Travel Day: Ban Lung, Ratanakiri

The four of us loaded up our bags into the trunk of our shared taxi and climbed into its far from spacious back seat to continue our journey further off the beaten path. The destination, Ban Lung in Ratanakiri province (but we prefer to call the town Ratanakiri because it has a nicer ring to it).

Where limited few barang (foreigners) are still visible in and around Kratie (usually around the town center and in guesthouse commons), virtually none stay in Ratanakiri. We made it a game to see who would be first to spot another tourist. It was a tie much later in the afternoon.

Not too many paved roads exist in Ban Lung’s backwater main stretch, where red dust kicked up by passing vehicles obscures visibility to a couple of hundred feet.

So prevalent is the dust, everything exposed to the elements is caked in it:

Local men convene at the town center's taxi station for a game of pool:

Neglecting their dirty old motorbikes parked nearby: