Cambodia, Part II

January 22-29

dara / The travel in Cambodia has been fabulous! We have taken the bus a couple of times to Sihanoukville and Siem Reap. But overall, it has only cost a couple more dollars for the luxury of a private car. The three of us (our Danish friend Claus, Jim & I) have enjoyed nice rides with lots of leg room, and it takes less time to get there. My favorite transportation though is the fast boats up to Northeastern Cambodia on the Mekong River. We would sit on top of the boat and watch all the riverfront villages as we cruised on by .... I enjoyed watching the water buffalo relaxing with their heads peaking out over the water. Definitely one of my favorite animals along the ride! However, I did enjoy the fresh water dolphins in the Mekong too!

Claus, Jim and I all did a three day trek through the mountains in Eastern Cambodia. We spent two days traveling by elephant and one day hiking back. The ride on the elephant was fabulous! It was so much fun to watch the elephant push his way through the jungle, walk down into rivers, climb up steep hills, wash himself in the river, etc. I probably could have done without his spraying himself off (water, snot or whatever flying out of his trunk). That was gross! But overall, it was worth it.

We slept in a minority village on the first night. It was obvious not a minority village that has seen many Westerners. The children would watch us and see what we were up too. Jim would show him the wonders of his video camera and how they could film each other.

The next day, we wandered through the mountains again. It was so much fun to be on top of an elephant checking out the mountain scenery and feeling alone in the middle of the jungle without anyone else around ....

When we arrived at our campsite for the second night, we went for a swim in the waterfall. We also went climbing on this bamboo bridge over the river. That was a little more scary. It was not exactly strong by any stretch of the imagination. One piece of bamboo flew off as Jim was climbing down from the bridge. Our guide had to repair it for Claus and me to cross the bridge. Thankfully, we all made it across the bridge in one piece, and Jim has some great pictures and video of our crossing the river.

More importantly though, it was Claus's Birthday. We put some candles in a granola bar and sang "Happy Birthday" around the campfire. We then slept in hammocks covered by mosquito nets under the stars, next to the river and down from the waterfall on the second night. That was great fun!