It seems that I’m having more luck meeting people lately. It started in the guesthouse in Phnom Penh. The day before yesterday evening I spent with a couple of guys (a Kiwi and a Swiss guy) over a beer (dinner and fruit milkshake in my case ;-) ), during and after breakfast today I spent talking to a lovely Swiss girl and here in Stung Trang I have met a few likable people already – a Polish guy named Miko who was studying in Korea for a while but didn’t like it much so now he is traveling a bit before he’ll continue his studies somewhere else, an adventurous Aussie traveling currently with (I think) a Belgian girl and Alon – an Israeli fighter pilot who just finished his 8 years of duty and is now traveling the world before he'll start studying electrical engineering at a university back in Israel.
I’ve spent a very nice evening with all these people. First I went to the market to buy some food and then joined the Aussie guy Adam and the Belgian girl for a walk along the river. The sun was just setting over the confluence of the Kong and Mekong rivers and it looked spectacular! I had to run / go to fetch my camera. Unfortunately my knee was hurting a lot and I could not run with much success so it took me longer than I’d like before I was back to take some pictures. I still managed to make a few nice ones but I missed quite a few great ones too thanks to the injury. Then we sat at the rooftop restaurant, talked and played Tingling, which is a typical Cambodian card game that Adam taught the rest of us to play. You see people playing this game on the streets in Cambodia quite often.
The next morning (today) all these people left unfortunately – Miko south, further into Cambodia on a big fast boat and the couple traveling together and Alon north to Laos on a little fast boat for 6 people. It rained the whole night and it was still raining when I waited on the bank to wave them goodbye when they were departing. It is strange but I was sad when they were leaving even though I knew them for basically only half a day.
I could not leave myself as it was still raining in the afternoon. Even if it stopped I wouldn’t dare as the locals told me that the road is as bad as the one from Kracheh that I experienced yesterday. Apparently it is supposed to rain for a week… :-(