We’re leaving on a jet plane…….

3 March 2007

The reason for our epic journey to Sen Monorom which is tucked in the hills of Mondulkiri Province was quite simply – Elephants!

Elephant trekking was something we were both keen to do at somepoint on this trip and apart from the option for a short ride around Angkor Wat which we had not taken up it had eluded us. We had heard that Sen Monorom was one of the few places we could go Elephant trekking in Cambodia so we were quick to add the stop to our itinery…and we are glad we did!

Mondulkiri is known in Cambodia for its hills, tribes, jungle and waterfalls; the scenery was quite simply beautiful and worlds apart from that which we had seen of Cambodia to date.

In order to meet up with our Elephant we were taken to one of the minority villages of the area, where the Pnong people, who speak their own tribal language, live. The village was small consisting of about 8-10 houses which were unlike the traditional Khmer house which is built on stilts to combat the rainy season. Here, the houses were low to the ground and contained three families in each – we could not work out how the adults managed to get themselves any privaacy!. On oneside of the house was the sleeping area and the other was the kitchen. The house is also shared with pigs, ducks, dogs and chickens.

Shortly after our arrival we were introduced to our elephant, Nying Shal, who was colossal! At 50 years old Nying was positively middle aged as most of the elephants of the village live to about 100.

To board Nying we climbed up some steps and clambered across her head/neck into the bamboo basket on her back – sounds harsh but she didn’t flinch a muscle.

The next couple of hours were spent wandering slowly through the jungle taking in the various fruits growing, from cashew nuts to jack fruit which can weigh in at a massive 20kg per fruit!. After an hour our driver for the day hopped of his spot riding bareback on Nying’s head and gestured for Chris to take his place…..well Chris (who from this day forth shall be know to me as ‘The Elephant Man’) jumped at the chance and took pole position on Nying’s rather hairy head!

Now I don’t know why we were surprise, judging by the size on Nying, but Elephants sure can eat! Every few paces Nying set about devouring anything that was in her path (or to the side of it!). Our guide was telling us that Nying like pineapple plant and bamboo plant but it soon became apparent that Nying just simply likes to eat! But I am not sure Nying liked to chew her food perhaps as well as she should because boy did she suffer from flatulence afterwards!

Watching her use her trunk to grasp food and through water over herself (and us) to cool off was definately my highlight of the day!

Before we reached our lunch stop Chris and I swapped places at the helm (so technically that would make me ‘Elephant Woman’ but I will not hear that spoken OK!) and I enjoyed the view from above.

We stopped by a lovely little waterfall for a swim and some lunch and the elephants were set free to rome on their own. The Pnong people do not feed the elephant they prefer to let them wander and fend for themselves. In order that they can relocate the animals they simply attach a long chain (not heavy) to the elephant which makes tracks which they then follow.

Before we made our way back to the village we watched Nying take a bath in the stream.

We were both completely in awe of Nying the whole day, partly because we were relying on her to be well tempered, but mainly because she was a fantastic and beautiful animal with a healthy appetite – the latter being something we can both relate to!

3 March 2007

We were told the bus from Kratie to Snoul would take one and half hours, what we were not told was that the minbus would circle Kratie for two hours (with us in it) looking for people to fill it before leaving ….and then some!

Travelling Cambodia you learn to take what you are given pretty fast (I will welland truly eat these words later in this blog). We ended up with a jam-packed minibus and set off on our journey. About twenty minute in we stopped on a dirt track to collect ten more passengers. This left us well and truly perplexed as there was simply no room in the bus. After another twenty minutes it became clear the new passengers would be travelling with the breeze running through their hair as they began taking their seats on the roof of the bus! We were eternally grateful for our front seats with extra leg room.

Part one of the journey over we still had another four hours in a pick-up along a very bad stretch of pit-holed, hilly, dust-track. Feeling confident that the journey would not be all that bad because we had paid for seats in the cabin of the pick-up (which is basically a ute) we couldn’t have been more wrong.

The back of the pick-up was expertly loaded with its cargo which ranged from our backpacks to two big steel boxes holding fish. Then it was time for us to board. The cabin holds two rows of seats. The first row which is the one where the driver sits has more legroom than the row squeezed in behind these seats. Thinking we would be in the front due to our size was the next mistake we made. Oh no the two (tiny – I might add) ladies in thefront stood waiting for us to take the back seats which we would share with another lady and her child.

We politely gestured to said lady to move across from the middle seat so we could sit next to each other but would she budge? Not in this lifetime! Getting quite angry now that we had paid well over the odds for less than a third of the back seat I refused to get in the cab until Chris started to get angry too! Reluctantly we prised ourselves into the seats only for my leg to be squeezed by the women in the middle who then stared to laugh at me!

Five minutes into the journey the child was fast asleep so he was laid alongthe floor space of the back seats. Hopefully you will have deduced there was not much floorspace to start with let alone after the child was laid to rest! After shouting across the women for a good twenty minutes and passing our water back and forth in some kind of revenge act I was still seething so I put on my headphones to calm down.

Enter the mosquitos! The cab had a couple of mosquitos which annoyed the lady no end. Rather than taking the hit which both Chris and I had resigned ourselves to do the lady proceeded to swat the little blighters wherever they landed inluding on me and Chris. After one rather painful slap across the back of my hand I snapped and began raising my voice calling the lady any name I could think of although it was futile as she spoke as much english as I speak Khmer but it made be feel better for all of ten seconds!

The fun did not stop there! It wasn’t long before the lady was nodding off to la-la- land depositing her head intermittantly on Chris and my shoulders. So we proceeded to take a vast amount of pleasure playing head ping pong for the duration of her nap.

Later in the journey, with no regards to what little personal space I was desperately clinging onto, I had my earphones ripped from me as the lady quite obviously wanted to join in my fun! So the Ipod went away (that would surely teach her a lesson! 😉 ) and the lady passed her time by burying her finger up to the knuckle up he nose clearing out any debris onto the floor and who knows maybe even the child lying below!

Later when the child woke he was placed in between the lady’s legs and began grabbing at anything in sight. Clearly a chip of the old block he grabbed a handful of hairs on Chris’s leg and proceeded to tug them out, promptly followed by a slap across the hand from Chris!

Stiff, numb and irratated, our driver persisted to stop for anybody that had broken down or simply to give the engine (not the passengers) a breather! Pro-longing our agony further!

We arrived in Sen Monorom aching and weary, in search of a much needed stiff drink to calm the nerves!

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