Day 3 - Moving North

Yesterday Tracey and I talked to Lucy from London who has been travelling through Cambodia for 2 weeks. She told us some interesting stories about her trip and other stories she had heard from fellow travellers. Unfortunately she said that she seems to have been travelling in time with the tropical low and was hoping to find somewhere with a blue sky.  

Tracey and I tried to find some weather maps that would give an indication of which direction to take - we have decided to take a chance on moving north to Kratie and are currently enjoying the scenery on our 7 hour bus ride mostly through rice fields and small towns.  

Along the Mekong - Everything is vibrant green and most houses are built up on stilts or concrete pillars.  

At our first rest stop... Deep fried tarantulas, sweet potato chips, crickets and skewered/roasted eggs in their shell, and a coconut and palm auger desert in bamboo.  We haven't yet tried the spiders as we still had 5 hours to go on the bus ride.

The first leg of the trip was quite slow going with large pot holes for the driver to avoid however the road has improved since Kompong Cham with only an occasional washed out section.  

The bus is quite comfortable particularly as we see the share taxi's (like a mini van) coming the other way so jammed with people and items (including motor scooters hanging out the back by ropes and good luck) that there are often people sitting on the roof.  We have also seen cars go past so full that there is even a person between the driver and the drivers door.  They didn't look comfortable at all.  We are effectively travelling in luxury by comparison for the princely sum of $US13 each.  

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Memot - a small town on the way to Kratie