"You, Barang...

...you are like a bird that flies from village to village and then flies off to its country."

A Kravet woman, Ratanakiri



Drinking leftover rice beer in the morning, Ratanakiri

While I'm not planning to fly to "my country" any time soon, we barang do flit around quite a bit. I'm covering the lunchtime show for another DJ over the next month at the station, as he'll be away in Bangkok. Around the time when he comes back, I'm due to head there myself - as my visa will need to be renewed and I'll be setting up the display at the Four Seasons.

Woke up this morning and slipped on a pair of closed-toe shoes as I stepped out the door. Then stepped inside again with a muffled shriek: a frog had found a comfortable home in one of them, escaping from the rain last night. "Remember to shake your shoes for scorpions and frogs before putting them on!" I said on my show a few minutes later.

Coconuts on the Mekong

Sunset was spent on the river sipping a coconut juice digestif as a young evangelical 7th-day Adventist from Stung Treng pestered me: "Why are you Catholic?", all the while displaying his International Holy Bible as though it were a police badge allowing him entree into my life and mind.

Still it was a pleasant enough way to end a day defined by the 7-hour busride from Phnom Penh to Kratie. This is a lovely town, all crumbling stucco and rubble-strewn backstreets. It's strongly reminiscent of Kampot, and less so of Battambang. Kratie's tourists are on their way to see the rare freshwater Irawaddy dolphins: they're funny-looking creatures with iridescent blue skin who look as though their noses have been chopped off.

No dolphins for me, though. My budget's tighter than ever and I've got to focus on my two interests in Ratanakiri: hill tribe weavings and traditional music. Tomorrow I'm off to Banlung, the base camp of sorts for hill tribe exploration. Looking forward to a dusty, muddy few days before heading back to Siem Reap to get to work on the half-dozen things I've got going on.