, the first was the previous day from Sihanoukville to Phnom Penh. We were picked up by a Lexus jeep and rode very comfortably…for free.

The rides we caught to Kampong Cham were very dusty and it was very hot. By nighttime we’d made it to Stung Treng and found a wat to sleep in. We slept on the floor in the central temple, near the giant Buddha and his disciplines. The mosquitoes were nasty.

The next day traffic was insufficient to hitch a ride so we bought seats on a mini-bus all the way to Ratanakiri. Ratanakiri is one of the most beautiful provinces in Cambodia. It contains the most forests and there are no paved roads. We stayed mostly in Ban Lung, the village that is the capital of the province, biking 30+ kilometers to a lagoon and waterfalls.

i want to study

Tomorrow morning i’m off to Sihanoukville (and maybe Kep and Kampot) but i’m leaving some of my stuff in Phnom Penh at a friend’s house which makes moving on less drastic. I’ll probably be back in PP in a week to gather my things before i go to Ratanakiri or back to Thailand. I’d really like to visit Ratanakiri but it’s far and i don’t know if i have enough energy and enthusiasm to overcome the challenges of visiting a place so rural. I’ve traveled with minimal contact with foreigners before but i’ve been “sheltered” for the past 4 months living in PP… so i am not ready for such hardcore backpacking yet.

The other day i attended a lecture on Apsara dancing (traditional Khmer dancing) at Monument bookstore (the only bookstore i’ve been to in PP that sells real – not photocopy – books). It was a very limited lecture but it made me miss the lectures of my college days. I would like to be a student again..

One of the regrets i have is starting university when i was 17. I should have gone traveling. I wasn’t ready for uni and hardly paid any attention during my first 3 years. If i was just starting uni now, i’d be more critical and enthusiastic, i’d have read more, and would have formed better professional relationships with my professors, instead of wondering like a zombie for 3 years. (Year 4 was much better because thats when i overcame my mental asphyxia)