Saturday 12 June 2010

koh kong waterfalls

First day in Koh Kong was spent on some remote waterfalls.

Koh Kong is still a remote village frequented mostly by Cambodians. The border with Thailand is 8km away and travellers stop here for a night before heading off to that country, but things are slowly changing. A few new hotels have opened recently and more are under construction. A company runs boat trips to this remote waterfalls and Miguelito thought it could be a good introduction to the area.
The wet season had long gone and not much water flow was expected anyway...

Woke up early, covered in sweat with nasty stomach pain and... diarrea! Not feeling good at all. Great... No day is a good day to feel poorly... but not today please!! In normal circumstances I would have staied in bed, but I had this waterfalls trip idealized long time ago and was not going to let a silly agonizing pain ruin my plans...




Made it to the boat where I met my mates for the day... 2 couples!
It was bloody hot and the 2 hours trip up the river were spent laying down sideways, curled, sweating, holding on to my stomach with intermitent cramps striking strong every few minutes. Difficult to manage but ok as long as I could focus on keeping that sudden diarrea away, afterall, we were on an old wooden fishing boat up a wide river, no toilets, with people I had just met...
I could live with the agonizing pain, but not with the idea of shitting myself in front of strangers!


I blame the Crab.
It was that good looking Crab I ate the day before on the streets. It looked delicious... and tasted so!
I blame the bloody cambodian Carangueijo!





































































When we got there, Miguelito was feeling a little better but still struggling to walk under the blazing sun.
Not much water was running over the rocks, as expected, so everybody rushed to jump in!! Beautiful nature, lost in the Cambodian mountains, F**k it!!!! there was no pain that was gonna stop me to jump into this refreshing golden water! So I did...

...and guess what? After a few jumps the stomach cramps were suddenly gone... That's it... Happy days!
But as soon as I would stop jumping into the water the pain would strike again, so easy, I kept jumping!
We all did!








Add Image
























Lunck break in the VIP room!







After lunch time to walk and explore up the river stream














































































human marks...































Our happy hostess!


































































































On the way back to Koh Kong! Tom and Claire, english mates. Flor and Meden, dutch couple.






















































































































Watching the white people arriving, from the house boat!










Today, on this day, was the Last day of the Khmer Year and we spent its last few hours chatting over a few drinks about our travelling experiences and criticizing the english National Health System... lol. Don't ask why!

The Khmer celebrate the end of the year for 3 days but didn't really see them partying. Boo!
Still, was a good feeling to be there on such special date...










The sunset over Koh Kong...

Journey to Koh Kong

3 nights in Siem Reap, 2 days in Angkor and Miguelito had seen enough. Time to move on. The next stop was Koh Kong, a little fishing village close to the border with Thailand, the last stop before crossing into this country. But there was no direct link between Siem Reap and this village so had to get the 6 hours bus back to Phnom Penh, stay overnight and another 6 hours bus to Koh Kong the next day... Bus to Koh Kong






This gentleman was carrying something suspicious under the towel... A bottle of their beloved rice whiskey..? Hmmm... perhaps food for the long journey...






Keep loading!!!






...NO!!! A cockerel!!! For competition...




























6 hours journey and a very well behaved cock!!


At 5pm, as we were arriving to destination, and everybody was tired and quite, he jumps out of the towel and starts singing !!! announcing the end of the day... the sun was starting to set.


Vá bunho!!!!





























Pingo Doce no Cambodja!! O belo do Pinhão... Obrigado Mãezinha!!!

























































































bus station at Koh Kong