2007 road trip with Nik Reiter from Pattaya to Sihanoukville, Cambodia. A ferry crossing over the Preat River powered by a dragon boat car engine. No one stays in the cars during the trip. Up river a jungle to the sea a bridge under construction spelling the wooden ferry's demise in the future. On the southern bank an old German sells frikadelle, fried German meat balls, from a wooden shack. He recounted a story about having flown out of Stalingrad. How he had been a Luftwaffe corpman on one of the last planes out of the beseiged city. The wounded were stacked inside the fuselage. One atop of the other. Triage with the more seriously wounded atop the potential survivors to keep them warm. Tears rolled from his eyes. Over fifty years later now on a tropical river far from the Russian winter. He was that old.
A Dutch tourist smelled so bad, the van passengers voted to leave him behind. Old Stinky.
I loved ferry crossings. Bridges aren't that interesting.
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