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Published: September 11th 2008
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So we have had a rollercoaster ride over the last few days aided by the remainder of a Chinese storm that has meant it has rained non stop for the last 4 days. Our Elephant trek was amazing and all the better for the fact that it was just us off the beaten trail, accompanied by a huge elephant (who we named Nelly, how original), our guide who spoke a bit of English and was called Muff (that is not a joke), and a father (elephant driver) and his cleaver weilding son who were both from the Pnong minority that live out in this province, who barely spoke Cambodian let alone english. The first morning was very leisurely plodding along whilst Nelly devestated anything which even remotely in her way by either eating it, or smashing it out the way with her trunk! We had lunch by a Waterfall which is when the heavens opened and they have not stopped since. We kept quite dry in the afternoon and arrived at our luxury accomodation for the night. A wooden hut, dirt floor, bamboo platform to sit on and a rather fetching hammock/mossi net combination. We were accompanied by a family of
chickens and a crazy cat. The hut is used by the Pnong people as a half way home between rice farms and their village. There seemed to be none of them around whilst we stayed, we are not sure if this was a shame or a blessing. The fire was lit in the middle of the hut so were all completely smokedout (at least it kept the mossi's away) and were a little confused when dinner was served at half 4 (how they made such a yummy meal on the little fire we have no idea). We ate and cracked out the cards to try and teach our guide some games. We ended up playing the same game about 5000 times...so many times even the 8 year cleaver wielding child who could not commuticate with any of us managed to pick up the game and beat us one too many times! It was pitch black by half six and we got sick of head torches by half 7 so hit bed (hammock...which even though it was a all in one net/hammock Mark still managed to fall out of it and snap some bamboo). Lets just say it wasnt our best
nights sleep, aided even more by the fact we were woken at 5.30 by the resident chickens sharing our hut...we were not impressed. By 8.30 we had packed up, eaten the saltiest omlette every created and were on our way. The rain was still thudding down yet we still enjoyed looking around the near untouched jungle. Again we had luch by a waterfall, thankfully we found a little hut for some shelter and plodded on for another couple of hours back to the minority village. We were amazed at how much the elephant ate, how easily she could snap a tree lying in the way with her trunk but yet how stable she was up all the steep hills and walking through the rivers/rapids. After saying goodbye to Nelly we hit the "road" back to Sen Monorom, both on the back of bikes. Considering it was an undulating road of mud we are suprised we made it back relitavely clean. We slipped and slided and Marks driver even lost his shoe but we got back. We ordered some 'special' hot water for the room which arrived 15 minutes later in a giant thermose so we had "showers" in the dark
and headed out for food as soon as the electricity came on. We had a feast and crashed out exhausted yet some what dissapointed we could not make the most of our electricty before it went off at 10pm. Our original plan was to stay for the day, hire a bike and explore but the rain had made this impossible so we took the advice to get out of there while we could. We went for the 'luxury minibus' in the hopes of more space. We did indeed have more room yet they still crammed in an extra person for every row of seats (even with some people sat on the roof). The driver seemed to think of himself as a drifting rally driver as we skidded down the road to the sound of Cambodian Macaraena blasting in our ears. We narrowly skidded past one car and span round once but made it some 7 hours later to Pnom Penh where we had a recouperation night at the same hostel and returned to the same homely restaurant we enjoyed last time. It turned out the restaurant was owned by a man who survived the Khmer Rouge regime unlike the rest
of his family as he explained their fate to us. He now lectured at various universities in South East Asia (and obviously had a PhD) all for the grand total of $50 per month. He was fascinating to chat toand obviously was still deeply resentful towards certain parties (mainly UN and USA) for their help in the regime and lack of it afterwards.
Today we had what feels like our millionth pre 7am rise (today was 5.30...far to early for ex stundents) for our bus to Ho Chi Minh. It was a pretty trouble free journey and dropped us right by the backpacker hub. We sorted a good room and have booked up our next few days and bus out of here afterwards. This evening we treated ourselves after all of our terrible travel to a massage at the blind insitute so we had a hour long body massage each from blind ladies supported and trained by the insitute. It was a little different but we still really enjoyed it and it was nice to know our money was going to a good cause.
Tomorrow we will be visiting the Cu Chi tunnels used by the Viet Cong during the
war with the US. In the afternoon we have agreed to go to a local school and help with the English club so we assume we will just be chatting to the kids...although for some reason Mark has been warned he must cover his knees...all a little odd! We will let you know. The following 2 days we have booked a Mekong Delta tour where we will see the islands, and the floating market amongst other things. We will then be off the Dalat on a night bus.
Hope all is well at home x
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Caroline
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Cool Pics!
Hey guys, looks like you're having a fab time! XCaroline (Simon sent me the link!)