I left in the morning for Mondulkiri in the East. There is no train system in Cambodia, and there aren’t that many airports either, so most long distance travel involves a bus, taxi or share taxi. I was picked up at my hostel, and at the bus station by 5 am. Thank god for the enterprising Cambodian lady selling fruit and baguettes in front of the bus station that early. Who else is on the streets at that hour? Lady-boys apparently. Some still drunk British boy walked down the street looking for a “7-Eleven” (really?!?!), and came back arm in arm with a lady-boy. I was annoyed with him already, so seeing him clearly uncomfortable made me smile. Once on the bus we drove about 4 1/2 hours to Kompong Cham, got off and waited a couple hours for the transfer to the Sen Monorom bus. All in all – 12 hours in transit, 2 Jackie Chan movies.

I took a moto from the bus stop in Sen Monorom over a rickety wood plank bridge to my hotel. The hotel was an eco-lodge, so I expected it would be a little more rustic than your average hotel, but it was quite nice. It consisted of a restaurant/lounge area, and a bunch of bungalows sprinkled across the property. I had splurged and booked myself a “romantic bungalow”, with a built up platform for the bed, mosquito net, en suite bathroom with shower, and hot water (no that does not go without saying in Cambodia). The food was good, there was wifi in the common area. What more could a girl ask for?

The next morning I left for the first of three days with a local community based tourism project. The project is a partnership with Cambodia’s Forest Administration, the WWF and a minority Phnong village. The Phnong are the largest minority in Cambodia, speak their own language, have their own traditions, and practice animism. The community taking part in the project lives within a 988,400 acre protected forest (which has seen heavy logging and hunting). The project was created in an effort to preserve the forest, give the community a vested interest in its conservation, and a source of income. Sounded good to me!

For my first day I was signed up to go walking with elephants. I had visited an elephant rescue park in Thailand a couple of years ago, and spent the day feeding, walking and bathing elephants. Part of the day was also spent learning how the training, working and riding conditions can be very abusive. It was one of the most memorable things I’ve ever done, so I was really excited. Foolish of me for thinking this would be similar! We got to the village, and the guy from the project dropped me off with a couple of elephant mahoots, and two elephants with saddles on ready to be ridden. Noo noo noo!! I’m no expert, so I didn’t want to give a speech about why we shouldn’t ride – and who knows, they could have worked in a way that didn’t hurt them. I just said I preferred to walk.

One of the traditional houses in the town.

My view on the hike.

We stopped at a river while the elephants were sent off to eat, and then the mahoots gave them a bath.

By this point the English guy with his two Khmer speaking companions had kind of taken the lead since they could communicate with the mahoots, and they asked if we could head back early. On the way back it was even more muddy, and my flip flop broke – leaving me walking barefoot in the mud.

We ended back at the village early, the other guys left for their next stop, and I sat on a bench for 45 minutes waiting to be picked up. The villagers were going about their business around me, but no one was interacting with me. I was more than a little disappointed with my day, cranky with the guy from the project for leaving me without someone who could understand me, and sick of waiting. Finally a lady came out of the house across the street, and asked in English if I wanted to come over. Yes!!! I sat down at a table inside with two older guys (her father and grandfather) while she worked around us, with her baby in tow. After about 15 minutes of staring at me with giant saucer eyes, the baby then started crying every time he looked at me.

The men offered me beer (which I correctly expected I would be paying for), and cheers-ed me every 2 minutes. The older of the two men kept speaking to me in Phnong, and cracking everyone up. She translated as best she could, but she must not have translated everything because he spoke and laughed A LOT. I think he was having a little fun at my expense…. He asked how old I was? Was I married? Children? She translated for me, and Phnong conversation followed. Finally she said to me “He says why are you 25 and not married”. “35” I said, and “just not lucky I guess”. With family being so important in their culture, I figured it was easier to understand than saying I hadn’t met the right person yet. She told him and he acted concerned. She translated back for me “Would you marry a Cambodian guy?”. I responded with a grin “Is he offering to be my husband?” She translated back to him, and he almost fell of his chair laughing. Maybe laughing a little too hard – marrying me isn’t THAT funny. He said “No, but I may have a brother for you”. After two beers and some comedy I was in a much better mood when the guy from the project came to pick me up. I decided not to tell him about my previous disappointment – my unrealistic expectations were not his fault, and I ended up slightly buzzed and having a great time. As we were driving away the guy told me the grandfather was the chief of the village.

The next day I was back for round 2 with the project. This time I would be spending a couple of days hiking with one of the project’s English speaking villagers (Nara), and overnighting with one of the families. I left my big backpack with the lodge, brought only the essentials in a small bag, and was prepared with real shoes this time. We set off together for our 5 hour hike through the forest. The forest was thick with growth more like a jungle, and after about an hour carrying that bag I was reevaluating what I qualified as essential. We hiked to a waterfall, and ate lunch underneath.

As we walked in the jungly parts Nara stopped every couple of minutes to pick out leeches that got onto his sandled feet. I was a little better off with my sneakers, but they still got my ankles every once in a while. Leeches are a first for me. I always thought they were big, but these were like rice sized slugs. Once Nara figured out I wasn’t a legit bad-ass backpacker he started teasing me about what was in the forest. Every noise we heard, every time I had to go to the bathroom – he reminded me of the tigers, bears and snakes.

A couple more waterfalls we visited. 3 in total. Nara swinging from a vine in one.

We finally made it to where we would be spending the night – a simple one room home. There were a couple of ladies and about 5 children outside as we walked up. Nara tried to teach me some Phnong on the way, but it kept getting confused with my new Khmer words. I managed hello, and that was about it. We went inside and all looked around awkwardly for a minute before everyone went back to their chores, leaving me to take it all in.

Both ladies lived in the house which was one open room. About 1/5 of it was a cooking/food prep area, and 3 out of 4 walls had a platforms built out that were about 1 1/2 feet above ground. As the women worked they passed mothering duties back and forth, and I had a hard time figuring out whose children belonged to who. Two of the kids that fought constantly were the most entertaining. The 4 year old girl would have something, and the 2 year old girl would try to take it away, then have a temper tantrum. This would cause the 4 year old to run outside of the house to get away, then turn to me and put her finger over mouth to shush me so I didn’t tell where she went, and the 2 year old would run around the house with the craziest brattiest expression on her face. Over and over and over.

I went outside, played soccer with the 4 year old, and walked around a bit. They were the only house in the immediate area, although there were a couple more just out of eyesight. They had a garden, and several cows, pigs, chickens and dogs roaming around. Otherwise, that was it. Pretty simple. I asked Nara about the bathroom, and he said “Jungle. Tigers. Haha.”.

The father came home around sunset, and Nara and I shared dinner and a water bottle full of home-brew rice wine. The generator kicked on and the ladies continued working – they cut and boiled banana tree trunk for the pigs, cooked dinner for themselves, laid out their sleeping mats on the platforms, and cleaned the babies ears with a reed. The generator cut off about 8, and I zipped myself into my mosquito net hammock for the night. Another first for me.

I actually slept pretty well in my hammock that night. All 10 of us in the house, plus the dogs, chickens and pigs under the platforms. I’m not sure about the pigs – they at least sounded like they were under there.

Everyone was up and back to work at sunrise. Most everyone left before I remembered to take a picture, so I only got a picture of one of the ladies, and the uncooperative 2 year old.

On our hike back to the village Nara found two huge snails and stashed them in his bag for later. When we stopped for a swim in the river he caught a fish, and that went in the backpack as well. For the last two days I heard chainsaws in the distance which I thought was odd for a protected forest. As we walked that day we saw at least five chopped trees, and a bunch of guys with a trailer to haul away the logs. Logging may be illegal, but there is not much being done to stop it from what I saw.

Back at my lodge I jumped straight into the shower, and spent the next day and a half relaxing, and trying to figure out how to get directly from Sen Monorom to Sihanoukville. The answer is – you can’t. You have to take a bus/taxi to Phnom Penh first.