Ratanakiri

Well I've travelled all over this rather dusty land at this point from Poipet to Ratanakiri and its beautiful and frustrating and many other things. However i have discovered that Ratanakiri is dusty. So dusty that you cannot see out the window. I'm glad I wasn't driving. Think of the heaviest fog you've ever experienced - that is dust in Ratanakiri. In rainy season it is a town of mud.

To start, on Tuesday I was up for too early for someone who had been watching tv late into the night and off to Ratanakiri I went with my boss and the driver. The journey takes 12 hours by car and there's no other way to go as the plane has been nixed by security due to their habit of missing the runway.

So along merrily we go. I attempt to sleep in the back but the quality of the roads makes it difficult to slip into the arms of Morpheus and by boss told me that she has a great Vietnamese masssuse that comes to her house after such journeys to straighten out her back. After lunch the road got progressively worse and then we got a puncture.

Jumping out of the car was a mistake. The heat rose as the fires of hell and I would not have been surprised to see the soles of shoes dissolve but they did not. I wandered around the deserted road watching the driver changing the tire and perspiring muchly. I took pictures of the road to amuse myself - so hot - the tar was melting.

Of course then the spare tire was flat. There was no pump. The driver forget to put on the big antennae so the radio was no use. No signal on our mobiles. And the battery was dead on the satellite phone. My boss was panicking, the driver was apologising and I was thinking that I should have a quizzical look on my face. I told them that there was no choice we were driving on the flat tire to the next village because I did not want to spend the night in that deserted stretch of road - there could have been spiders!

So we drove, got the tire fixed. Finally we arrived in Ratanakiri where we were met by the project coordinator and shown to our hotel. It was lovely - nothing like the rattrap in Poipet! Dinner, book, bed.

Up early the next day and my boss is still talking about the tire to the project coordinator but I can ignore the topic now that the other girl is here. We drove over wooden bridges and crossed the river Sesan to visit the Community Development Initiative. The national volunteer has been here for the past 18 months teaching the locals about fish and forest conservation and it was a huge success. They are extremely poor but happy and insistent on sharing what they have. They fed us on fish and rice. We toured the river to visit the other project sites.

Our next adventure was that of a broken bridge. It had been fine in the morning but it was looking much more rickety now. So we got out of the car and walked over. I did not want to be in the car as it is was crossing and the driver ventured to drive over. Luckily the bridge held and we went on our merry way.

The next project was on forestry conservation and protection of the spirit forest. The indigenous people believe that spirits of their ancestors and those of the trees live in certain forests. However there is a serious issue about illegal logging by government-supported criminals and then there is the issue of the poor burning the forest to plant cashew - the local cash crop. This project will prevent the destruction of the forests and provide a sustainable livelihood for the people. One such livelihood is the sale of traditional wood carvings. They gave a wood carving to both my boss and I. Mine is a traditional hunter with a big knife. We drank rice wine and laughed a lot.

We headed back to the town of Ratanakiri for dinner and a well deserved rest - so tired I went to sleep at 8pm - had very freaky dreams.

The ride home the next day was uneventful. Mucho sleep again. Its exhausting being tossed around like a rag doll on appalling roads!

Have a great weekend