Farewell Laos. Hello Cambodia. We are leaving Laos today with many wonderful memories of the amazing people we've met along the way, beautiful places we've seen and the hope that we have also enriched the lives of those we leave behind. We left the hotel this morning and caught another boat along the Mekong that would drop us off at a small port village where we would begin cycling for the day. It would be a 20km cycle to the border of Laos and Cambodia where we would change vehicles and meet our Cambodian guides that would be with us for the rest of the journey. Well, about 10km into the ride, we had another accident. And who was involved? You guessed it. ME!! At last count I think this makes it my third injury, but this one is vying for first place with my dislocated finger. We were riding along in a group of four out the front with Finn, Simon, Jasmine and I. Finn was out in front where he usually likes to be and I was more or less side by side with Jasmine on her left hand side and Simon was behind. Simon decided that he would overtake me on the left but turned in too early, leaving me nowhere to go. His rear tyre hit my front tyre and over I went. At this stage we were going at a pretty good pace, somewhere between 25-30km per hour at a guess. I went down hard and felt my head hit the ground (my helmet is cracked) and forearm and shoulder dragging along the road. This left some nasty gashes in my arm and heavy grazes on my sunburt shoulder and legs, not to mention a fair bit of bruising. I had my wounds cleaned of the gravel, sterilised and dressed, but I couldn't continue, so I had to take the bus for the last 10km to the border.
Once we wew through the formalities of the border crossing, we met our new guides and had a bus ride to the place that had been booked for lunch. The roads here in Cambodia are shocking. I lost count of the number of times my head just about hit the top of the bus with all the pot holes that we were going over at a great pace. We eventually got to lunch in one piece. After lunch we had more driving to do, about 2.5 hours to be precise, and this section of road was even worse. We were heading to a town called Kratie where we would be staying the night. Kratie is a little town and on the way our guide tried to prepare us for the worst by telling us that the hotel we were staying in wasn't that good and that it was a little town, but I'm quite impressed by it and the town. The scenary had been very similar to what we saw in Laos, but that is to be expected since we are not that far from the border. I have noticed though that the people are different. They look different and have a different way about them, but I can't pinpoint exactly what that is. It's not a bad thing, just different. They have many of the same customs as in Laos, but seem to be a little less formal, but that could be that Cambodia has had a bit more exposure to the west than Laos (at a guess). One thing I did notice is that even though Cambodia is still a very poor country, they are noticably more affluent than Laos. Even the beer costs more here. Also, even though you can use US dollars to buy whatever you want in Laos, they still give you prices in the local Kip, whereas in Cambodia, they just quote things in US dollars, which works out fine for me as I haven't changed any Cambodian Riels yet and probably won't now.
When we arrived at the hotel, we dumped our bags in our rooms and Kristen (our leader from Inspired Adventures) came with me to the local clinic to have my wounds looked at. The medical guy (I have no idea if he was a doctor or a nurse) came out from the back with a singlet and shorts on and helped remove the dressings that had been applied when I first had the accident. I was pleased when I saw him reaching for the rubber gloves. He used saline to help remove the dressings that had now stuck to my open sores and then preseeded to clean them out and apply betadine, which hurt like I don't recall ever having felt before. I got a dressing for the main wound and everything else was better left undressed. I went back to the hotel and had a shower which was very difficult with only one good hand and trying not to get the left hand side of my body wet. I met with the rest of the team in the lobby a little while later and we went to dinner with the local ChildFund team working in Kratie. It was great to hear about all the work they were doing in this town and what they had achieved in such a short time (they only set up here in June 2011). Dinner was great as it has been for the entire trip. I'm loving the food here. Tonight we had a dish of beef and pinapple. Who would have thought to put those two things together? After dinner, several of the group had a few drinks in the restaurant at the hotel, but I wasn't feeling up to it.
I don't have any pictures today as I didn't think everyone would appreciate the pictures of my wounds that I took. If you are, let me know when you see me next and I'll show you. Until the next time.
Once we wew through the formalities of the border crossing, we met our new guides and had a bus ride to the place that had been booked for lunch. The roads here in Cambodia are shocking. I lost count of the number of times my head just about hit the top of the bus with all the pot holes that we were going over at a great pace. We eventually got to lunch in one piece. After lunch we had more driving to do, about 2.5 hours to be precise, and this section of road was even worse. We were heading to a town called Kratie where we would be staying the night. Kratie is a little town and on the way our guide tried to prepare us for the worst by telling us that the hotel we were staying in wasn't that good and that it was a little town, but I'm quite impressed by it and the town. The scenary had been very similar to what we saw in Laos, but that is to be expected since we are not that far from the border. I have noticed though that the people are different. They look different and have a different way about them, but I can't pinpoint exactly what that is. It's not a bad thing, just different. They have many of the same customs as in Laos, but seem to be a little less formal, but that could be that Cambodia has had a bit more exposure to the west than Laos (at a guess). One thing I did notice is that even though Cambodia is still a very poor country, they are noticably more affluent than Laos. Even the beer costs more here. Also, even though you can use US dollars to buy whatever you want in Laos, they still give you prices in the local Kip, whereas in Cambodia, they just quote things in US dollars, which works out fine for me as I haven't changed any Cambodian Riels yet and probably won't now.
When we arrived at the hotel, we dumped our bags in our rooms and Kristen (our leader from Inspired Adventures) came with me to the local clinic to have my wounds looked at. The medical guy (I have no idea if he was a doctor or a nurse) came out from the back with a singlet and shorts on and helped remove the dressings that had been applied when I first had the accident. I was pleased when I saw him reaching for the rubber gloves. He used saline to help remove the dressings that had now stuck to my open sores and then preseeded to clean them out and apply betadine, which hurt like I don't recall ever having felt before. I got a dressing for the main wound and everything else was better left undressed. I went back to the hotel and had a shower which was very difficult with only one good hand and trying not to get the left hand side of my body wet. I met with the rest of the team in the lobby a little while later and we went to dinner with the local ChildFund team working in Kratie. It was great to hear about all the work they were doing in this town and what they had achieved in such a short time (they only set up here in June 2011). Dinner was great as it has been for the entire trip. I'm loving the food here. Tonight we had a dish of beef and pinapple. Who would have thought to put those two things together? After dinner, several of the group had a few drinks in the restaurant at the hotel, but I wasn't feeling up to it.
I don't have any pictures today as I didn't think everyone would appreciate the pictures of my wounds that I took. If you are, let me know when you see me next and I'll show you. Until the next time.
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