Rattanakiri, Cambodia

For the five-day Cambodian holiday, we decided to make the trek to Rattanakiri, Cambodia. We hopped on an early bus and made it all the way to Stung Treng in one day. Exhausted, we spent the night there after walking around town a bit and checking out the local celebrations (Khmer New Year!) and markets and buying some fruit. The next morning we took a mini-bus for a few hours to Rattanakiri. The roads were hardly paved and were extremely bumpy and dirty (as in, tons of red dirt on everything). It was beautiful! It was extremely remote and the red dirt reminded me of the first time we went to Siem Reap and the roads were not yet paved.

In Rattanakiri we went swimming in the beautiful crater lake and checked out some of the waterfalls. We bought a giant jug/vase of whiskey, as is customary in these parts, for the celebration... though I dont think we ended up drinking much of it.

We attempted to walk back to our guesthouse from the crater lake and were stopped by a local Khmer man who insisted on driving us for free. He was so friendly and generous. I think he found it funny to drive two soaking-wet (having come straight out of the lake) barang (which literally means French person, but is used in reference to any foreigner) back to their guesthouses. Love the Khmer people- they are so awesome!

We took an elephant trek, which didnt amount to much. Upon reaching the elephant, I saw someone I recognized! One of my students was there with her family for vacation. She was as shocked to see me as I was to see her. What a fun surprise! Overall found Rattanakiri to be very quiet and relaxing, beautiful, slightly cooler at night, and the locals were amazing hosts/hostesses. I very much hope to go back soon.

Love the red dirt!!!