Back to Cambodia for a heartbeat...
Along with some other RDI volunteers I took a trip to Koh Kong, a place near the Thai border in southern Cambodia.
It was a really interesting trip that took us across rice paddies with the strange looking water buffalo, rivers that were dredging up white sands to fill in distant lands in Singapore and nearby lakes in Phnom Penh, to bus stops with yummy coconut cakes, and winding through the cardamom mountains, and skirting the gulf of Thailand.
It was a long bus trip, but an interesting one. Oh, and I shouldnt forget to mention that the bus hit a moto and its driver about 5 minutes after we left the station (arguably the moto hit the bus), but it still caused us about a 2 hour delay, chilling outside the police station. It sucked, but the woman seemed distressed, and for all the lack of justice in this country, I was happy that this driver was reprimanded for doing something wrong...he tried to just drive away.
While we were in Koh Kong we stayed at some cool guesthouses and hotels, and took a trip up the river that runs along side the town up for about 45 min on a motor boat to a smooth-rocked water fall...it kind of reminded me of the French River in Ontario, with different vegetation...and rolling mountains in the background...but still. We explored and relaxed on the big old rocks and swam in the water and time just slipped by and got very sunburnt!
It was surprisingly peaceful and deserted even just outside of town. There were a few houses along the river banks, but mostly the banks were covered in mazes of mangrove forests and islands. We didn't see very much wildlife, though on the drive in I saw a warning road sign for elephants...like the ones you see at home for deer or moose. I thought that was pretty cool!
The water was also quite clean, although supposedly upstream they are constructing a damn, so that could change the quality of the water in the future.
While in our hotel we relaxed by the beautiful pool, had some drinks, watched a movie and ate some yummy food. On our last night we had dinner at a lovely french restaurant on piers that overlooked the river, and had a beautiful sunset. There is something about the sky in Cambodia that is just so captivating. I think it may be because its so flat here, there is just so much sky to see...spoken like a born and raised urbanite who isn't used to seeing so much sky!
Warning, elephant crossing!
We swam upstream of this river - it was cleaner there!
Our boat ride up the river
Cardamom mountains in the distance...you had to be there to appreciate it!
our boat
Is that a person in the distance on the rock??
Oui! C'est moi! I swam and climbed all over these cool rocks! Oh to explore
Where the sunburning happened. We also were able to slide down the rocks like a water slide! Now, its not advisable to swim in freshwater in developing countries...I may have schistosomiasis or some such bug now.
The waterfalls
Some of the cool vegetation around us
Mangroves! Mangrove forests are truly fascinating...living in salt and fresh water...mazes of islands dotted the river as we went up, and on the way back we ventured into some of them...super cool...almost uninhabitable, for lack of actual land on these islands. It reminded me of the weird island that Pi comes upon in life of Pi...
And here are some pictures of the main hotel we stayed at - it was fantastic!
Relaxing hammocks...hammocks are very very common in Cambodia, not just at nice hotels but in everyones homes!
And that was Koh Kong. There were also jungle treks that you can do from there in nearby national parks that would have been amazing to do, perhaps another time!
It's true, it does look very French River-ish. Have fun on the road.
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