Let's Rambo it!

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Didn't expect it that quickly now did ya!



Cambodia: Part 2!

We had arranged with John to be picked up the next day so that we could travel with him to the ACCB which was a conservation and rehabilitation centre for the local endagered animals. On the way there we were also going to stop and the landmine museum and butterfly aviary (which claimed to be the biggest in South East Asia). We first entertained the idea of cycling to these destinations but were disheartened by the sheer brutality of the heat and the fact that Duncan would probably not be able to grasp the handlebars with one of his hands (it was also a hefty 100km round trip).

First stop was the landmine museum, started by a man called AkiRa who has defused over 50,000 mines in his life. After losing his parents he was taken in by the Khmer Rouge as a child soldier, at the age of 11 he was laying landmines. After the Khmer Rouge he fought for the Vietnamese Army and then the Cambodian Army so by the time he'd reached maturity he was ready to stop fighting and started clearing the mines. Using basic tools like spades, hoes and wrenches he went around defusing mines for villages for many years. He was stopped by the UN because of his 'dangerous' methods so he joined up with them. Now, with the support of an American couple and many other people, he runs a registered NGO. They take in disadvantaged children, teach them and school them. They help many mine victims living in the compound behind the museum. Truly an inspiring place with inspiring people. www.cambodialandminemuseum.org There are still over 6 million unexploded mines in Cambodia. We have driven long stretches where the area by the roadside is scattered with bright red squares of plastic sticking out of the ground, with a skull and crossbones and 'Danger Mines!'.

We continued on to the ACCB driving through a village where almost every house had a water pump outside and a large plaque with the name of the donateur. It was nice to see physical evidence of what happens to donated money, I dunno about you but I'm always sceptical about what happens to that. Anyway, we were the only ones on the tour round what the locals were calling the zoo, which was good mainly because we got a private tour but also because there was no-one there to hear the fact that I didn't know what the difference between a tortoise and a turtle was, much to the amusement of the tour guide. The lowly tortoise lives on the land and the turtle lives in the water, but I'm sure you already knew that...

On the way back we stopped back in to the mine museum so I could buy a T-shirt and it immediately started pissing it down, literally torential, monsoon rain was plummeting down so we ended up waiting in the restaurant there having a few beers while John dozed off in the hammock. The butterflies wouldn't have come out in the rain anyway so we didn't mind waiting, and waiting and waiting a bit more until eventually after 3 hours we decided to leave. Just running the 5 metres to the tuktuk was like jumping in a swimming pool. Because we had almost literally buttoned down the hatches for the journey through the rain John stopped at the side of the road to roll up the canvas when it was dry. Duncan started to be hasseled by some kids that seemed to come out of nowhere whilst I was left shooting pictures of the beautiful sunset over the lake. He swapped a 20p coin for some riel with one girl and then felt guilty about not buying anything from the others and ended up handing over a bit of cash for some homemade bracelets. They are not the beezneez but it's the thought that counts. When we stepped back into the tuktuk John made us aware of the fact that it hadn't even rained here and we were only a couple of kilometres up the road.

Our last evening proved relaxed as curiosity had us have a fish spa where a tank of local river fish nibble at your feet. We both couldn't stop laughing and for the space of 20 minutes our feet wriggled and squirmed at the odd feeling. You could describe it as a very light pins and needles (from the small fish) or a gentle scratching (from the big fish). Anyhoo, I scored my charm and basically we were set to go to our next destination. Banlung.

Banlung is in the North East province of Rantanakiri in Cambodia. It proved to be a little more out of the way, jungly and independent adventure (not surrounded by 1000 or so other tourists), so we were looking for forward to our stay. Just before this we had also changed plans of ignoring Laos and were going to try a squeeze a week in before heading off to Thailand. This made Banlung an attractive stop as it has easy connections to the border of Laos. We booked a bungalow in the jungle a couple of kilometres out of town. We arrived in the dark at the bus station and took a hairy pick-up ride on the motobike (with our massive bags!) to the bungalows. The bungalows in the jungle only had electricity from 6 til 9 pm so it was going to be quite primitive the next couple of days. Oil lamps were hanging from small fence posts and lit the way around the paths which connected the bungalows to the restaurant (aka Jungle Cafe). We were to be the only guests for two days!

With the limited battery power on the laptop we managed to almost squeeze a full movie in after the electricty had gone off but were left we no other options but to go to sleep around eleven. The hut technically didn't have any windows as there were only mosquito netted squares, where windows should be, between us and the outside chirpyness of beetles and bugs. Whilst watching the movie Becca looked up at me like an inquisitive dog thats heard something that doesn't fit when a loud squeak noise seemed to be coming from the rafters. Concluding that nothing was inside the hut we took the noise for granted and guessed it might be a birdlike animal of some sorts. The hut was inbetween the dense trees and plants and the morning sun was just about enough to wake us up but not to negotiate around the place which made getting up more of a challenge.

Our first day was going to be an easy one as the travelling of the day before (ALLLLLL DAYYYY) had been enough distance coverage. An hours trek from our lodge was the Yaeklom Lake which was a volcanic lake set between the hills of rubber plantations and jungle. Our preconceptions of a mysterious lake shrouwded by lush green trees which would require pushing bushes and the like out of the way to reach were but dreams. The only other couple in the bungalows had talked to us the night before reassuring us of the fact that the lake had become more of a relaxing spot for the locals and there were refreshments available and an entry fee to pay on arrival. Once heading out, typically in the middle of the day... for some reason we have grown this habit to leave our lodgings, where ever we may be, what ever time we wake up, at the most wrong moment, making us have to suffer the boiling heat of the midday sun... we were greeted with the dry seasons impact on the jungle = dust and dead plants but also with the human clearing of ground to make way for plantations. So rather than jungley greenness we wandered through orangey burntness with the odd bush here and there. Our map was one drawn by the Yaklom Lodge where we were staying and most obviously not to scale. Still we managed to navigate the right path without stumbling into anyones cashew tree yard. It was only in Laos when we actually found out that these trees that we were constantly walking past were cashew nut trees as they grow really weirdly from the bottom of a apple/jackfruit looking fruit. They also initially do not look like nuts but like big broad beans so you can understand the confusion.

The lake, although not in the middle of nowhere and being enjoyed by many of the locals jumping off of piers into the luminous turquoise water, was quite beautiful. We managed to score a spot away from any onlookers and went for a swim. Duncan, having been told not to get his plasters wet whilst he tends the wounds from the fan incident, ended up swimming in a novel way with his arm up in the air... the royal wave stroke we shall call it. After taking a couple of dips and admiring the many bugs which inhabited the waters edge we made for the trek back to lodge and an early night spent watching the end of the film from the previous night and three quarters of a new film.

There were a couple of waterfalls around the area so we had arranged to rent a motobike to travel round the area. Trekking was not really an option as it was a. Hot and b. 18km away. Going by the same drawn map as the day before we headed off the wrong way to the waterfall. At first we managed to drive WAYYYY past the turn off that we were supposed to take and basically were completely out of town. Then we headed off what looked like the proper right after the petrolstation. Only problem here was that there were numerous petrol stations along the same route, but we were sure we were heading off in the right direction as the dirt track seemed car-worthy enough to be a tourist site. OHHH how wrong we... once AGAIN... were as about 7 or so kilometres up the track, bounding down and up dirt hills, mounds, rocks, undefinable bits, we realised... this cannot be the right way. After asking a couple of kids and other locals that happened to pass on the motobike we figured out that we had to head back. About 500m away from the main road the motobike ran out of petrol... luckily for us this turn off was... yes you guessed it... next to a petrol station (well remembered!). We filled the tank and set off to the next dirt turn off which had the waterfalls signposted. DUHHH! was definately a thought that settled whilst we trundled up a more rigorous track than before. The photo's say it all and I think most Facebookers know the couple I uploaded to the new timeline. There was a bus load of young kids and teenagers which were drenching themselves in the steep waters of the fall Chaa Ung so, ever eager for a photo opportunity we joined them under the falls and entrusted a dry onlooker with the Nikon. Of course I managed to fall on the amazingly slippy rocks but got away with a minor blood blister on a throbbing toe. Climbing up out of the falls I was greeted with enough hands to make sure each unsteady step didn't end in disaster.

As the trip had taken long enough already to find the first waterfall we decided to neglect the other two and head off up the hill to see a temple and our (I think) first reclining Buddha. The view over the valleys was amazing but not wanting to have to tread all over the shrine of the Buddha to get a good shot I kept it in the memory bank instead. For some dinner we tried to see if we could score a meal somewhere in town and came accross the more occupied Tribal Hotel. I wolfed down a chicken breast wrapped in ham with goats cheese and sun dried tomatoes whilst Dunc sunk his teeth into, what we think has been, the best pizza in South East Asia. When we got back and talked to the owner of the lodges he pointed out that we'd missed out not going to the other waterfalls, so that then made it easy to chose what to do for the next day.

We drove into town to buy our tickets to Laos, which we ironically ended up buying from the same people who we were renting the bike from. The decision was already in place to grab some lunch at the Tribal Hotel but once having gobbled yet another meal we came accross a problem, that at first did not seem so major, we only had Benjamins in our wallet. Don't be fooled in Cambodia, although the dollar funcations as a second currency, it is definately not 'all about the Benjamins baby' in Banlung. We went to two banks who refused to change the note into smaller bills, much to the locals dismay, so we made a deal with the Tribal to pay our bill later... when we came back to eat dinner. This still left us with no small change to enter the waterfalls with so we were forced to go back to our lodges and pay off the hotel bill to acquire change.

After learning from the experience of the day before we drove up the correct road towards the two remaining waterfalls. The hotel guy was not lying as we turned up to a waterfall much wider, steeper and sporting a pool to swim in. What do you want more from a waterfall? Oh yes, I forgot, stunning surroundings of cascading vines, hills and jungle greenery. For some reason Cambodians tend to swim with all their clothes on and you wouldn't be surprised to find the boys drenched in their jeans, shirt, belt, cap combo. We noticed kids washed their clothes as well as themselves in the pool so possibly this is also a reason for the fully clothed bathing option. We reached the last waterfall late in the afternoon and instead of swimming we opted to climb behind the falls to avoid another soggy bottom on the bike. Dinner was amazingly tasty once again at the Tribal and as we cashed off the bill we realised we had a 4km walk ahead of us in the dark back to the lodges. The walk was quite easy and guided by our camping torch we didn't get run over by the odd speeding vehicle that came rushing past. It's always mind boggling how many stars you can see when you are plunged into complete darkness, we really are just a small blob just like all those other blobs in the sky (I know, I put it so romantically!).

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