| Jungle trekking in Banlung |
 |
|
After an hour's waiting for my bus from Kratie to Banlung, the minivan finally turned up, only to stop five minutes later. This is very common in Cambodia, so apparently I was very lucky to have traveled around for almost two weeks without anything of the sort. I didn't really mind, I wasn't in a hurry and I prefer to go in a car with brakes. So after another hour, we set out with a new minivan. It was packed as usual with tourists, locals, bags of rice and the odd chicken.
Conveniently (especially for the guesthouse) we stopped at a guesthouse where I decided to spend the night when I got the only room with a proper toilet (didn't flush though, but hey, can't be picky in a part of the country where they have never heard of Diet Coke). I relaxed in my hammock, sipping fruit shakes and being generally happy with life and planned a jungle trek with 7 other tourists. Of course I found a puppy! Dogs are everywhere here (they eat them as well, but haven't tried it - yet).
The Ratanakiri province has a national park, but it's only accessible via motorbike (no thanks) and the entrance fees were a bit too pricey, so we went with a local entrepreneur. After a dusty pickup ride we ventured into the jungle. We walked for about 4-5 hours and arrived at a campsite near a little lake. The swim was refreshing after sweating in the jungle! Unfortunately, we didn't see many animals (just tons of beautiful butterflies playing) because we went "the easy way", meaning not too many hills and rivers to cross. I had caught a cold from the bus aircon and was totally exhausted.
This was the hammock camp. The guide was out cold (he claimed he'd had malaria the week before and was constantly tired) as soon as we arrived. After the refreshing swim and a hammock nap, our "ranger" from a tribal minority cooked the most delicious meal of vegetables cooked in a bamboo pipe with meat grilled over an open fire. The starlit sky was just amazing, there weren't any artificial lights for miles, so we could see every star in the sky. No wonder people of the ancient world were so besotted with them if they saw them like that every clear night!
The road back to civilization was also a bit hard and sweaty and no less dusty than the day before. After stopping twice to bribe the local policemen (apparently this is the way things work) we washed off in a beautiful crater lake (too many trees to take a decent picture, unfortunately) and in the evening we joined the knowledgeable hotel manager for a few beers, discussing Cambodia's future. The corruption affects every aspect of everyday life, unfortunately, but for this young nation with a terrible past I hope things will get better soon. 
Powered by !JoomlaComment 4.0 beta1
!joomlacomment 4.0 Copyright (C) 2009 Compojoom.com . All rights reserved." |
