Catching up... Cambodia Continued!

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Greetings from Viet Nam! We're in Dalat now (weird, weird place.. but very cool!) but I'm trying to catch up, so I'm going to write about our time in Northeastern Cambodia first!
KRATIE:
We came here as a stopover from Phnom Penh. While we had a good time, it's probably not worth making the trip, but if you do decide to go, you don't need more than 2 nights. We went and saw these Irawaddy noseless dolphins (they're endangered), climbed up to this cool temple on a hill, and went to see some "rapids" (i.e. a really dirty babbling brook type thing). The temple was really fun though! The highlight of the trip though was when we rented these bicycles (push bikes). We took the local ferry over to this little island ($1 round trip) and just rode around the island. Although the ride only took about an hour, we were greeted outside every single house by about 5 little kids screaming "HELLO!!!!".. SO adorable. Everyone was just really happy and friendly (even the older folks) and it was a really great time. They also sell 75 cent bottles of whisky (called SUPER WHISKY) which made the nighttime a bit more lively as well.
SEN MONOROM:
Next, we headed to Sen Monorom, which was by far one of the biggest highlights of my entire trip so far. If you go to Cambodia, most people just do Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, and maybe Shianoukville - BUDGET EXTRA TIME IN FOR SEN MONOROM. The tiny town is set admist beautiful green hills and the Nature Lodge where we stayed allows you to live in a tiny cabin, shower under a tree, and hang out with their cows, horses (careful - one bites!! Christina had a bruise from where he nabbed her) and chickens. We spent about 5 nights here and spent 4 of them at Nature Lodge, relaxing, reading, and playing cards and another night in a hill tribe's hut. We did an amazing overnight stay which included a hike (details to come in a second), and elephant trek, and the overnight in the hut with a hill tribe, complete with a homecooked traditional meal.. all for $35!! (Nature Lodge charges $70!) We did it through Greenhouse, which is in the center of the town.

Our trek was meant to be a 6 hour leisurely trek to a waterfall, but our guide had talked to the man that we were staying with (...Mr. Hung. Yes, his name was Mr. Hung - our guide was Sum Nyan, and he was AMAZING) and Mr. Hung decided that he wanted to try something new. So, what was meant to be a 3 hour trek in and a 3 hour trek back to the village turned into an 8.5 hour Rambo-like scramble through the jungle. Mr. Hung was literally chopping down small trees with his machete to make new paths through the jungle. It. Was. Insane. We watched him climb up a tree to cut down a bit of bamboo, which he used basically as a pot to cook our food in later that night. We were attacked by leeches multiple times. Christina was stung by a wasp. We were absolutely dirty (the waterfall only helped a tiny amount) and SO sore by the end, but it was a great time. We actually weren't even able to finish the entire trek - somewhere we had taken a wrong turn, and by the time we got to the waterfall, it was almost 4:30! Our guide had to run ahead of us and get his car to come pick us up after another hour and a half of trekking post-waterfall. By the time we got to the village, it was dark. Anyway, we spent the night just hanging out with the family, drinking homemade rice wine and eating this fabulous traditional meal with eggplant cooked in a bamboo shoot over an open fire. Freaking fantastic. We slept in hammocks and fell asleep (not to mention woken up multiple times) by the cows mooing outside.

The next day, we rode elephants. Yes, we sat in the little basket thing. But we also took turns riding on the neck of the elephant. Of course, ours was the naughty one, so our driver/guide man spent the entire time off the elephant, trying to bribe it back on course with large pieces of shrubbery. We kept having to duck trees and stuff as our elephant went off into the jungle and our guide man yelled at it to come back... it was a blast. We also were able to wash our elephants in the river. Christina, Becky, and Jade were taking pictures next to one of them when the elephant decided it'd be a great time to defecate.. that was hilarious =) All in all, it was a great time and definitely recommended. We were dirty and tired and in definite need of a shower, but it was SO worth it. Riding on an elephant is a scary endeavour, but once you get used to it, it's ok. Christina, being the tiny being that she is, was able to wiggle her way around enough to find comfort; for me, being the awkward human being that I am, the ride was not as relaxing! The basket is a safe bet though if you're feeling a bit wobbly =)

After Sen Monorom, we headed back to Phnom Penh for a few nights. We're now in Viet Nam. We miss Cambodia a great deal, but we're looking forward to future adventures. I'll write more soon about our time so far in Viet Nam - including the canal tour through the MeKong Delta, the time when I took a shot of a live, beating heart of a cobra, the Cu Chi tunnels, getting incredibly intoxicated at the absolutely beautiful beach of Mui Ne, hanging out with Gordon Ramsey (the guy from Hell's Kitchen), and taking photos with a MASSIVE Happy Buddha!

Hope all is well at home!!

***IMPORTANT UPDATE***
As some of you may know, Christina is doing a return trip to the U.S. and then back here at the end of July. What this means for us is that we are going to be continuing our travels for quite longer than we originally planned. Here is our tentative itinerary:
Now - end of June: Viet Nam
July: Laos and Northern Thailand (Christina leaves from Bangkok on July 25th)
July 25th-July 31st: Southern Thailand, where my friend Charis that I met studying abroad in France will be
July 31st-August 10th: A completely silent 10-day Buddhist meditation retreat
August 10th-14th: Bangkok (Christina returns on the 13th)
Mid-August - Mid/Late September: Malaysia (Borneo included!), Singapore, Indonesia, and (fingers crossed!) East Timor
Late September - Mid-November: INDIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mid-November - Late November: I'm hoping to take a quick trip to England and Ireland during this time to "recharge my batteries" - round trip tickets are ridiculously cheap and Molly is going to be in Ireland doing her master's, and I reaaally want to see her. This will be the midpoint of my trip, so I think it'll be perfect. We'll see what the money situation is at that point, but I'm really hoping this bit works out.
Late November - June 2011: NEPAL! =)

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