Ratanakiri

Ratanakiri is the province most northeastern in Cambodia. Ban Lung, its capital, is a small city plagued by motos and a scorching sun which dries the earth until the dust kicked up from the streets leaves everything and all who dare to enter coated with a layer of artificial brown. After four days of travel, I finally reached Ban Lung and its surroundings' many delights Saturday the 19th of January.

Brad and I arrived late in the morning, having shared a minibus with some foreigners from our guest house in Stroeng Treng. The most chatty of them were two Irish sisters and we convinced them to join us later on a moto ride to some waterfalls. For $5 a day Brad and I rented motos and explored the beautiful areas around the town. A 20 minute ride south brought us, and the Irish girls, to one then a second waterfall. The latter, Ka Tieng, was everything I had been hoping for when I decided to visit Cambodia.

A relatively short falls, Ka Tieng descends only about 40 feet and dumps itself into a round pool of water below. From where one reaches the bottom of the falls, it is possible to scramble and even walk around from one side to the other, beneath the roaring water. On the far side of the cavern under the falls hang long vines which originate from among the trees lining the side of the river 5 stories above. I had read in my guidebook about this falls and it took me about 30 seconds to disrobe into my boxers, grab a vine and swing for my life out ten feet over the water while Brad and the girls looked on.

The pool directly in front of the falls is quite shallow and I was able to stand and look around myself. Surrounded by dense green jungle, I was swimming, and indeed, swinging, in an isolated waterfall beneath a tropical sun miles from the nearest guesthouse and hours from any civilization that could be considered a real city. I was in a dream. I was in Cambodia.

Earlier that day we ran into a couple of Dutch guys at our first waterfall. They mentioned trying to find some guys to go trekking and we decided to meet up later that evening to discuss this option. The first guide we met was anything but inspiring and we quickly chose not to go with him into the jungle. The next morning we met another guide, Nan, who they had talked to the previous morning and had taken a liking to.

Nan is a 26 year old man from Ban Lung. His English is beyond what we could expect for a guide in this isolated area, and the man is funny. Within 10 minutes of our meeting and before we could even order breakfast Nan is telling us detailed hilarious stories including one about a Danish woman who had a leech in her ass and how he had to help her get it out. Perhaps his defining characteristic is his affinity for the ladies. I don't think it is possible for him to discuss anything without bringing the conversation back towards women. Plus he is a bit of a pervert and for him, Monica Lewinsky is the most beautiful woman in the world. The Dutch guys and I loved him and we decided to hire him for a three day trek starting the next morning.

Later than evening Brad dropped out of the trek because he has really bad ankles and a knee that keeps him hobbling even on flat ground. It was probably a good decision and we resolved to meet up later in the south of Cambodia.

The next morning the two Tulip growers, Peter and Ramon, and I met for breakfast. Ramon is a tall lean man with a full head of dark and wavy hair. Peter is shorter and has a tall forhead and pointy nose which led me to think immediately of Beavis and Butthead, but not unattractively so. Both are constantly making a joke and ready with a sarcastic comment to ease any uncomfortable situation. Ramon's favorite line is a very ironic, "I'm VERY angry."

Strangely, right before we were set to leave, a short Australian girl with a small mouth with big teeth wandered by our restaurant apparently looking to go trekking and was talked into accompanying us by Nan. So we were again a 5-some. That was easy.

The first day of the trek involved an hour long ride along bumpy and dusty roads sitting in the bed of a pickup truck. We gave our seats inside to some mothers and babies already in the bed, choosing adventure and experience over comfort. After a lunch at a riverside cafe we took a short longboat ferry across the narrow river and began our walk. The route took us first along a road and then veering off, through agricultural land and through sparse forest before finally delving into jungle. Pausing for a rest at the outskirts of a village we sat on the grass and were watched from afar by a gang of nervous looking young children.

An hour later we ended up at our camp at the ranger posting for the gibbon protection area of the forest surrounding Virachey National Park. After a short wash in the shallow stream, a dinner of rice, fried pork and a horrible fish slurry, we sat down for some conversation and Mekong whiskey. After the five of us polished off one of our two bottles, I was feeling just warm and contented by the alcohol. Of course then the guides from a couple other short parties sat on the ground outside under the full moon and motioned for us to join them. As we sat down forcing the circle to accomodate us, we were continually handed glasses of rice wine, sometimes straight, sometimes mixed with some lemon and sugar. After 5 or so of these, I was no longer simply warmed by definitely buzzed by the alcohol. After the party broke up we went to bed in our mosquito net lined hamocks. For Ramon and I, the hammoks were too short and we suffocated away for a restless night followed by a slightly hungover morning.

The next day promised to bring us further into the denser jungle and we were accompanied by our forest ranger guide, a strong quiet man, Su. A couple hours of hiking brought us to our first waterfall where we again didn't hesitate to cool off in the pool. After lunch the bees started swarming so we got out of there on our way to yet ANOTHER gorgeous jungle shrouded waterfall. Yawn. The entire day was rather long but we hiked quite slow and rested too often for my taste so we couldn't have covered much more than 12 miles total.

The morning of the third day, we woke up early and headed into the forest with Su in search of the gibbons for which this area was supposed to be safely harboring. After over an hour of straining our heads to find their grey shadows among the trees hundreds of feet above us, Ramon and I had grown cynical and decided we didn't care about the gibbons anymore. Literally seconds after voicing our opinions to each other, I grabbed his arm, pointed to the sky and yelled, "Shit, Look!" Above us in plain site, a male gibbon swung from one tree to another, followed by a female, and two more all in a span of 30 seconds. The exposure gave us a plain view of our visual prey and we left the jungle satisfied by our siting.

The rest of my stay in Ban Lung went well but without much excitment. I ate meals and went drinking with Nan, the clog dancers and the Aussie, who we called Bug by her choice. I returned to the waterfall to do some swinging and also back to the pristine circular crater lake where the locals and visitors gather to sun bathe and take a dip in the crystal clear water.

In total the Ratanakiri province was for me the antithesis of the tourist haunt and disappointing sites of Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor. The isolation, natural beauty and great friends I met in the region shaped my experience there into one that typified my expectations for this trip to southeast Asia and one that I will never forget.




I grabbed a minibus down to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, today. When I arrived and checked my email for the first time in a week I found out that Brad and a friend of mine who I met while studying in Italy and who is now teaching English in Beijing are a few hours south of me at the Cambodian beach town. I was planning on skipping it as my loyal readers know I am not really a lover of the beach. But since I have multiple friends down there, I bought a bus ticket and will head out early in to morning to soak up some sun, or perhaps rather do my best to hide from it. After a few days here, I will return to Phnom Penh and soon, I will across the border and into Vietnam where hopefully adventures will abound!