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Francisco, Thibault and I cross the border on a tourist bus with a bunch of other westerners being herded from one country to the next, not my style and we are overcharged for the pleasure but it does make everything very easy. We arrive in the small town of Kratie in the North East of Cambodia. We are met by a local hotel owner who convinces us to stay with him. I get a wonderful initial impression of this country and decide right away that I will want to stay longer than one month. We were planning only to spend one night in Kratie but as we seem to have hit the party of the year with a semi-famous Cambodia singer in town, we decide to stay a day longer. We meet an Irish-Dutch guy called Steven who's been living in the west coast of Australia and has lots of advice for me, and Vicky, a chilled English girl travelling solo. We explore the surrounding area by bike, never make it to the other side of the river, drink cane sugar juice for the first time, take awesome photos of Francisco and Thibault holding the sun with their feet and I make friends with some local boat men.
On the night of the concert the place is packed and it's a mission to find a seat, we are invited by a young Cambodian to sit with him and his friends and he makes sure we all keep up with his pace. The event seems so modern compared to anything we have seen in Laos over the last 40 days, people dancing with their whole bodies, not just hands and the women wearing short dresses and killer heels. The music is actually quite good (not the usual high-pitched karaoke squeal) and upbeat, yet the crowd do nothing but stand and stare at the stage - Asian culture is still a mystery to me!
After the concert a local guy takes us to a weird club with Mercedes and suited and booted bouncers outside, and strippers and businessmen inside - but we have other plans. We rent a snazzy karaoke room for $2/hour and sing our little hearts out. The local Cambodians serenade us with beautiful love songs and we reply with our best versions of Livin La Vida Loca and Hey Jude - they were obviously much more versed at this than the rest of us. At one point Gangam-style comes on and the room suddenly transforms into a nightclub with everyone up dancing under strobe lighting. It's a great first Cambodian-style night out; I am sure I am going to love this country as much as Laos.
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