Holiday in Cambodia

Again it's been awhile but I'm sure everyone is on new years holiday in the west - so I am too! Don Det was great to get back too and I spent 7 nights there just relaxing and recovering from my biking adventure. I hooked up with a few of the gang from Xmas and of course we made new friends as they arrived on the island. I did a fair bit of reading in my hammock, ate well and had some fun with the different people that I met. Some girls in a local restaurant looked after me one night and asked me for dinner with them local style which was a great experience. We did one sunset cruise up the river where Mr Vixay - the guesthouse owner took us in his boat up the Mekong to a deserted beach for sunset.

Of course in the middle was new years eve which was pretty big on the island. I was having a great time but I think that I had too good a night the night before and around 11.15pm I was exhausted so I went for a quick rest and then woke up at 6am the next morning. I was a lot better off than most people on the island the next day!
My last night we walked across Don Det to another island Don Kong where there are waterfalls and large rapids in the Mekong river. We had a BBQ of Chicken and Duck which was delicious and brought a lot of comment from the local villages as we walked to the beach with them.
January 3 my Laos visa ran out so I had to leave the country and head down into Cambodia. I think that it was exactly 7 years to the day that I first came to Cambodia and I was excited to see much more of the country this time.
We got a bit of a shock at the price differences for buses at the border but I was travelling with Imke (German) and Marting (English) who I met on Don Det and we headed for Ban Lung - to the mountains in the north east of the country.

We arrived after dark and checked into the Lake View Lodge which is a former Governors residence and was huge!
The following day we hired 3 local guides to take us on the back of their mopeds to see the local sites.

We visited 3 waterfalls which were spectacular and Martin and I went Swimming at the 3rd one. After lunch at the Delicious Gecko restaurant we visited the volcanic crater lake which was also spectacular and great for swimming. Ban Lung is a very dark red color because large amounts of dust everywhere. We were pretty dirty but it was a great day. The following day we wandered around the town and took it pretty easy before taking a bus to Kratie the following morning (6am).
Back on the Mighty Mekong river we spent a day again on the back of Moto's having a look around at the local villages and sites . We visited a meditation retreat which was very peaceful and another Wat. There wasn't too much to do so we jumped on a bus the following morning for Kampong Cham.
It is a great town a - little bigger than the previous 2 towns and I really feel like I'm in Cambodia again. The people here are great and today we hired a Tuk- Tuk to get out and see the local area again.

We visited a Bamboo bridge that gets built every year in the dry season - before being washed away in the wet. We also went to a huge rubber plantation and out to the oldest Wooden Wat in Cambodia. It is around 150 years old and locals say that it has huge powers. Apparently the Amercians tried to bomb and destroy it but couldn't.
We also visited the local ancient temple from the Ankgor Wat days. It dates from the 10th Century and was really spectacular. I don't think I'll head up to Ankgor again this trip so it was nice to get a bit of a feel for the memory! I think I'll relax in Kampong Cham before heading down to Phnon Penn and meet up with Adam who was living here when I first visited 7 years ago. As an Ex-local who speaks Khmer it will be good to catch up and get a few ideas of where else to check out.