Eleven and a half!

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Fuel Efficiency - Cambodia Style

We arrived in Banlung after a 6 hour journey through some non-paved roads from Kratie. We took a 'shared taxi' to get there. When we booked it, we were told there would be 4 in the front and 4 in the back and so we weren't sure what type of vehicle it would be - perhaps a mini-bus, we thought. We were wrong. A toyota corolla turned up and we jumped in. We were the only passengers and thought to ourselves 'nice one' - we've got loads of space and Chris managed to bag the front seat to himself.

Anyway, 30 minutes later, there were 4 people in the front, 4 adults in the back, two children and three birds. There were two people in the driving seat - one driver, and one passenger. It was definitely a leson in fuel efficiency. Anyway, after a reasonably bumpy (but nowhere near as bad as I expected) drive and one flat tyre we got left off at the Tribal guest house in Banlung.

Tough Negotiations

Here we did some of the easiest negotiations for the price of a room - along the lines of:

'Me: Do you have any rooms with hot water and a real toilet
Guesthouse staff: Yes, let me show you
Me: Looks nice, how much are they?
Guesthouse staff: Hmm, Maybe 10 or 15 dollars
Me: We just spoke to someone who said they are paying 5 dollars for the same type of room
Guesthouse staff: Yes, but that was a special rate and they weren't supposed to tell anyone
Me: Oh, that doesn't seem very fair we should pay more
Guesthouse staff: hmmm, ok then, 5 dollars, but don't tell anyone else. '

So, that was 2.5 dollars each for a room with hot water, air-conditioning and a tv. Not bad.

Anyway, that afternoon we hired a couple of bicycles and rode around banlung red dirt roads and seen aa waterfall and went for a bit of a swim.

Banlung Colour

The next day we hired a couple of Mopeds and went off to see the crater lake near Banlung, which was beautiful and nice to walk around for an hour, and really nice to swim in. I had a slightly surreal moment where I ended up speaking in my pidgeon French with a local guy for about 5 minutes - eventually he asked if I spoke English, and we were able to have a proper chat then. Turns out he speaks about 8 or 9 different languages and he was only 18 years old!

Anyway, in the afternoon we headed off in search of some more waterfalls, which where nice to, but the journey there was fun. We got lost on the way there and ended up motoring along some pretty dodgy roads on our little mopeds - you can see from the picture of chris just how dirty we were getting - it was awesome fun! Anyway, we had an earlyish night that night, as the next morning we were heading of on a trek.

Trekking Time

Now, we were initially a little dissappointed about where we were going on the trek - we were going into the 'community forest' and not the bigger 'national park' as we were going on a 3 day trek. We were told that if you really want to see the national park properly you need at least 7-10 days to get into it far enough.

We met up with our guide Narin (27 years old), who was a well educated, clever, funny, local man who talked to us about local customs (including the main Khymer tradition anbd the ethnic communities). He also spoke a lot about how he is hoping to set up an English school in Banlung to help the local community. We also had a member of one of the local villages as a guide (who spoke no English) as he knew the maze of paths through the forest. We arrived at our first camp by 1pm, but we were soon off again to find some bamboo and some rattan (a type of vegetable contained within a spiky weed-like plant). Before we headed off, we went for a quick dip in a pool, and set up a net to catch some fish for dinner.

After another few hours we returned to the camp, to find our nets full of fish (well, about 12 of them) and set up our hammocks, and started the fire for cooking. Our guides then set about preparing dinner, chopping vegetables, cleaning and descaling fish, and cooking rice and rattan in some bamboo sticks. We were starving by the time dinner came around, but it was really tasty stuff and worth the wait. That evening we then had a game of cards, where we taught them how to play Cheat. Despite the fact it took over an hour to get the basic rules figured out (not helped by Narin translating his incorrect versions of the rules to our local guide) they still managed to beat us at our own game...

After a reasonably good nights sleep in our luxury hammocks, we got up, made breakfast (more rice, more fish and more veg) and set off for another day of trekking through the forest. The forest itself is absolutely full of brambly spiky things which cut you everywhere - its all a lot worse for Chris though - our guides are both pretty small, and the paths through the forest are made by local people who do tend to smaller than me or Chris. So, Chris either has to stoop most of the day or get entangled in spiders webs and throny bushes. Unlucky for him.

Still, its all good fun and its pretty physical trekking which is good - normally when we go trekking we generally get people in the group who are pretty slow and mean you can't go at a reasonable pace - since it was only us two as clients, we got to go at our own pace all the time which made a nice, if tiring, change. After several hours, we arrived in some cashew nut farms - not large places but really pretty to look at, and they smell really nice. After another hour or so, we arrived at the local village for what was to become a very memorable evening and morning.

I'm sure the river water is fine to drink...

Soon after we arrived, we went for a walk around the village to see what was going on - pretty soon we were invited into one of the houses to sample some rice wine. These guys were pretty wasted already and made for entertaining hosts. Like all good drunk people everywhere in the world, the fact that we couldn't understand a word they were saying made no difference to them - they just shouted louder and laughed harder! Then our turn came to try out the local liquor. The rice wine is place in a large ceramic pot, amd left there to ferment with some "stuff" on top of it to help the taste. Then, they put a thick straw through the stuff down to the rice wine, and you drink out of the straw. However, as you drink, they continue to add water to every now and again to top up the volume, until it becomes too weak to drink anymore. So, basically by drinking this stuff, you are signing yourself up for driinking some untreated, unfiltered local river water. We accepted immediately.

They decided we each had to drink two full cups worth (measured by refiulling the pot with 2 cups of water) and after that we could understand why our hosts were a little tipsy. Anyway, we chatted with them for a little while before heading off for the main business of the day - dinner.

Dinner time

We'd now spoken to Narin about the possibilities for dinner, asking him if we could invite some of the villagers to join us. He decided that we could, but we'd need to buy a couple of things first - namely a couple of extra chickens and another pot of rice wine. After some scouting around the village, and following some negotiations, we paid 5 dollars for our groceries. Only problem was, the chickens were still alive. After a little thought, sceats proposed that we should kill the chickens ourselves (the argument being something along the lines of - if we can't do it we should be vegetarians, as its hypocritcal otherwise) and Narin said fair enough, he'd show us what to do.

Right of passage?

So, 10 minutes later we were in the hut where we would eat and sleep that night, getting ready to kill our chickens. So, their legs were already bound, we put one foot on its wing, one on its feet, and curled one hand round its neck. Narin plucked out some feather from its neck to show us where to cut. We took the knife out and after a few quick saws, and a bit of twitching the birds were dead. Surprisingly, I found it pretty easy to do, and I'm glad I did it.

Anyway, we then put the chickens in boiling water and plucked them, before handing them back to be chopped and cooked. In the mean time we chatted to some of the local guys - they really liked the photos on my camera - particularly the ones with snow covered mountains, and a couple of pictures I have of Mark climbing in the Alps. We then ate dinner together (including our chicken - a bit bony to be honest), had some rice wine (the locals drinking a lot more than us - they seem to like it a lot over here) had a few more chats and played some cards, before going to sleep.

"They're slaughtering a pig, if you want to see"

That's how Narin woke us up at 6 that morning. Apparently one of the villagers was building a house, and one of his relatives had a dream the night before that he should sacrifice a pig to share with the village to keep the gods happy. We missed the ritual before the slaughter, but as we came out of our hut, we saw the pig lying on the ground with its legs tied togther, and a large stick put between its legs. There was also a man stood beside it with a large stick. He beat it over the head about 6 or 7 times, with the pig squealing each time. It was pretty brutal to watch. He then took a knife to it, and cut it, but it was obviously still alive, kicking and screaming. However, they obviously decided it was good enough, and carried it (using the stick between its legs) across to a fire. They then held it over the fire to allow them to more easily remove the hairs from its body with a stick. Meanwhile the pig was still screaming. Eventually someone got another knife and cut it again. The pig squealed some more and eventually it died. We though it was pretty brutal. The villagers were laughing and the kids looked on nonchalantley - not that surprising since I'm sure they see it all the time. However, it was a bit of an eye opener to us to say the least.

Anyway, a few minutes later they took the pig off to was it in the river, and we went back to our hut for some breakfast. We had a nice pre-breakfast snack of ice lollies from some guy who'd driven into town from one of the bigger towns nearby. We spoke to Narin about donating some money to the local school - nothing much, just 10 dollars each, as a way of saying thank you for the hospitality the village had shown us. Narin said he'd find out who we should give the money to. He came back to tell us we would now go and do a presentation in the local school-house to the teachers and some village leaders. Although a bit embarassing as we didn't feel we were giving very much, it was pretty touching and it actually felt like we were really helping them out which was nice.

Old before his time

Anyway, after a minor juggling show by Narin, Chris and myself, we headed off for the final day of our trek. By the end of another 6 hours of walking we were pretty knackered and glad to see the village of our local guide, where we'd be picked up by motorbike and taken back to Banlung. We politely declined the offer to go and see the open coffin and 'party'of a local man who had died that week - he was apparently pretty old - when we asked what that meant we were told he was in his 50's!

Anyway, we went back to Banlung, exchanged contact details and pictures with Narin, and headed for a well-deserved sleep.

Maybe tomorrow, I'll wanna settle down...

Next morning we were up early again to get a 10 hour bus journey to a place called Komphon Cham where we would stay for the night before heading up to Siem Reap the next day on another 5 hour journey. The journey was bumpy, but not too bad, but you could say I had a bit of a dodgy tummy, so it felt like the longest bus journey of my life. Maybe that untreated water isn't that good for you afterall...

Still, I would do it all again as it was an absolutely awesome few days.

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Photos

Banlung Tan
This is what happens when you get a moped in Banlung

Cheat!
The khymer's show us how to play cards.

Smallest house in the world?
2 people sleep in this house when they are tending their cashew nut farms

Comments

[Chris McC]

You Monster
Have you been possessed the look in your eyes killing that poor chicken isn’t good you monster… The finished article looks pretty tasty mind!!!