Kratie for loving you

Still here in Kratie (which is pronounced Kra-Cheh as it turns out). I'm looking over the Mekong as the sun sets over the north end of Koh Trong Island. We caught the ferry over there yesterday with our bikes and although only a kilometre away it was a world apart fom the hustle and bustle of Kratie town. A sudden downpour meant that the going was a bit tougher than expected as the cycle path turned to mud in the space of a couple of minutes. The island gave us our first valuable insight into rural Cambodia. Lots of traditional Khmer houses built on stilts and plenty of paddy fields behind them. One of the houses offers homestays to visitors but you need to book it in advance. Nevertheless we dropped in thinking they might be able to rustle us up something along the lines of lunch. As they hadn't figured on our arrival the best they could do was offer us some freshly picked pumelo (sometimes known as Chinese grapefruit) and some water. It wasn't quite ripe yet but it was still delicious. Caroline also had a quick look around the house whilst I attempted to converse with the man of the house about construction methods and materials. Bloke stuff. The stilts which were sixty-five years old were rosewood but were completely grey with age. We tried to find the Vietnamese floating village at the southern end of the island but with no success.

After dinner last night we dropped into the Red Sun Falling cafe for a drink. It opened ten years ago under the ownership of a guy called Joe (a Chicago native I believe). Whilst there we heard 'A Forest' by The Cure and 'Sunday, bloody Sunday' by U2, the only western music I've heard (besides Westlife for some strange reason) in over a month.

Today we spent some time planning ahead. We'll head east to Sen Monorom in the Mondulkiri province before heading west to Komphong Cham and then the capital, Phnom Penh. I also used today as an opportunity to conduct some male grooming. I visited a local barber for an oldschool cut-throat shave. He also cut the hairy bits on the back of my neck and gave me a neck massage and all for only one Euro.