Rattanakiri
The following morning I bordered the minivan to Ban Lung, the “major” town in the Rattanakiri province of Cambodia. The guest house owner, Mr. T told me that the minivan was $7.50 per person and “two people, one seat.” He wasn’t kidding. It started off fine with only four of us in the rear row made for three. But the suitcase on the top of the seat back behind our heads was a bit annoying.
On the dirt road to Ban Lung we passed and were passed by a multitude of motor scooters, buses, cars, trucks, and other minivans all in a cloud of fine dust. Then it started to rain! One of the occupants started to yell at the driver in Khmer and then she spoke to another in a language that is completely unlike Khmer, Thai, or Lao. The driver gets out, tells us to get out, and he then takes the luggage from above and places it all in the back seat. Hmmm. I’m sure this isn’t the first time it’s rained here, so where is the damned tarp?!
As it were, we now had the same amount of people to fit in 1/3 less space. In my row there were four adults and three kids. The driver had a young woman also sitting in his seat as he drove. I wanted to pull out my camera, but I didn’t want to look like the usual tourist where such things are a marvel to behold. So we endured for the three and a half hour trip to Ban Lung.
At a guest house later that day I was surprised that things were as expensive as they were there. $5-10 per room and $2-3 per meal item. Not what I was expecting for a poor and remote corner of Cambodia without “proper” banking. They do have a bank, but you can only withdraw money if you have an account, that is, they are not hooked up to the Visa network. I tried to exchange some Thai baht there twice, but gave up after twenty or thirty minutes of waiting each time. So I had a limited amount of cash to play with.
Walking around is what I usually do my first day or two in a new town. But not here. The dust is so intense and ever present. Every car or truck that goes by blows up a cloud of super fine red dust that hovers for minutes. I remember my track commander telling me about “moon dust” as we were going on a training mission in the California desert. He said it was super fine, if you get in it the vehicle will sink, and if it gets on your clothes you’ll never get it out. Well, I didn’t see any moon dust in California, but I’ve found it here. After lying in bed watching television for a bit, I got up to find that the sheets and pillow were covered in red dust. Blegh.
Later that day I went to the dining area and talked to two gals as they tried to wipe away the red dust from their faces. They had only been there a day or two and were leaving. I then walked over to this viking, young man with blond hair and a beard. Joonas turned out to be a Fin and his hair is actually dyed blond, but he sure did look like my perception of a viking.
Joonas had heard me talking about doing some trekking in the jungle and said he was going the next morning on a three day trek with another person and that I could join them. After some back and forth with the government agency that runs this trek, I told him I might not have enough money to do the trek and get out of town again. He then offered to loan me some money and that was that.
