Hi Folks
So we did it. We floated down the mighty Mekong. Well, at least a little part of it. 130 km from Kratie to Kampong Cham. That's a little less than planed, but we simply overestimated our own speed. Nevertheless it was wonderful! There is hardly a sunset or sunrise that compares to those we had on the Mekong. Waking up by the first sun rays, after spending the night under a star sprinkled clear sky in your own boat feels just amazing. And gives you the right amount of energy to go out and paddle (battle?) the Mekong. Those wooden boats are bloody heavy and difficult to steer. Plus we had only one normal paddle and one standing oar, which we had to learn how to use first. The first day we were going in the planed direction about a third of the time, the rest was getting twisted around by oversteering and the powerfull current. And the wind direction wasn't on our side either. Well, kind of, it was blowing hard sideways almost every day, in a way that we were struggling to keep our position and not being blown away in a random direction. Each day just after sunrise we started in calm weather and during the morning the wind picked up heavily, up to an extend where we had to stop on the riverbank to prevent our little boat from sinking, because the waves were to big and jumping into the boat. Then we sat there, read a little or wrote some diary, all while getting sandblasted. Gladly around lunchtime the weather usually calmed down again and we could continue. At one of these stops we met some fishermen that had rigged their catch in the sand to dry, and were scraping them out again with huge combs ("Durchkämmt die Wüste!").
Note that Cambodia is so close to the equator, that it almost has a twelve hour light, twelve hour dark day. This meant for us that we stopped at four o'clock, had a huge pile of delicious Cambodian rice with vegetables for dinner at five, and were in bed at six.
And eventually we reached Kampong Cham, where we decided to stop because Christmas is approaching and we are treating ourselves with some days on an little island of Sihanoukville for the rest of the year. And completely by chance that island also hosts tree houses, an absinthe distillery and a Italian gourmet restaurant.
Good enough for the rest of the year.
Skateawhile whishes you all a merry merry Christmas and a happy new year.
Cheers
So we did it. We floated down the mighty Mekong. Well, at least a little part of it. 130 km from Kratie to Kampong Cham. That's a little less than planed, but we simply overestimated our own speed. Nevertheless it was wonderful! There is hardly a sunset or sunrise that compares to those we had on the Mekong. Waking up by the first sun rays, after spending the night under a star sprinkled clear sky in your own boat feels just amazing. And gives you the right amount of energy to go out and paddle (battle?) the Mekong. Those wooden boats are bloody heavy and difficult to steer. Plus we had only one normal paddle and one standing oar, which we had to learn how to use first. The first day we were going in the planed direction about a third of the time, the rest was getting twisted around by oversteering and the powerfull current. And the wind direction wasn't on our side either. Well, kind of, it was blowing hard sideways almost every day, in a way that we were struggling to keep our position and not being blown away in a random direction. Each day just after sunrise we started in calm weather and during the morning the wind picked up heavily, up to an extend where we had to stop on the riverbank to prevent our little boat from sinking, because the waves were to big and jumping into the boat. Then we sat there, read a little or wrote some diary, all while getting sandblasted. Gladly around lunchtime the weather usually calmed down again and we could continue. At one of these stops we met some fishermen that had rigged their catch in the sand to dry, and were scraping them out again with huge combs ("Durchkämmt die Wüste!").
Note that Cambodia is so close to the equator, that it almost has a twelve hour light, twelve hour dark day. This meant for us that we stopped at four o'clock, had a huge pile of delicious Cambodian rice with vegetables for dinner at five, and were in bed at six.
And eventually we reached Kampong Cham, where we decided to stop because Christmas is approaching and we are treating ourselves with some days on an little island of Sihanoukville for the rest of the year. And completely by chance that island also hosts tree houses, an absinthe distillery and a Italian gourmet restaurant.
Good enough for the rest of the year.
Skateawhile whishes you all a merry merry Christmas and a happy new year.
Cheers
