Rathanikiri, Cambodia's 'wild east'

Sunday 5th April - Rathinakiri volcano crater

Ok so its 2am I am off on a 3 day intense trek tomorrow including 2 nights camping in hammocks and am waiting for Don to get back on our borrowed motorbike.

It has been a completely random amazing day. Started off in true fashion when I sensed it might take a while to rouse Don but to be fair I didnt wake up until 10am myself - he is obviously having a bad influence on me! Or a indeed a good influence, I have to say waking up at 7am each morning wasn't much fun.

Anyway, we got up and went for brekkie in the market where the fun began. This place is very, er backward tourist-wise so we are in the majority, nobody speaks english and all of the food menus- if they exist - are in cambodian so for brekkie I could only choose what I saw evidence of on the cooker and that was omlette, as they had to go and buy a drink i ordered from elsewhere, I had to have a coke as they didnt understand lemon iced tea or orange juice ;)

We found a trek that was more expensive than others but I felt a connection to the guy 'Mr Nan' who ran it. For 90 dollars, in the jungle, in the national park, will probably see some gibbons! - and all inclusive. I have been dying for a hard core trek since Ive been here and signed up. This lovely man (who said I had such beautiful eyes he couldnt look into them too much - just so lovely and genuine no sleazy or anything) lent us his motorbike for the day and we headed to the volcanic crator which we walked around and then had a swim in. Things improved further when a family gave us some beer then another family invited us to share some food and more beer...! Cambodia people are so generous and all got such a playful attitude honestly when I swam with the mothers in the water they were splashing about and playing games (in their pajamas!) Iike big kids. The women are all very affectionate and one kissed and touched me so much to group approval if it was England I would seriously have thought she was a lesbian...

Some looks and photots ensued when I stripped to my bikini. I checked with a women whether it was ok and she said 'same same' but the guys thought I was some porn star and were very interested in taking photos of me! When a bunch of people arrived we had met on the bus the other girls had the same thing although one kept a t-shirt on. 2 times now I have been groped by a Cambodian - I was out on a rubber ring and he swam over to me, think he was even half my age. Is a shame because like last time it cast a bit of a shadow over an otherwise great day.

The crator was beautiful and a very nice place to chill out. The large crowd of us joined the buskerswho had been playing for a few hours now, and we had a great time jigging to their local sounds, and banging our own suacepans and bottles in an effort to join in. It was cute because they were shy and said we were the largest group they had performed to!

We motored back to the guys place and spent the remainder of the evening just having a fantastic time chatting and drinking and eating and laughing with the best bunch of people. There was a lovely australian couple (the guy was half cambodian), an australian girl Mya and english girl Katie who lives in Clapham near where Im gonna be living, a dutch couple who i didnt speak to so much and were more shy, and an american couple who let me use their shower as I was feeling a bit yucky after the lake. There were also guys from the peace corps who were on vacation, and of course the band who we had invited along earlier in the day. Rooftops guest house is a really great place and the staff let us keep going even when they started nodding off in their chairs, which is quite a common sight in Sout East Asia. They seem to be able to sleep through anything!

The night passed and we thankfully got back safely because basically the motorbike has got water in it from the jungle and either doesnt start or lurches forward when it does start or only stays in first gear so that was an interesting experience! I wish I could stay and spend more time with these guys but we booked our trek and provided I dont feel too crap on no sleep and copious amounts of whiskey I should be cool. One of the best evenings I have had so far. Im gonna be OK.

Jungle 1 and 2 in Rathaniki - 6th / 7th April

I am sitting by a campfire in Cambodia jungle, covered head toe in any and every conceivable item of clothing I have in my small day pack for a 3 day trek. 1 down, 2 to go...

This morning, on a maximum of 5 hours sleep after meeting some pretty cool people the day before, Don and I set off to meet 'Mr Nan' - our tour guide.

A bit of faffing ensued, as we hadnt had breakfast, Don had left someting back at our guest house, & I had to replace the two pairs of flip flops I have broken in as many days previously. Mr Nan had provided me with a pair of size 42 shoes and a pair of socks. We set off on motobikes with our face masks on, a necessity in this dusty province. Needless to say the roads were, er challenging but actually, to my joy it was actually a kinda cheap version of dirt track biking! Dodging potholes, performing a motor dance while skidding over loose sand, and trying to stay vertical over precarious rocks, through rivers, under tree branches, and trying to keep tail bone intact over the bumps made for quite an intense experience! Basically to get into the national park, rather than waste time in the surrounding forest, we are motorbiking what would otherwise be a full day trekking. Hence sometimes we were literally motobiking down very narrow walking trails. All good fun.

We stopped off for lunch at a remote village, where we had tasty noodle soup made by My Nan. I tried to be friendly but everyone seemed quite distant and the children, although keen to observe us, did not respond to my smiles or attempts at limited conversation! I managed to crack a couple of them when I showed them photos I had taken, a novelty I suppose. The village was very simple, a few pigs and chickens around the wooden houses on stilts. We were apparantly at the chiefs house, - a guy who spent most of his time sitting in a hammock, smoking. When we arrived he asked for majuana!

Continuing our trip, we eventually started trekking but dissapointingly only a short distance before stopping to make camp;

Don went to shower at the waterfall, where when we stripped - to our horror - we found leeches attatched to our legs! We burnt them off (I was torm between laughing crying and punching something at this point - I think Don was worried it might be him..!) but they left their mark - a trail of blood that simply wouldnt clot even after several minutes and a dip in the waterpool. Is really freaky seeing expanding creatures stuck to your skin!!!!

The waterfall was small, but oh so good to get clean (ish) and cool down after a very hot and sweaty day.
Come the evening, we time travelled 200 years... The guide had forgotten the cooking pot, so we chopped down wood and used bamboo as a comtainer to heat water and make more...noodles ;) It felt very authentic, and I was also amazed to see a 'natural' candle burning make out of rubber tree. Or something. Back to basics here!

My only wish is that some of the guys I met last night came too, as it was such a lovely crowd and people I would have liked to have spent more time with. But I suppose me and Don alone is a more 'authentic' experience just us and two cambodians makes for more interaction with the culture rather than other backpackers. I hope I can hack the bugs. They are everywhere here and to be honest although it sounds stupid (jungle! hellooo?!) but I didnt think about all the insects when I was thinking about this place....there is somewhat of a magnetic attraction between me and bugs! I'd like to say ifs flattering...but could very happily do without it...!

We have also already seen signs of wild boar and bear so in our hammocks Don and Mr Nan are either side of me 'for protection!'

Well, come bed time things went bottom up. We got into our hammocks to sleep...and the next moment my hip had made contact with one of the supporting wooden poles and I was on the floor. Lots of sorry's ensued. But also Don had - worryingly - landed on his tailbone. Things go awkward from there as Don was basically wanting to go home the next morning and ask for our money back. It was an overpriced tour to begin with and we didn't like the way it was panning out. We had paid 30 dollars a day thinking it would be better than other treks on offer but basically this wasnt the case. I knew I wouldnt sleep well thinking it may happen again. It developed into quite a heated discussion and basically he claimed to have spent all the money we had given him - 120 dollars! - I slept really really really badly but ironically because of the cold and Nan and Don snoring rather than anything else.

The following morning Nan was in a sulk (he's a very emotional guy but was peeing me off playing the 'friends' card, thought using emotional blackmail etc etc) but fortunately we managed to retain smiles with 'billion' the underdog. Mr Nan obviously kept the bulk of the money and paid this guy like 10 dollars a day. I just wanted to get back to the village and onto Vietnam but to be honest it took a fair while, stopping at the village on the way back and having breaks etc it was very frustrating. The funny thing was I made two kids cry in the village - I must look very scary to them!! We felt like we were intruders really, despite attempts to make friends by making paper aeroplanes and such like. Who knows what this is going to cost but 90 dollars for 3 days not even trekking would be the biggest ever if Nan decides to be an arsehole and not give us our money back.

Me and Mr Nan nearly came off our bike when lorry veered around the corner a full speed with not warning (normally ppl beep their horn) and unfortunately Don properly came off his bike as he had to break and skid to avoid the lorry head on. He had a nasty large graze on his arm and torso. Can the day get any worse?

More drama ensued in the evening...hassle, crap, etc etc long debates with Mr Nan who has dropped in my esteem to below zero, and the long and the short of it is Nan is being anal and not being fair. We said we would pay for half and I thought that was pretty generous considering what happened and the fact we hadnt even done any trekking. But he was adamant not more than 60 so we ended up paying 60 dollars each for, basically a motorbike ride. You win some you lose some. At one point the police were involved but apparantly they are so corrupt to get more money wed have to offer a bribe anyway and cut our losses. A joke, a huge dissapointment but definately a memory and a story to tell...I'm sure in a couple of days I'll be able to laugh about it....but maybe not the leeches. Urggh shiver.