Vang Vieng

Vang Vieng is a town that used to be famous for its free flowing backpacker scene, and wild party atmosphere. After one too many incidents (there were some pretty bad ones), things cracked down significantly and while there is still a fair backpacker scene, it's not as loose and crazy as it once was. The locals told us that mid-September should be when the tourism numbers start to pick up again after the low season, but it was still pretty quiet when we arrived. The Nam Song river runs through town and is at the heart of the tourist trade, with large mountains rising starkly from the surrounding valley. One of the big activities is floating down the river on old tyre tubes, and visiting the bars dotted along the side - now all groups have to have a guide, limiting how many drinks can be had - one of the controls put into place to curb the worst of the incidents (who would have thought that activity could lead to trouble!). 

We decided against the river-based activities for the one full day we had there, and instead booked a hike in an area out of town, visiting some caves and local villages along the way. Our guide, On, was great and we started by hiking through a Hmong village, which included a transit across the schoolyard. The kids were very funny, with only the bravest coming up to say "hello". We got some smiles by replying in the (recently acquired) local "yoyong". Being close to the foot of the mountains, the walk showed off some of the spectacular scenery in the area, and we walked along a stream (co-opted to provide irrigation for the rice fields), to get to our first cave for the day. 

This was a water cave, which is to say it was full of water and the source of the stream we had been walking along. It was time to strip off, jump on some old tyre tubes and explore the cave, through means of a rope system you can pull yourself along. The most confronting part was getting inside, as the entrance was very low to the water level, but once inside it opened out, with head torches providing enough illumination to see what you were doing. And to scare off some of the small bats clinging to the ceiling. We weren't game to take phones inside while floating on the tubes, so no photos, but it was a lot of fun and interesting to explore the cave this way. After a transit of about 400 metres, we could turn around and float back down with the current - taking care not to bang heads on the low points or cave walls. Perhaps the most remarkable part of it all was that we were the only ones inside, with the second group of visitors for the day only arriving as we exited back out into the sunlight. 

It was then on to the next couple of cave visits, which first required tickets. Naturally, the ticket seller was a friend and neighbour of our guide, and immediately offered some of his home made rice whiskey. We managed to politely refuse, although it was a close run thing! These caves were a bit different from others we had visited, with a lack of infrastructure which resulted in scrambling through the cave rocks and floors "au naturelle". The first had a spectacular cavern, even in the dimly lit headtorch light. The effect was definitely enhanced by the lack of any paths or walkways. Gillian was less impressed when we spotted a giant cave spider, but it wasn't so interested in us as we scurried past. Both caves had Buddhist shrines, and are still active worship sites, even with high tourist activity (although we were fortunate enough to have them to ourselves).

Lunch was next on the agenda, and we had requested local food when we booked the trip. This excited our guide enough to rope in his wife to cook for us, and we had one of our best meals in Laos as a result, with a whole grilled fish, laab, (super hot!) papaya salad and omelette. And also sticky rice, of course. It wasn't clear that the amount of exercise we had done justified the sumptuous feast, but we ate it all anyway. Sep lai. Lunch was at one of the "blue lagoons" that dot the area around Van Vieng, and it was spectacular setting, as well as a great place to have a dip and cool off a bit after lunch. It came complete with plenty of fish, who would nibble on you if you stayed motionless for too long. With few tourists, we felt fortunate to experience without a big crowd - although it got busier as we got ready to leave. 

The final part of the day took us to another local village, with a temple set up in a cave. It is famous for its "elephant rock", which does look remarkably like an elephant. The effect was ruined somewhat when our guide explained the trunk was added with concrete to cement the effect. Gillian was excited to cross another rickety suspension bridge to get back to the car and drive back into town, and after relaxing for the rest of the afternoon (and packing) we found a quiet little local place for another tasty dinner.

Plain of Jars

The next stop was Phonsavan, 350km from Vientiane. After investigating the options, we decided to fly from Pakse to Vientiane, then on to Phonsavan. The second flight was about 30 mintues vs 10 hours or so (not a typo!) for a van, so it was an easy choice. Phonsavan is in Xieng Khouang province, which was astride a central trade route through South East Asia in the past, and the central hub of the Siamese/Thai kingdom for a while. Phonsavan itself is a provincial town, although with a population of over 250,000 people, and did not have a lot of immediate tourist amenity, especially in the off season. However, it is the jumping off point to explore the Plain of Jars. 

We had arranged a day tour with a very engaging guide - Souk - to go and explore some of the local Plain of Jars sites. There are over 100 scattered across the central mountain region of Laos, and sites 1, 2 and 3 were in the immediate vicinity. The days started with a drive to visit a local rice noodle making family, who supply restaurants all the way to Vientiane - the climate makes for particularly good sticky rice apparently, which then translates to in demand noodles. The whole process is still done by hand, with up to 100 kg a day of noodles being produced (per family). There was an obligatory taste test of some of the products, including giant (sweet) rice crackers. We also visited Muang Khoun, which was a capital of the Lao kingdom, right up to the French colonisation, and was also a centre for the resistance during the Indochina wars, against the French and then the Americans. As a result, there has been an enormous amount of damage from bombs (and more direct willful destruction), with just the remains of an old Buddha statue that miraculously avoided destruction in a bombing raid, as well as a stupa said to contain relics of Buddha. It was a sobering reminder/education about the long difficulties with Western hegemony in that part of the world. The damage is still being felt, in a very real way, to this day. Not least through the vast amount of unexploded ordinance that remains scattered throughout the landscape.

The main attraction, though, was the Plain of Jars sites. These are megalithic stone jars, that have been carved in one piece from remote quarries and moved to various different sites. They date from 2,500 to 1,500 years ago, and the purpose to this day remains uncertain. There are some other similar sites in the sub-continent and Indonesia, but Lao has by far the largest collection, scattered throughout the mountain region. The first site we went to had about 70 jars located on the top of a hill, which is the most common siting. The ranged up to 2.5m tall, and mostly were about 1 metre in diameter. Archeological study over the last 100 or so years has found associated skeletons, ceramics and some jewelry buried around and under the jars, which leads to speculation that they were part of some funerary practises. But no one knows for sure. Local legend says that the were for storing alcohol in celebration of a great victory of the local king 2000 years ago, and there are also legends of giants using them as cups. Regardless, the site was awe-inspiring and mesmerising as we wandered through the arrangement of jars on the hill. 

The second site we visited included a walk through local rice fields and amongst grazing water buffalo up to the jars themselves. It was sobering to see signs warning people to keep on the designated path to avoid getting blown up by unexploded bombs (cluster bombs in particular have left a brutal legacy). Thankfully, at this and the other sites we visited, the signs are now outdated and the whole area has been cleared. Other parts of the country are not so lucky. The jars at the second site we visited were from the same quarry as the first, but differed somewhat in shape and size. There was a large bomb crater in the middle of the site, but mostly the jars have been undamaged, other than by the ravages of time. they were no less awe-inspiring than the previous location.

The final site we visited was close to Phonsavan itself, and contains the biggest single collection of Jars. They are mostly made from different material - the first two we visited were mostly sandstone, while the site near the town has jars mostly made of granite. It also contains the biggest diameter jar in the whole collection, of over 2 metres. Many of the jars at this site were broken apart by Chinese bandits in the 1800s, who had come raiding into the area, but it was no less amazing to wander through the site. There is also a cave, which is used as a local Buddhist shrine, and contains two man made holes in the roof. Speculation is that it was a cremation site for remains that were subsequently buried with the jars.  

All in all, it was amazing to explore this lesser known attraction in Laos, and we gained an appreciation of the whole region. Once we had spent some time exploring, it was clear that you could come back for a week or more to spend some time looking through the area, visiting some of the other natural attractions, as well as more of the Plain of Jars sites. As we left, we already had ideas for a future visit... 

Ancient temple and a big waterfall

One of the big attractions in Champasak is the ancient temple of Vat Phou. This is one of the oldest places of worship in South East Asia, having been significant to many religions over a long period of time. Naturally, having seen many temples during the course of getting to Lao, we weren't completely sure how novel this one would be, but it turned out to be one of the most spectacular. The site is located beneath a prominent mountain with a peak shaped like a lingar (think phallic...). This being a prominent symbol of Shiva, it was a natural place to site a temple in the Angkor period. Previously, it had been a site for local animistic worship for pretty much as long as people have been in the area. There was a road that connected the site to Angkor Wat almost 1000 years ago, and a close relationship between the two sites. 

A natural spring flows all year round and exits relatively close to the base of the mountain. As the water runs from the linga, there is a yoni receptacle, mirroring the arrangements we first encountered in My Son. Again, the water flowing from the yoni is said to bring good fortune and the temple remains an active site of worship (currently Buddhist). 

Being part way up the mountain, the setting is spectacular and the highest of the seven levels gives a glorious view back over the Mekong River. The site is under restoration/preservation and includes the remains of the initial men's and women's prayer halls at the bottom of the site (along with the large ponds for ritual bathing), with a series of stairways climbing up to the main temple and spring. There is a Buddha statue in the crumbling temple, as well as the remains of much bigger structures that used to exist there. 

They include carvings on the rocks of an elephant, crocodile and snakes, with a local legend that the crocodile carving was also used for human sacrifice (of a virgin girl, of course). Further research suggests that this is likely apocryphal. Even after visiting a huge variety of temples across Asia, this one was well worth visiting. There is also a pretty good museum at the entrance to the site, with a range of old artefacts from this site, and others.

Further south, at the border between Lao and Cambodia on the Mekong River, is a huge section of rapids, or waterfalls (how big does a rapid have to be to qualify?), known as the 4000 islands. This is an awe-inspiring demonstration of the huge flows in the Mekong, especially visiting at the end of the wet season. This section of the river is not navigable (the thought alone is terrifying), and was the major barrier to the French using the river as a major source of commerce throughout the region, when they were the dominant colonial power in that part of the world. We visited two of the biggest sections of the falls, which run through a series of large, inhabited, islands in that section of the river. First were the Li Phi falls, next to the island of Don Khong. These were wide, with a large volume of water flowing through. The level was high enough that we were unfortunately cut off from one of the viewing platforms, which had the bridge washed away. 

The second falls were the Khone Phapheng falls, which we could visit from the Eastern bank of the river. We arrived at what must be close to the peak flow, and the volume of water through here was astounding, up to 11,000 cubic metres a second. They were a potent demonstration of why the French (or anyone else) gave up on the project of making the river navigable along its length. As well as yet another demonstration of the importance of the Mekong to life and agriculture throughout South East Asia. 

Jungle and Canoeing

From Vientiane we headed south, almost to the Cambodian border, to Pakse in Champasak province. Although, to be fair, the resort we stayed at was about 1.5 hours further south. The trip included a very rough dirt road for the last 30 minutes, which we got to know quite well over the next few days as we got out and about... The place we had chosen to stay (Kingfisher Eco Lodge) was on the edge of a wetland, which in turn was at the edge of the Xe-Pian National Biodiversity Conservation Area. We found ourselves housed in a bungalow built over the top of the water (at least at the end of the wet season), and we were the sole occupants of the entire place for most of our stay. This did put the pressure on when we went for meals to have the two waitresses, the waiter/guide who spoke English, the manager and the driver/general handyman all waiting for us.

There were a selection of activities to chose from and we picked a day long jungle trek with a local villager, which finished in a visit to an old temple. The day started out a little drizzly, but dried up pretty quickly, and the walk through the edge of the national park was a fascinating experience. Our local guide showed us a huge variety of different plants and described their uses (through our trusty guide/translator, Wong), which included taste testing a range of different edible plants. He also had a wicked sense of humour, cutting a branch of a plant whose sap is used to help prevent/treat malaria and giving us a taste. It was outrageously bitter, leaving a taste in our mouths for hours. After grinning at us he shared that they mix it with hot water and honey to drink - which makes a lot more sense! We also were able to sample water from a water vine that he cut open - this was much more palatable, and a key source of hydration in the dry season when walking through the jungle.

We happened upon a couple of (small) snakes, one of which hunts worms, as well as coming across a trap that hadn't been checked, but contained a big, dead lion snake. The locals hunt them for food, and so our guide took the snake, beheaded it and stuffed the rest in his backpack to take back to the village for dinner. It had only been slightly nibbled on by some freaky looking centipede... All-in-all the trek was great, and we were able to add mud from Lao jungle to the decent layer of Cambodia jungle mud from previously. We spent some time afterwards looking for scrubbing brushes that would allow us to clean the boots before returning to Australia.

The trek finished at an old temple call Vat Phou Asa, which is located on a hill overlooking the wetlands and above Ban Kiet Ngong, the village close to the resort. It is an ancient Buddhist temple, although little remains apart from some overgrown ruins and a stupa, as well as 108 stone pillars which defined the boundary of the precinct. It was also once used as a fortress in the area. It was a spectacular end to the hike, with great views over the wetlands and including a place to remount elephants - up until recently one of the attractions was an elephant ride up the hill to see the ruins. At the edge of the site, under a small ledge on the side of the hill, is a Buddhist shrine the remains a place of worship for the local people. 

Another small tour was canoeing over the wetlands early in the morning in wooden canoes, poled around by some men from the local village. It was really spectacular, although James spent the first half of the ride clutching for dear life to the sides of the narrow canoe feeling like he was about to be tipped out. After a rest stop halfway, a couple of seat adjustments made the balance less precarious... We were treated to spectacular views over the mirror flat water, and saw some of the local birds and a couple of local villagers trying their luck with fishing. Gillian was quite taken with the water buffalo, swimming around and eating the plants. 

Vientiane

After moving on to Laos, we started with a couple of nights in Vientiane. This is a different city again to the places we had visited during the trip - for starters being much smaller with a population of less than 1 million people. Travelling during the off season definitely has its advantages, but in this case it seemed that the lack of tourist numbers had left the city very quiet, with only a small city centre to start with. One of those upsides is the fact that walking was a reasonable way to get to the places we were interested in visiting, despite the heat and humidity of the wet season.

After arriving and settling in to our accommodation, we took a walk along the river (the Mekong again...), where we could see Thailand on the opposite bank. It was less developed than the city waterfronts we had seen previously, and very quiet - again reinforcing that we were there in the off season. We found a statue of the last king of Laos overlooking the river, which doubled as a shrine, complete with people praying. On our way back into the city centre, we admired some of the French-styled architecture and also passed the presidential palace. Gillian, of course, had to get a photo. We found a lovely family run restaurant for dinner, and managed to muddle through ordering with the help of google translate. The food was great, but as the only customers it was a shame to see the place so quiet. Some more people came just as we left, although it's hard to see how 4 customers a night keeps a business viable. 

With a strong French influence, there is a huge boulevard running through the city, with the Patuxay sitting at the halfway point. This is a "victory gate", celebrating Laos independence from France and loosely modelled on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris - which feels a bit like mixed messaging. You can climb to the top and get a good view over the city, and there is a bunch of information on the way up about Laos culture, as well as some plugs for tourist attractions across the country. 

Further out from the centre, we found Pha That Luang - the Great Stupa. This is an impressive monument dating from the 3rd century BCE, and rebuilt several times since. It is said to house a relic of Buddha, and is part of a bigger complex of temples which included another of James' favourites - the sleeping Buddha. While open to tourists, it is not as well set up as previous sites we had visited to date on our trip, which was a bit of a theme in Vientiane. There is less tourist traffic, and I think we would be prepared to say much less than the country deserves, which means that attractions are correspondingly less well set up for foreign visitors.

Other highlights included two more significant temples in terms of the regions history, Wat Sisaket and Ho Phrakeo, which once housed an emerald Buddha (moved from Chiang Mai, to Luang Prabang to Vientiane) - taken to Bangkok when the Siamese invaded Vientiane, and now considered the talisman of Thailand. We also saw the Black Stupa, had lunch at another iteration of the Friends restaurants that we first encountered in Phonm Penh, as well as exploring the street food at the night markets and finding a couple of new dishes to try. Our last evening finished with us finding a small cafe/bar in which we were (again) the only patrons, and had Gillian feeling profiled as a selection of 80s music was played over their sound system. To be fair though, the waitress also seemed to be bopping along to the tunes, despite being half our age. 

Siem Reap - the city

While mostly famous for the temples, Siem Reap was a lot of fun to visit in its own right. Being the off-season for tourism, it was pretty quiet, which we liked. However, there were still a wide range of nice places to explore and go and eat, although it was hard to not feel sorry for some of them when we seemed to be the only customers. One of these was a little local restaurant near our hotel, which had a great range of cheap Cambodian food, as well as some cute little kids who were keen to play with us. We went there twice, and were very impressed. As with Phnom Penh, there was also a restaurant run by the Friends organisation, which trains underprivileged kids in hospitality - after our experience previously we had to try it out. The food was great and we had a really nice chat to the manager about their program. The standout was the chocolate pepper cake, which James claimed was the best chocolate cake he'd ever had. He had the cheek to ask for the recipe, and to our surprise they brought it out for him. The family is now anticipating fun acting as taste testers as he perfects it on our return!

On our first day we did a sunrise tour to Angkor Wat, followed by visits to a few other temples (including breakfast!). It was a great intro to the complex, and we had two more days of visiting to go after that. Having scoped out the lay of the land, we decided to hire bicycles for the next two days, which proved to be a great choice. We got lucky with the weather (and our timing, one day we got back to the cafe next door to our hotel for a milkshake just as it started to bucket down), which helped. Cycling out to the temples and around to some of the many sites meant that we had a lot of flexibility, as well as being a pleasant way to keep moving for the day. We probably did 40 km or so on the bikes each time, and it gave us the option of visiting some of the other tourist attractions in town. the one down side was coming back after one temple visit to find the bikes claimed by a monkey, who was trying to chew everything in sight. After trying to be patient, James ended up taking a more "proactive" approach to getting rid of it, thankfully without any biting. It is apparently a common problem, at the bikeshop, they told us they chew off the saddles on the bikes, and the handlebar covers as well. And they steal the locks, somehow...

In addition to the temples, we went to the APOPO centre, which has a program training rats to detect landmines. It is a huge problem in Cambodia, and elsewhere, with mines from the American war and civil war in Cambodia, as well as more recent conflicts. The rats are an African breed, and are trained in Tanzania before being imported to work in Cambodia. The demonstration was great, and followed by a chance to hold a couple of the rats. Gillian did so, getting extensively licked for her troubles!

We also visited the Angkor Museum, which houses lots of artifacts from temples around Siem Reap and elsewhere. It has a huge collection which is really well presented, along with a pretty comprehensive history of the development of the various temples around Siem Reap. This includes the history of the temples switching between Hinduism (Brahminism) and Buddhism and back, which is also associated with some defacing (literally in the case of many Buddha statues) to emphasise one side or the other - which seems like a great shame.

All in all, we really enjoyed our time in Siem Reap and would happily visit there again. Great food, fantastic temples, interesting history and an accessible town centre make for a perfect tourist storm!

Siem Reap - Temples

Siem Reap is famous for one thing, Angkor Wat and the rest of the temples sitting, reclaimed, from the jungle outside the city. There's little that we can say about them that hasn't been said. There's a fantastic history, stretching from the 10th century, and the whole site is mindblowing. Temples vary from "(partially) restored", to "preserved", to "original condition". Almost universally, there are blocks lying around waiting to be fitted back into the original structure, like the world's biggest jigsaw puzzle. 

The scope of it all is mind boggling, and rather than try and go through a detailed description we will just post photos here from each of the places we visited over our 3 days in Siem Reap. That came to about 10 temples, only 390 more to go!

Angkor Wat

Banteay Kdei

Baphoun

Bayon

Preah Khan

Preah Palilay and the Royal Palace

Ta Prohm

Kratie

After recovering from our journey, and having a lovely dinner at our hotel (it runs a hospitality training scheme for local kids, and works towards elimination of poverty and environmental degradation), we started to get excited about the next day. Why? Dolphins! This is the last place in the world where you can still find freshwater dolphins, a species called Mekong dolphins. They have been historically known as Irrawaddy dolphins, but given that they haven't been seen for many years in the Irrawaddy river, Mekong dolphin is a much better fit. They used to be found all through the river system, but encroachment by humans and damming of the river have reduced the population to a relatively short stretch of the river around Kratie. There are something like 130 left. 

The next day we set out for a kayaking and bike riding day. We still feel scarred by a poor experience viewing dolphins in Bali, where scores of small motorboats aggressively chased pods of dolphins in the ocean. It seemed like kayaking was a much gentler way of going about our business. The tour started with a briefing, which had us slightly worried - the current in the river is quite strong at the end of the rainy season, and it looked like paddling could be tricky. There was also the obligatory disclaimer about no guarantees - spoilt by being told straight afterwards that they've seen dolphins every time they've gone out for the last 8 years. We loaded ourselves into the back of the truck with the kayaks (!) and headed off to the launch point.

Spoiler alert - we had no interest in offering one of our phones to the Mekong river gods, and paddling in the current was not bad, but not completely stress free, and the end result was no photos. However, we took plenty of photos in our brains! The river is wide and we had to paddle more than 1km across to get to the deep pools where the dolphins live. Then it was a matter of slowly going downstream until we found them. When we did, it was spectacular. We probably saw 20 or so, maybe more and they moved up and down the river around where we were located. We paddled up and down after them. We got quite close several times and had a fantastic time of it, with the kayaking part of the day going seriously overtime as a result. There were 3 couples on the trip and we were the oldest by at least 20 years. We took quite pleasure in being the first ones back to the disembarking point...

After lunch, it was on to a bike ride around Koh Trong island - which is a farming community, with a couple of floating villages as well. The ride across the river was in a tiny little wooden ferry which seemed to be on its last legs, and had quite a lot of water in the bottom (being pumped out by the world's loudest diesel bilge pump. We managed to make it across safely, although it felt like a close run thing. 

The floating villages next to the island are populated by Vietnamese fishermen, who are predominantly Muslim, and do not yet have permanent residency rights in Cambodia. It was interesting to hear the afternoon prayers being broadcast as we cycled around. Apparently the island is famous for the flavour of its pomelos, which we got to sample. We also saw a colony of fruit bats and a very big old tree which is worshipped by the locals. James also collected half a dozen high fives from the local kids. Thankfully, the ride back across to Kratie was on the usual ferry, which was considerably more seaworthy (riverworthy?) than our ride over. 

We finished the day with a drink watching the sunset over the river, followed by another lovely meal at our hotel. All-in-all, Kratie was an entirely worthwhile experience.  

Sen Monorom and beyond

While the clear highlight of our stay in Mondulkiri was the elephants and the jungle trek, we had yet another day to explore around the area of the town we were staying in - Sen Monorom. It is a very pretty part of the world, and quite close to the Vietnamese border, and we had a tuk-tuk driver organised by our resort who took us around and acted as tour guide for the day. 

The biggest attraction was Bu Sra falls, which is the biggest waterfall in Cambodia. We were prepared to be a little underwhelmed, given that we had already seen a couple of spectacular waterfalls on the trek, but this one surprised us in a positive way. Given the amount of rain that had recently fallen, and the fact it was the rainy season anyway, there was a truly impressive amount of water cascading over the falls, which are in two (big) steps. It is popular with local and international tourists alike, and the amenities there are well set up - which was something we needed after the mud of the previous trek. We spent a couple of hours there, walking to the top of the falls, gazing from the viewing platform located over the pool between the steps, and having a cold drink in the cafe overlooking the falls. It seemed like a lot of people were making a day of it, and setting up for picnic lunches in some of the viewing areas.

 After the falls, we went on to a coffee and then pepper plantation, and our driver - Minea - gave us quite a lot of information on how they are grown and prepared. Along with a bunch of the other agricultural products of the region, including jackfruit and dragonfruit. It was very interesting, and reinforced the impression from the previous day that there are real moves towards more broadscale and modern agricultural practises in the region (and, by extension, across the country). 

The final stop was a lookout, but the rain had caught up to us and it was belting down so hard we could barely see out of the pavilion we were sheltering in. We had a sense of what the view might be like, but no more than that really. After lunch we headed back to the resort for a relaxed afternoon before departure the following day. 

The resort itself - Nature Lodge Mondulkiri - was great, with spaced out "bungalows" and a really nice common area, which doubled as the bar/restaurant. This was built around a bunch of trees, and included a pool, so naturally we ended up spending a lot of our "relaxing time" there, rather than the room itself. There was the added attraction of the 6 year old daughter of the manager, on school holidays, who took quite a shine to us and spent extensive time playing with us and giving us instructions on what she wanted to do. It was a bit sad to leave in the end.

The onwards journey was to Kratie, and the journey itself is worth a mention. We had organised, through the resort, a local company to take us on the 6 hour journey there. These all tend to be shoestring operations, and the world's most beaten up Toyota van showed up to pick us up. There were several other passengers, one of whom was on an IV drip, strapped to a bamboo pole. In addition to people, there was various forms of cargo, including several bags of durian that we picked up along the way. For those who don't know, this meant quite a funky aroma for the bulk of the drive. Along the journey, we dropped off cargo at various seemingly random streetside stalls, passengers left and joined, but eventually we were dropped at the front of our hotel in Kratie, with a sigh of relief. Did we mention that there were no seatbelts and that Gillian could see the road through the floor of the van? This must be what they mean by "adventure"...   

Elephants and jungle trekking

Elephants! This was the big ticket item for the next part of our journey, and probably one of the biggest ticket items for the whole trip. Luckily, they did not disappoint. We had a two day elephant and trekking adventure booked, thanks in no small part to James' sister Kate who had recommended a resort in Mondulkiri province that she had stayed in 17 years previously. It was still there and made all the necessary arrangements for us. 

We jumped in a beaten up van to drive out to an elephant conservation project, along some of the worst roads we'd seen on the trip so far. In particular, there was one hill where there was a crevasse in the middle of the road, looking like the hill was splitting in two, it had to be 4 metres deep. There was just enough room to drive alongside it, although the view from the left hand side of the van was pretty scary. At the top of a hill we could drive no further and went the rest of the way on foot. It was steep and slick, not helped by overnight rain, and the hike down was slow. Faster was the motorbike ridden by one of the mahoots, although neither of us can imagine how he made it down without having a serious accident (let alone carrying a bike full of supplies). 

At the bottom, we came across some huts and toilets, and the two mahoots who took us to see the elephants. The project has 300 hectares of jungle for the elephants to roam in, and they have 3 elephants who have been rescued from working lives elsewhere. They are in negotiation to save some more, although it is a tough ask when they are used as farm workers and tourist attractions in local villages. The two females are very social, and we were given bananas to offer as snacks, and were promptly approached. Feeding the elephants was an amazing experience, and they were very enthusiastic about the bananas, only by showing them two empty hands could you slow their approach! We were able to feed them and pat them, at least for as long as the bananas lasted, at which point they wandered off to continue feeding in the jungle. We followed them around for a while, standing in awe at the amount of destruction a hungry elephant can cause -there's no mistaking where they have been with wide swathes cut through the dense bush. 

Next stop was the home of the mahoots on a riverbank, the river was pretty thunderous at the end of the rainy season and with a fair amount of recent rain. We had lunch and a rest, followed by the elephants coming down for their daily bath. On other occasions it is apparently possible to get in the water with them, but with the flow high, it seems like this wasn't so much of an option. Not that it stopped the mahoots. Some more banana feeding and watching and the elephants headed back to the jungle, while we were directed to our camp for the night, on a platform over the river. 

In mid-afternoon the rain came down, and we watched the water level rising, with some concern from Gillian about the safety of our perch for the night. The worrying was in vain, thankfully, and we had dinner by the side of the river where our guide, Chea, made us a pork curry in a fresh cut bamboo tube, cooked over the fire. It was super tasty.

Chea is from the local Bunong tribe, which has lived in the area for hundreds of years, well before the establishment of Cambodia as a nation and the arrival of Khmer people in the region. He gave us interesting insight into their culture and some of their way of life. This included typically marrying young, having many kids (his family of 3 kids is considered small), and heavy penalties for divorce (typically the contract payment specifies one elephant). He also described the method of swidden farming practised by the Bunong, and the importance of the transfer of knowledge from older people to younger generations, as well as talking about there animism beliefs.

The next morning we packed up and headed across the first of several rickety looking bridges on a hike through the jungle. James was excited when Chea made him a toy bamboo gun that operated with a very satisfying "pop", and shortly after taking off we also disturbed a troop of monkeys who hopped through the trees to escape. The paths were pretty treacherous after a lot of overnight rain, and slippery enough to slow us down considerably, even with the fresh cut bamboo walking poles provided by our sage guide.

We continued up hill and down dale, with no mistaking that we were in the jungle, headed to visit two impressive waterfalls. The first had a cliff in behind the falls, and a path through behind the waterfall to continue the trek. The second had a huge flow of water that meant it felt like it was raining close to the falls, and also a very slippery rock clamber up and out. Along the way we walked through a number of Bunong farms, concrete examples of the agriculture described to us the night before. They were broken up by a series of fenced off private properties, that are disrupting the traditional approach of the Bunong, in a familiar conflict between modernisation (possibly more accurately described here as real estate speculation) and traditional life. 

Lunch was at the smallest of the three waterfalls for the day, followed by a decent hike out, including more homemade bridge crossings that didn't thrill Gillian. As we climbed the last hill out to our ride back into town, we were treated to a display of the motorbike riding skill of the locals, riding up and down a road that didn't look remotely passable, complete with ruts that had to be 20cm deep. The "up" part included a load of bananas, unrealistically big for a single bike. At the top, we encountered another elephant, this time owned by the local village - thankfully not put to work except for trying to attract tourists. We were also treated to a group of tourist zooming past (on the good part of the road) on a series of quad bikes. We took the time to consider our moral superiority as they went by. 

Despite some slips and falls, and a lot of residual mud on clothes and boots, this two day excursion was certainly one of the highlights of the whole trip.