Ban Lung

For our last stop in Cambodia we decided to go someplace smaller and less touristy. Ban Lung was a good choice. Although we did see a few western tourists here, most of the tourists were Cambodian. Like us, they came to swim in Yeak Laom volcanic lake. The volcano is no longer active, but is now a popular swimming spot for locals. People were happy and smiling and the kids wanted to talk to us and swim with us.

We love being in places like this where people are happy, genuine, and excited. At many of the tourist destinations locals can get pretty jaded and don't smile at us much, don't care that where around, or worse, they look at us and only see American dollars. Not so in Ban Lung. I dove into the water from the docks and swam with the kids. They lauged about how pale my skin is and asked us questions about ourselves and where we're from. We had a great time, but were tired from all the walking and biking we'd done in the past week so we called it an early night.

The next day we rented a motorbike from our guesthouse for $5. A good deal, but still a bit of a splurge for us. I think the proprietor was a little nervous after I got on because it was quickly apparent that I had never ridden a motorbike before in my life. It was a manual, so tricky at first, but I quickly got the hang of it and we sped off into the distance before she could change her mind. We headed for some waterfalls where we spent the better part of the afternoon. It was pretty quiet, there were only a handful of children there swimming in the pools beneath the waterfalls.

I got some good practice riding on dirt roads and small paths when we rode out to a surprising large garden. It must have been several acres and we only ran into one or two other groups of people. The admission fees can only pay for a portion of the upkeep. This is a garden that is maintained out of love for nature and not to rake in the big bucks.

We returned to our guest house tired again after a great day to the great relief of the owner who rented us the bike.