Cambodia 2 : The Elephant Valley Project

                                         
 
Weds 20 Dec
We had to be at Hefalump Cafe for 7am to sign in for the Elephant Valley Project. Unfortunately their cook hadn’t shown up, so we scuttled across the road to Bamboo Kitchen for a record-breaking six pancakes with fruit & peanuts,  and industrial strength Mondulkiri coffee sweetened with condensed  milk.

There were 14 of us in the group; French, Israeli, Australian and the Brits (8 including us). Twenty minute drive out to the 1,600 hectare sanctuary set in the forest north of Sen Monorom.

After a quick intro at the lodge, we set off with Conor our English guide and Toin the Bunong guide down a steep path into the forest. Our first stop was a clearing by a large stream, and - after a short wait - three elephants appeared with their mahouts wandering through the dense undergrowth. Seeing Asian elephants close up in their natural habitat for the first time is an incredible moment.

Angkor Wat was built with elephant labour, and elephants have played an important role in Cambodian history. However, recent conflict means that there are now only 500 wild elephants and approximately 80 in captivity – the majority of whom are over-worked in the tourist industry. EVP was set up by Brit Jack Highwood 10 years ago, and rescues elephants from harsh work environments, bringing them to the Project and allows “elephants to be elephants again”.

We spent the morning following the three eli’s and returned to the Lodge joining other groups for a delicious lunch incredibly cooked by the Bunong girls on just 3 gas rings.

The afternoon was spent further away from camp, following two different eli’s, Easy Rider and Genial.  Conor was excellent at telling us all about each eli and how EVP came to acquire them, and how the project works closely with the local Bunong people providing employment, and how they protect  the forest which is home to the elephants.  

We returned to the lodge at 5pm – tired, hungry and brimming with elephant knowledge! The dinner gong sounded at 6pm, and after another very tasty local meal we settled down for an evening playing Phase 10, given to us The Hoggs. Determined to see the infuriating card game through, we played on with head torches when the generator was switched off at 9pm. Annie won!

We had two spacious rooms, and mosquito nets for each bed as Mondulkiri is a malaria zone. The kids all slept soundly – I however spent some of the night awake thinking that the seasonal winds were going to rip off the corrugated roof!

Sunset view from the Lodge

Thurs 21 Dec
Yummy noodles, pancakes, fruit and the local killer coffee set us up for a morning clearing the banana plantation under the friendly guidance of Tara. We were an enthusiastic group and worked hard for three hours clearing around each tree with hoes and cutting the dead or damaged leaves with long-handled machetes; satisfying work and we felt we had earned our lunch!

And we couldn’t resist the family Xmas picture email joke:

Hoe, Hoe Hoe,  - and three banana machetes!!

Chris was our guide for the afternoon, as we watched Sambo being washed, treated for an infected foot, and fed fruit to supplement her diet.

Sambo in the treatment and washdown area 

Eating  papaya; she can peel a rambutan!

We then had an absorbing two hours observing Sambo and the diminutive Ruby enjoy each other’s company before we finally had to depart and catch the transport back to town.

Sambo with her mahout 

Funnel-web spider; actually quite small (photo: Jake)

 

If you’re planning a trip to Cambodia, and have time to get to Mondulkiri, I would highly recommend  a 2-day stay with EVP. You can’t ride or swim with the eli’s - but you get to follow them ‘in the wild’  with excellent guides, and your stay supports this worthwhile, very well run charity. Brilliant research by Jess – who found EVP and booked our stay in September.

Back to the pink Avocado hostel for a hot shower, and a long walk to the other end of town for the recommended Pizza restaurant which was surprisingly good – albeit not cheap.

Fri 22 Dec
Another grey, windy and damp Sen Monorom morning. We dashed down the hill for high-speed Bamboo Kitchen pancakes, then another Express Mini Van to Kompong Chan. There isn’t a train option in Cambodia, so it’s either hire a car & driver, or bus or express mini-van.  Today’s driver was a tad too James Hunt for my liking, with his shades and propensity for challenging oncoming traffic.

We made it to Kompong Cham in an impressive 4 hours and found our gaudy hotel Monorom VIP on the bank of the Mekong river in this quiet town.

We hired bikes from the hotel and had an amusing afternoon pedalling around the town. First stop was the Wat Nokor Bachey Bhudist temple 3km north west; a modern pagoda built within an impressive 12th century shrine of sandstone and laterite.

Wat Nokor Bachey

We retraced our route to town, then followed the Mekong to find the bridge across to the island of Koh Paen. Googlemaps still showed the famous bamboo bridge built each dry season, but this has now been replaced further upstream with a concrete bridge – albeit the guardrails aren’t completed so it’s slightly unnerving cycling over with an 10m drop to the river.

Back at dusk, much-needed showers and then – thanks to Jake’s thoroughness with the Lonely Planet book – we had a wonderful supper in the Smile restaurant, which is operated by a local Buddhist charity and run with trainee staff from orphanages and disadvantaged backgrounds.

We had only stayed in Kompong Chan to break the 12-hour haul to Siem Reap but we had a lovely afternoon, and watching the sunset on the broad, languid Mekong waters with our bikes is definitely one of the trip’s highlights.