Last few days in Cambodia. What better to do than go up to a province we always wanted to visit. We convinced Paul and Sotheary to go with us. Away we went to Sen Monorom in the province of Mondulkiri. An 8 hour trip.
This sign tells all you need to know about the road to Mondulkiri. Signs like this were common and always heralded much trouble ahead.
On the road up we passed many rubber plantations. Quite a sight- acre upon acre of trees planted in rows. All the collection is done by hand, attach a catch basin, cut the tree above and let the resin drain down into the basin.Talk about labor intensive.
This area is a tribal area. We drove out to see the Bunong tribe.While driving through the area we decided to stop at this house. Under the house these tribal girls were weaving, of course we had to buy some products. While there we found out that the whole village was Christian (surprise). Paul had been wondering if he would see anyone who had borrowed money from the organization he works for (AMK- a microfinancing company). Another surprise, the husband of one of the ladies had borrowed from AMK. What a small world, stop in the middle of nowhere and find a client of AMK! While these people have their own language they also speak Khmer, so Sotheary was able to communicate with them.

I loved this area, it was higher up than Phnom Penh and was therefore cooler. We went to see the highest waterfall in Cambodia. There had been a big rain the night before so the waterfall was running pretty good even though it was part way into the dry season. The picture above shows only the first part of the falls, there are several more drops. The Khmer people come here to swim and picnic. It was great fun.

We saw this old couple as we were leaving the falls. They came to pick up recycle and any other thing of value (her basket was on her back). Sotheary talked to them and gave them some of our left over food. This old couple had just climbed up from the bottom of the falls and were very tired. As we left we saw them disappearing off into the forest on a little trail. They looked 80 or 90. How old they really were????

Mondulkiri is famous for its elephants- so, we went on an elephant trek. The trek was about 2 hours into the jungle to another waterfall. The terrain was scary at times, sharp drops, steep inclines and elephants that would just decide to go into the surrounding forest for a little bite to eat. Quite thrilling really.



After swimming in the water and having a picnic the elephant men decided to give each elephant a bath in the river. I was glad they did this after we swam for more reasons than one.These elephant guys were interesting to watch. They controlled the beasts with sounds and light taps with a stick. I think elephants are more easily controlled than many humans.
On the way back to the car the guy controlling our elephant asked Sakada (Sotheary's nephew) if he wanted to ride up at the head and pretend he was the master of the elephant. "Sure" said Sakada. Here Sakada is leading the band of weary travellers home.

Here we are at the end of our stay in Sen Monorom. I was driving so I pulled up to the gas pumps at this station, got out and said " fill her up ". Do they activate the pumps and fill us up? No, they go into the building, get a container of gas and a funnel and proceed to pour gas into the tank. I knocked on the nice pumps with my foot to see if they were real. Yes, they're real. Oh well, what's new? What do you expect in this strangely lovable country. Away we went, 8 hours later we were back home. Next day we packed up and the day after that we flew home. See you in Canada.