Faraway Places: Day #5. More trekking and a high ride. Mondulkiri, Cambodia.

I had the most horrible nights sleep last night because I was in a hammock in the fa-reezing cold. With a limited number of blankets I should add. If I had my down comforter, which I was thinking of all night long, I would have been much warmer than I was with the U.S Army blanket that was issued with the U.S Army hammock. In all seriousness at 2 in the morning when I was shivering I was thinking, make the Americans proud Emma. I also was convinced that someone was sneaking up on me in the middle of the night. Or that a tiger was prowling nearby (there are an estimated 50 living in Mondulkiri's forests). But that's no surprise considering my paranoid mind... right Mom? The village that we stayed in consisted of 3 hours. It's rather small and makes my minuscule comment in the previous entry regarding our base town a little pathetic. There were 7 other tourists in the village, making the houses quite crowded. 3 girls from Israel and then 4 guys from France and Poland. There were so many kids running around as well as puppies so I was pretty much set for entertainment. None of the houses have electricity, but ironically there is cell phone service. So people charge their cell phones through their motorbikes.

We got to the village yesterday at about 4:00. We were supposed to sleep in a house with an ancient looking man (I wish I spoke Khmer so I could ask him about his experiences under Pol Pot's reign since obviously was alive then), a set of parents, and about 8 kids. We felt like we were intruding which is why we hung the hammocks outside. The house was one room with a wrap around bed/table where they sleep, prepare food, and eat. I played with the kids for hours and met the other people visiting the village aka the cluster of three houses. Then we had dinner, rice with vegetables. During dinner the tour guides gave me a cup of liquid, which I assumed was water until it was at my lips and I could smell the alcohol– it was rice wine. I asked for a glass of water and my guide refused to give me one. He kept responding, "No. This Cambodia. Drink." Good lord. Rice wine drinking continued until 12:30 or so. I retired to my hammock at about 8:00 but of course didn't really sleep at all because of

Too much rice wine. This big slab of wood serves
as their table & bed.

my paranoid state of mind slash I was so cold. And actually, in the morning I found out that I wasn't hearing things... there was a rooster nesting in the tree above me, not quite the same as a tiger but how could I have known that in the dark... Anyways, I think I only slept about an hour but I was able to watch the sunrise and play with the kids and puppies more. The children are such champs when it comes to being resourceful. They had these balloons and when they popped they would just tie them off and make smaller balloons out of them. Also, they had toy trucks which were oil containers that had been cut up with wheels fashioned out of wood. Like I said, so resourceful and clever. Breakfast was bread with pineapple jam. The family ate rice with vegetables again and Robert made a comment about how it was unfair that they got the better breakfast. I don't think that he understood that to them, bread with pineapple jam is a luxury- they probably wish they had been eating it. We were dining on delicacies. But I agree with him... I would have preferred the rice and vegetables.

Me and my new friend. That is the house behind me.

Check out his truck!

Balloons!

We left the village at 9 and trekked the rest of the day with the French/Polish guys and their guides. We saw more waterfalls and went swimming again. It was great. But the best part of my day had yet to come. After lunch I rode an elephant through the jungle. For real. I am basically a jungle woman. Just call me Jane (Tarzan reference in case you didn't catch that). It was so cool to be up so high and of course to be on an elephant. I was a little hesitant at first because it sort of seems inhumane to ride elephants but then I thought, well people ride horses so why can't we ride elephants. Horses were once wild. That was my logic.

To elaborate on an earlier comment about rice wine and my tour guides.... the minority people, all they do is drink. No wonder they don't make any money– they are always too drunk to find work. I am not saying this to be rude, but it is the truth. In the morning both our guides were still drunk from the night before, and at lunch time they started drinking again. They were still drinking when we said goodbye to them at 4:00. They kept us entertained though! I really liked our guides, they had me laughing all the time even though they spoke no English! So here are some quality photos of my guides...

This is his English book. He was working on his greetings. One of
them read as "Nice to meet/see you." He didn't understand the signficance of "/"
and kept saying "nice to meetsee you." I kept trying to explain that the
slash meant or, but I couldn't get my point across!