Monday, June 25, 2012

Kontent in Koh Kong

We left Siem Reap on a horribly uncomfortable night bus, where we got stuck with the seats at the very back of the bus that didn't recline. It took 6 sleepless hours to get to Phnom Penh, where we got to switch to better seats. We waited there for an hour while the bus driver unloaded a cargo of large wooden doors from the bus. Then it was another 5 hours to Sihanoukville, on the southern coast of Cambodia, where we had to change buses and wait for 2 hours. Finally after another 5 hour bus ride we arrived in Koh Kong. The journey took a total of 18 hours...ugh!

The next day we went on a jungle trekking tour. They picked us up from our hotel in a tuk-tuk and drove us down to the river. Then we got into a small longtail boat with the other 4 people on the tour and our 2 guides.


It was a slow, peaceful journey, and after an hour we docked the boat and prepared for some hiking.

The jungle was dense and beautiful, with a vast array of interesting plants to check out.



Our faithful guide, with his awesome hat and machete.








After about 2 hours of walking through the jungle we arrived at the beautiful Tatai Waterfall.




Here we went for a very refreshing swim and then had some lunch.

Then came some more jungle trekking...





Along the way our guides stopped to do some trail maintenance. They constructed a hand rail using only bamboo shoots, vines and their trusty machete.

They even let Frank take a swing at it.





Next we stopped to gather some coconuts. One of our guides fashioned a large hook out of bamboo and knocked some coconuts down from the tree.

Another guy in our group gave it a try...but had less success.

Our other guide decided the best way was just to climb up the tree..without using a rope or anything. He was even more successful in getting the coconuts down.

Then we got to enjoy some tasty coconuts.


To round off the day we had a quick swim at another waterfall.


There had been large grey clouds forming above us all day and the heavens finally opened up 5mins before we reached the boat. It was a wet and blustery ride back.

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