Waterfalls, water and falls

I’ve been meaning to take some photos of the countryside in Mondulkiri because it’s very beautiful and quite different from most of the rest of Cambodia – green, hilly and sometimes misty rather than hot, flat and humid. But I keep forgetting, so until I remember you’ll have to use Google images.

It’s been a good few weeks. We have a cat in order to kill the mice that are living in the walls, floors and ceilings. I was a bit worried for the first few days because it spent about two hours chasing a plastic peg thinking it was an animal, so I did wonder whether we’d accidentally got ourselves a bit of a special cat. But two days ago it emerged triumphantly with its first mouse, so that’s good. I’ve also started running with Jeltje who knows lots of lovely routes, so that’s been good. We briefly took up volleyball, probably Cambodia’s most popular sport, because Chak was keen on getting two tall Europeans to join his team. After two fairly embarrassing sessions (the neighbour asked at one point if we were playing volleyball or just practising throwing the ball into the bushes), Chak hasn’t mentioned playing again, so I think he may have changed his mind. Another friend called Hong has invited me to play football, so at the risk of repeating the experience of joining Tremp’s football team when in Spain (billed as the new young striker from Liverpool and substituted off after four and a half minutes) I will be making my debut soon. We’ve also had lots of nice dinners and I have a few friends to do language exchanges with, including one (Hong) who is a bit keen and turned up at 7.15 last Sunday morning. Jeltje and I have also started having Khmer lessons which is good, as for the first few weeks here I barely spoke any Khmer and was beginning to forget what I’d learned in Kampong Cham. We’ve also seen some really excellent teaching, including one class with 73 students where the teacher did group reading (one book between 12), had the whole class absolutely under control and completely engaged in the book.

A different but equally good lesson involving drama.

And now to this week’s ill-fated ‘team building’ expedition to a waterfall in rural Oreang district. The VSO team – Jeltje, Daniel, Chak, To and I – stocked up on barbecue food and headed off across narrow dirt tracks through metre-high grass over some beautiful hills and forests. We had barbecued beef and vegetable skewers dipped in a delicious black pepper and lime sauce (try it – lots of pepper and the juice of a few limes) and played cards. 

At around 2pm To left, with Chak confident he knew the way back. About an hour later the weather seemed to be turning, so we packed up and left too. Within five minutes it was raining and our bikes were sliding all over the place in the mud. Not having driven in mud before, I was the first to fall but actually all of us fell off a few times in the afternoon, even Chak and Daniel who are very experienced in motorbiking. Luckily, there were three bikes between four (Chak having left his in Phnom Penh), so being the least experienced I went on the back with Chak. The rain was unrelenting and the paths were sometimes unpassable, so Jeltje and I spent a lot of the time pushing one of the bikes which was very tiring and even then we were sliding in the mud. Spirits remained high until it became clear that we were completely lost, the tracks were petering out into nothing, and it was four-thirty, leaving us with just an hour of light left. At one point we saw what looked like a proper road a few miles across the valley, and in the absence of any kind of path we were seriously contemplating going directly across the steep hills and thick forests to get there. It was looking like we might have to spend the night outside in the rain in the middle of the forest, and it struck me then that there is no safety net in Cambodia – no mountain rescue, no emergency number we could call, no mobile phone reception anyway, and not even a house in sight anywhere.

At this point I thought taking a photo might cheer us up. It didn't. 

We decided to take the path in the opposite direction which soon became wider and looked a bit more promising, although it was still very slippy. We were all relieved when the path emerged onto a wide road with a sign for the Vietnam-Cambodia border, so we took the opposite direction as the weather became dark and misty. Although the road was wider, it was still very difficult at times (I was on the back with Chak so I didn’t have to drive) and it was worryingly long – at one point we joked, half-seriously, that we might have ended up in Vietnam and were now heading further and further away from the Cambodian border.

Finally we emerged onto the tarmac road and were soon coming into Sen Monorom, just in time to fill up with petrol and get some food. I think it was only then that we realised how cold and soaked we were, but it was a great feeling to be back home and safe, warming ourselves with hot tea and soup. 

So, another week another adventure! We also now have a five-day weekend so we are heading to Phnom Penh to meet up with some volunteers and celebrate the water festival. I will also be stocking up on teabags!