Jungle trekking in Chi Phat!

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February 28th 2011

Published: February 28th 2011

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Lucy and Rikki

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something out of avatar??

Krong Koh Kong and it's surrounding areas boasts a number of ecotourism and trekking opportunities and we decided to move south to try and do some trekking in a small, rural town called Chi Phat. We took a pleasant boat ride from a nearby town called Anduong Tuek to get there!

When we got off the boat at Chi Phat, we were both immediately surprised at how clean this village was, with bins lining it's central (and only) dirt path; the first 'rural' place we have seen them, normally the streets are full of litter. The village has an amazing ecotourism set up, with many options to choose from including a 2 day and 1 night jungle trek which we decided to do! It is run in cooperation with the wildlife alliance and you can really see the benefits it has for both the local community and the environment, providing the locals with an alternative income to logging or poaching. It has positively affected over 100 families, providing a range of jobs including our accommodation, which was in the form of a homestay.
The trek was great and pretty tiring in parts due to the heat. We began with

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some bird watching (much to lucys excitement) in little rowing boats and then began the overland trek through the leech ridden jungle! The leeches were a right pain at first as we wern't prepared for them, you think you have got rid of them all but then find them hours later up the tops of your trousers... Bleh! We both got caught quite bad resulting in lots of blood stained clothes!
Whilst trekking through the jungle we could hear lots but never managed to get good sightings, the wildlife was all too elusive for us! At one point we went right of the beaten track running through and under the bushes tracking a group of monkeys which felt rather adventurous! We also camped out in the jungle overnight in Army hammocks which was pretty damn cool, falling asleep and waking up to the sounds of gibbons and birds was bliss and was surprisingly comfortable!

To make our onward journey, we returned to Anduong Tuek via moped, which was an interesting ride as the rain had churned up the dirt roads into a muddy slosh pit!

We then made our way to the beaches of Sihanoukville for some post-trekking