Hello!

Day 87: Kratie (K) – Stung Treng (K). “It's like a remixed version of the Lionel Richie song”, I joked to Karen as the river bank echoed to the calls of “Hello” coming from the little stilt houses as we cycled along the shoreline of Koh Trong Island.

Lying about half a mile off Kratie in the middle of the Mekong River, Koh Trong is about 6 miles around, making the perfect destination for a morning's bike ride. Catching the early morning ferry, we loaded the bikes along with everything else that people seemed to be taking across to the island: Motorcycles (what else?), provisions, petrol, livestock and people – the familiar sight of travelling in Cambodia! The low river levels on the Mekong at this time of year prevented the ferry from making port at the Island side, so everybody (and everything!) had to wade through the knee high muddy water to cover the the last 100 yards of the journey.

After transversing the sandbank we were soon back on tera-firma, cycling through small hamlets and lush rice paddies tended by farmers with buffalo and wooden ploughs in tow. Along the southern edge of the island; the inhabitants of a small floating village were busy preparing their boats for a mornings fishing. But despite the photogenic scenery, the most memorable and overwhelming aspect of the day was the warmth of welcome offered by the local people. Every household interested to know more about us, waving and bidding their “Hello's”, delighted that the barang (foreigners) had chosen to come to see their remote part of rural Cambodia. In truth; the pleasure was all ours.