Cambodia 1: Phnom Penh & Sen Monorom

17-19 Dec 2017
I was hoping to blog every 4-5 days, but with variable wifi access I’m having to grab the opportunity whenever I can.

Sun 17
Jess, Annie and I landed from Hong Kong and found the Mad Monkey hostel to dump our bags, and then went for a wander. Slightly surreal feeling being in a totally new country, watching the scooters buzzing about and admiring a few temples. We strolled for about 4 hours, getting our bearings and enjoying the buzz of this amazing city.                                          

Norodom Sihanouk Statue

Cambodia-Vietnam Friendship Monument 

Wat Botun 

 

Wat Botun

Then we found ourselves by the flower market, on the bank of Tomle Sap  - where it joins the  Mekong river.

Flower market

Annie & Jess by the Mekong!

We made our way back to Mad Monkey, with a few refreshment stops en-route, and then played scrabble in the bar waiting for our boys to land from Bangkok. They made it at 9p: it was so brilliant to get everyone together!!! Now for the start of our Cambodia adventure.

Chris, Annie, Tom, Ben, Jake & Jess : all together in Phnom Penh 

Mon 18 Dec
Not too early a start - which was appreciated by the boys having just come in from the UK. After breakfast and Jess negotiating local SIM cards, we took 2 tuk-tuks to meet our minibus for the journey to Mondulkiri Province in the east of the country.

Sixteen of us plus the young driver in a Ford minivan, but despite the slightly nerve-racking driving technique required to negotiate local traffic, our chauffeur seems good, and we’re blessed anyway as five of our fellow passengers are monks!
 
I couldn’t take photos from inside the van - but the scenery is mesmerising. The whole journey has been a bustle of life: roadside businesses trading everything and anything, scooters galore that our driver plays slalom with oncoming vehicles - hooting to alert them, and trucks with a diverse variety of loads. Only after three hours did we pass into open countryside. It was paddy fields first, and then a bustling ‘town’ with road side shacks specialising in engines, strimmers, charcoal, and food stalls. After this, acres of rubber plantation - laid out in military precision with the cuts in the trunks and the little cups collecting the precious sap. And banana plantations, peppers, all so incredibly lush and green.

We stopped for a couple of quick breaks and bought unripe mango that’s eaten with chilli salt. And then. sticky banana rice wrapped in banana leaves and cooked on charcoal.

Road-side stalls at last pit-stop 

The last hour of the six-hour journey was at night, arriving in Sen Monorom at 7pm. We found the Avocado Hostel (thanks Googlemaps!) but despite having booked 3 months ago and confirmed 2 days ago - they were full, but suitably apologetic and drove us back down the hill to another slightly less comfortable hostel for the night.

Tues 19 Dec
Mondulkiri means “Meeting of the Hills”, and is the original “wild east” of the country; hilly, and colder -  there was a fresh wind blowing and it was only 20degC. Jess made some local calls during our breakfast of banana pancakes, and secured two tuk-tuks for an hour’s ride out to the Bou Sraa falls, where we spent an exciting 2 hours on the zip lines up in the trees. The longest is 300m across the actual waterfall; super0adrenlaine buzz, especially if you suffer from middle-aged-onset vertigo as I do!!

Before we started - at the top of the smaller of the two falls

Ben

Jake at the 300m zip ride over the big fall

  [GoPro footage to be added when I can edit and upload!] 

Ben, Annie & Tom

Back into the tuk-tuks for the journey back, then supper in the hostel and admin before an early start to go for two days to the Elephant Valley Project.