Rural Cambodia

The second day in Kratié, early in the morning (we're not people who take a relaxing weekend off), we rented a motorbike to explore the other side of the river. We heard that there were towns there that according to the people of Kratié, would take us back in time. In hindsight, they were right!

Crossing the Mekong River

But first things first, 'the crossing of the river'. This we did on a ferry, it was total chaos, but it worked. Cars, bikes, and people on foot could just randomly enter the boat park where they wanted and how they wanted, and just wait for the boat to leave. This cost us 1000 riel each, and another 1000 for the bike. In total, it was 0.75 USD. Whilst crossing the river, we saw floating houses and other boats passing by. We also saw the construction of a bridge connecting the two sides of the river.

Once on the other side of the river, I realized that the people of Kratié didn't lie about the differences of the riversides. There were no asphalt roads, only dust roads.

Luckily the staff in our hotel recommended us to buy dust masks before coming here. Where the houses in Kratié were quite big and made of stone, the houses on this side of the river were way smaller and completely made of wood. The towns just followed the road, there were almost no crossroads.

We followed 'the adventure trail, which didn't give us much room for mistakes. We drove past small houses on the one hand, and some kind of cliff or massive plants on the other hand. Kiki saw a little girl holding a small black snake by its tail when we went through this forest area, which made me really anxious about snakes.

Entertaining local children

Around 10, we ran out of energy, and needed a drink desperatly! We pulled over at the first drink selling place we saw. We both drank a coke. Once we pulled over, kids from everywhere came to gather around us and started to stare and awkwardly smile and wave. With our limited knowledge of the Khmer language and some English, we could make small conversations.

After finishing our cokes, we walked through a pagoda across the street, gathering more and more kids. They were just giggling and smiling, but didn't say anything, they also walked behind us, we could hear more footsteps joining the pack. We ended up with at least 20 kids following us, of course we had to take a selfie before continuing on our journey. I guess we where the attraction of their Sunday.

Back on the road, we passed by the flooded forest, passing by the ferry that could take us back to the other side of the river. there we saw a man washing his cows in the river, with his daughter helping him. It was a wholesome sight.

We decided to not cross just yet and to continue to a small local boat with a ferryman. This is where we saw 'the real, rural Cambodia'. Very dry, desolated fields, some trees and bushes, cows grazing, wooden houses, and a lot of dust. It was a place of self reflection and humility.

After finding the place to cross the river, hidden behind a farm, not sure where the boat nor the captain was, we could not do anything but wait and hoped that he'd still work today. We saw dogs hunting chickens and geese walking around. After 20 minutes, a guy walked up on us and we explained with to the best of our Khmer abilities that we wanted to cross the river. The guy didn't speak English. He told us something with 2, we hoped he meant 2 or 20 minutes waiting time, but then he hoped in a hammock and started to rest, so we feared 2 hours.

In the meantime we walked around a bit, saw some birds and fish, a women arrived, woke the man up and we started to prepare to cross the river. The boat was a small, old looking boat with only place for 2 people to sit next to each other. The captain took the bike from uphill, drove it down to the boat, drove up this small wooden plank to get on the boat, flipped the with an easy i could never hold possible, especcially because the bike has approximatly the same weight as the guy, drove it backwards on the boat, and walked over the railing to the back end of the boat where the engine was located. All in a matter of minutes and with an ease that you could never hold possible.

We crossed the river in 20 minutes, and were able to start the way back to Kratié. By this time it was around 12.30 pm. A good thing we had breakfast, because we did not find a place to eat for an hour! We looked and looked, searched and searched without luck. Finally we found a small restaurant with very local food. Very tasty if I'm being honest, but not filling at all. Anyway, it was a good and healthy snack, that filled us up just enough to continue the road to the Phnom Sambok Pagoda.

The pagoda is located on a hill covered by trees. You can climb the hill on foot with a flight of stairs, next to Buddha statues and his followers or reincarnations. You can also drive up if you prefer, we opted for the flight of stairs, guarded by huge stone guards. At the top of the hill, we entered a small gatelike building where we were welcomed by a monk. On the premisses, there is a small temple, a library, and cottages where the monks, clergymen, and nuns live.

When we were there, it was very quite, desolate, and it looked like everything was falling apart. The first shrine we entered, had Buddhist paintings on the ceiling, on the walls however, we saw murderous paintings about people murdering other people who drank alcohol, and people depicted as animals. It was definitely not something we'd expect in a Buddhist temple. Honestly we were a bit shaken up by the paintings. Especially that there was no one there. We saw a lone monkey on the rooftops, and heard voices from one of the premisses. When we walked around we saw people laying on the ground. The whole vibe was getting spooky, so we decided to leave.

On the way back, we bought us a rice-bamboo stick. It's a delicacy from Kratié. Once back in the city, we desperatly needed a shower. Unfortunatly, there was no running water in the whole of Kratié at the time. People were working on the pipelines, and the running water from the whole city was turned off. So we drank a beverage in the hotel, all dusty, sweaty, and smelly. When it got clear that the water wasn't going to be turned on soon, we went for dinner. After dinner, we finally could take a shower. This marked the last day in Kratié.

The next morning, early, we took a bus back to Siem Reap.