We Went to Cambodia Instead: 2015 Active Adventure

In 1016 we were supposed to do our first trip to Nepal, but we ended up in Cambodia intead!

The day of Nepal’s earthquake hit on April 26th, and has absolutely devastated the country. Our tour guide confirmed the trip, but after gathering all the information we could, we decided that it was not appropriate to go on our trek, which we were due to depart on 9th May. This meant that if we didn’t want to waste our money, fitness, and leave from work, we had to organise another trip – and FAST!

I contacted trekking companies in every city that Singapore Airlines flew to, in order to re route our booking. Luckily, a company in Cambodia could take us for the dates we requested, for the right price (over half our money is tied up in Nepal right now), and we booked it! Our Nepal trip has been rescheduled to April 2016, for anyone who is interested!

The hike in Cambodia is mostly flat, with the biggest hill 487m. It was with this in mind that we undertook our last training session, originally scheduled as a training hike for the Himalayas! It was pouring, and windy. However it was also humid, so good testing for our wet gear – which I have decided not to take – I was too hot! Cambodia is going to be 26-36 degrees, and it is likely to rain. I think i will just take a lot of dry clothes…! We did 4 laps of the stairs on the eastern point of Long Reef, then cruised back to the cars.

Our team has adjusted to this tumultuous time with such a great attitude! They have remained unruffled, only concerned that they get to hike – anywhere! It has been so heartening, and I feel really grateful to have such a top group of people to travel with.

Since it was already in the calendar, we met at a Nepali restaurant last night with our partners included. Julie (our latest addition) had not tried Nepali fare, so for the sake of her we trundled on back for our last team dinner before the big day! It was the first time that Di and Jules had met, Di is finally convinced we have 9 in our group!!

You can still donate to our Nepali charity, seven women (www.sevenwomen.org) through our website: https://wordpress-149281-3588507.cloudwaysapps.com/donation standings . They have been busy on the ground distributing food and tarps, and could really use your assistance right now!

Looking forward to a great trip!

One our Way

So I asked Babs today, “did you ever think, hey I’m turning 60, let’s go camping in Cambodia. ”

Obviously the answer was “no”, and how cool is it that we get to do it? What an adventure!

So far our group is divided, between the ones who went straight to the bar,  and those that went straight for the coffee. Clare lost her toothpaste to an overzealous customs officer, and apparently Deb is the most suspicious of the lot of us ; she was drug tested, xrayed, patted down, shoes off, and her bag went through twice. Crikey!

Our hike will take us 97k from Siem Reap to Angkor Wat  (yes, we will insist on that extra 3,  to make it triple digits ). Cambodia still have un exploded land mines from Vietnam war, so we will be following a well trodden path. The people there are proud of their history, and excited to share their stories.

We are all eager to get our adventure started.

Day 1 in Cambodia

Day one of our adventure was literally an airport pick up, and go explore Siem Reap. This we did, punctuating our excursions with dips in the pool. It is very hot!

Jade lost her cool getting her feet treated by a bunch of fish, a video I well be delighted to share later on!

The others did some shopping, including a coolie hat, which looks to be the theme of the trip!

We had our briefing for the trip ahead, and had an incredible 4 course meal, which featured some home-grown mangos for dessert. We begin today fueled up!

You can still support our Nepal charity, we are aiming for another $1500: https://wordpress-149281-3588507.cloudwaysapps.com/donation-standings

Cambodia Has Hit Us Over The Head With The Heat!

Well, today was HOT. We knew it would be, but was unprepared for the long, shade less stretches. After a short transfer out of Siem Reap, we began our jaunt across kilometers of rice paddies. They’re mostly dried up this time of year, with just a few muddy puddles for the Buffalo to wade in. As the day wore on we lost two,  Deb and Babs, to the air conditioned support truck. We almost lost Karyn too,  but she trooped on and made it to the end.

I don’t know how to describe the heat; oppressive, claustrophobic, constant. The physical and mental strength required to finish today was immense,  only 5 more days!

A few anecdotes from today, Jade earned the name “jade wayne” after the gait she adopted towards the end of the day when her thighs started chaffing!

Clare gave away half of her bundle of baby clothes, Jules gifted some kids pencils and paper, and Jade gave away her balls (soccer balls, that is).

Karepedia and Karynoke both made an appearance at alternate times throughout the day.

We covered 20km (Even though the itinerary said 16k,  hate that!) In 6hrs, and are currently passed out in the shade next to a monastery. I expect we will spend the hours until dinner thus, before crawling into our tents.

Our First Cambodian Temple!

Last night was particularly eventful, due to a peach-sized mango dropping square in the middle of our dining table after dinner, exactly between Karyn and Di. It sounded like a bowling ball! Needless to say it scared the pants off then!

This morning we emerged from a night filled with dogs fighting, roosters crowing, and geese honking at 5am, intending on getting as many kilometers in before the day got too hot. We had garlicky scrambled eggs, and hit the road before 630am.

We stuck to the road, because there are a couple of land mine warnings.

We got our first 8km done pretty early, then said goodbye to our A team: Deb, Babs, Kaz, and Dave. They took off on the van, and explored our newest monastery. Deb committed a fau pas by wearing her hat and shoes into the temple. A local boy charged with looking after us didn’t really like Deb after that, and took every opportunity to shoot her murderous looks.

The rest of us meandered through plantations of mango, tapioca, and eggplant. We were a long way from roads and people, and the shade was very welcome! We took a single trail to the left about 4k in, and explored an 11th century Buddhist temple. It was pretty much rubble, after a war and years of tree growth, but still a very serene and enchanting place.

Only 1km from camp, one of our guides filled an empty diet coke can with luke warm water from the esky for us to wash our hands. The water had been used to soak our sweaty “Babette’s” (neck coolers) and hats. He put the can down, and the other guide unwittingly took a swig from it. They both thought it was the funniest thing, and it was certainly some welcome light relief after 5hrs hiking in 35 degrees!

We stumbled into our latest camp just in time for lunch. The monks kindly let us pour their holy water over ourselves, in a refreshing shower, and they’ve also allowed us to explore their prayer rooms, cooking and sleeping quarters.

Rain in Cambodia

Last night we got a thunderstorm! Deb and Jen did a rain dance, as our dinner and tents were quickly relocated under a shed. We enjoyed the storm with a bailey’s.

After the rain subsided, there wasn’t much to do except retire to our tents. Even though it was only about 730 pm,  everyone was pretty tired.

We had another early morning, starting at 5am. After the rain, the day was breezy and overcast, perfect for hiking. We wound our way through rice paddies, stopped to inspect toads being bbq’d, and sampled a home made rice wine.

Karyn and Jade have heat rashes, and those of us who are wearing boots look like we’ve been gnawed on around the ankles  (the grit gets in the sock and rubs on our skin).

Everyone has swelling in odd places, and most of us have blisters in varying degrees of severity.

Some of us took a bamboo trail around a large puddle, and suffered a few cuts! Barbara is stoked because we found fungi!

Karyn fell in the mud, Babs finished early and took a quad bike to the van, and Karyn ate some red ants. Apparently ants are a staple seasoning here for stir fries, or fried up on their own like chips.

We saw a 12th century temple, which was as big as Angkor Wat, and we got to go inside the galleries. The trees that wind their way in and around the rocks never get boring.

After the temple we found lunch, and ate Amok, a green curry with fish.

We are now comfortably bathed and reclined in camp, with plans to go and explore the market later on.

The One and Only Mountain in Cambodia

Big day today! We arose at 4.23am (jade was excited to get going), and headed out before 5. We were given a packed breakfast, and drank coffee at room temperature from water bottles.

We had a 427m mountain to climb, and managed to do most of it before 6 am, so settled on a rock platform for breakfast with the most magnificent view! We got to the top of the mountain before 8, then had an undulating hike through rainforest.

For the next 12k we wandered through villages, cashew plantations, and lush rainforest. We saw groups of butterflies, termite highways, and ancient carvings. Karyn, in her customary curious way, sampled a cashew fruit (apparently if you eat too much you’ll get a cough, we think he meant fart).

In one funny incident, a cow cart trundled up and stopped, and a man came out with a car-battery powered air pump, and pumped up its tyre!

We arrived at the River of 1000 Lingas in the middle of a public holiday. The place was packed with people, markets, kids, picnics, and food stalls. While we waited for our camp site to become available, we went and visited the reclining Buddha. He is carved in sandstone about 10 metres high. This was also packed, but not with tourists, with Cambodian pilgrims. It was fascinating to watch the rituals, chanting, and prayers.

After this we walked an additional couple of kilometres  (bear in mind we had done over 20 already) to the base of a waterfall (106 stairs precisely, thanks Jules) and swam in the filthy water. It was delightful despite the pollution.

We are now awaiting dinner with freshly washed hair, listening to the river.

Coming Down The Mountain

We had the most sensational evening on our little river bank last night, and we embarked this morning fresh as daisies. Our hiking took us along beautiful single trail down the mountain, where we saw poisonous spiders, crickets in a hole, and tree frog eggs.

We also got to see the “lingas” that the river is named after, hundreds of symbolic rock carvings. It is said that 1200 years ago one of the Cambodian kings proclaimed himself a god in the very spot we camped.

After this we did about a kilometre of stairs, with spectacular views of Siem Reap province. The stairs ended at a tiny mountainous monastery, with baths and fountains and rock carvings.

From here the day got very hot, and we had about 12km of flat, road trudging before reaching our camp. Today is the hottest day that we have been out.

Babs had her most successful day so far, keeping us company until well over half way. We did a little finish line for her at 10km, which is no small effort in this heat!

Our wonderful support staff had a fresh coconut ready for us to drink at the camp, but this too was hot, unfortunately! There was just no escaping it.

Dave and Di have become like Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, consistently plonking one foot after the other despite their aches, pains, and injuries. Deb makes a lot of noise about getting in the van but on these two, very difficult days, she has been there at the end!

We see Angkor Wat tomorrow, and finally get a shower and air conditioning!

Welcome to the Hunge Club

Our last day hiking saw three of us stuck down with gastro. We carried our miserable arses onto the bus to take a short transfer to our first temple, and to begin our hike for today.

The Bayon temple is the one covered with over 200 stone faces. From here we had an easy 10am jaunt to the tomb raider temple. During this jaunt we had a couple of milestones, one by one Jules, DoiZee, Clare, Jade, Rong, Dave, and Jen hit the 100 km mark!

Rong is one of our guides, and also Cambodia’s national champion road cyclist this year! He completed the 100k wearing old boots that were taped together. Pheap, our other guide, is also a cyclist, and didn’t walk today. He did every other day wearing thongs, though!

Jules and Clare had set the “hunge” goal before leaving for Cambodia, after working out the total kilometres for the hike was 97. Jules has worn a GPS watch everyday in order to track our totals, and today was the day that we finally joined the “Hunge Club”! It was an enormous achievement in very uncomfortable circumstances, and takes nothing from the others who all did their best but were thwarted by illness, injury, and/or heat exhaustion. Everyone is a hero!

Everyone enjoyed the temple and the way the trees wrap around the stones. After lunch we set of in blistering heat to see Angkor Wat. We got to go to the very top, and marvel at the views.

We are now settling in to our hotel, with the air con cranked! So stoked to finally be here, and comfortable! We have a few more days of relaxation and sight seeing before returning to chilly sydney.

You can still support our charity, www.sevenwomen.org through the shop on our website. This is a Nepali charity that needs your help now more than ever!

Things We Will Take Home From Our Cambodian Adventure

As you can imagine, covering 20km in 38°C takes a while, and during this time our little group has developed their own idiosyncrasies in communication.

For example, have you noticed how someone always returns from the toilet happier? In town this became “the happy room”, in the Cambodian jungle, we went to “make a tree happy”.

Oftentimes the heat and the distance was exceedingly uncomfortable. To guage someone’s level, we’d ask whether they felt like “stabbing someone with a fork?”

As a measure of health, could you “fart with confidence?” And a sure sign that you should take the day off was the fact you “sharted”.

With many of the sights we saw in ruins, our guide explained that they had “kal-lapped”, which sounds like a cross between “collapse” and “clapping”. From here, the obvious mental leap was when we melodramatically “kal-lapped” into bed, camp, a chair, and so on.

The girls nicknamed their damp neck coolers “Babette’s” in honor of Babs who discovered them.

For some reason during this trip, we have stroked our Bogan alter ego’s; Jules inserted “youse” into everyone’s vernacular, the quest for 100 kilometres became “the hunge”, and we have systematically hunted for “kul-cha” ever since returning to Siem Reap.

Since returning to Siem Reap, we have had some great experiences besides a real shower, a throne, and air conditioning. We have each already been someone’s “special first customer”, “good luck customer”, and “favorite I like customer”. We have squeezed 5 of us (and not the smallest 5) into a 4 person (at a stretch) Tuk tuk. We have seen a proper dance show, with a coconut dance, the fish dance, the fishing dance, and several others. Oh yeah, we also shopped… just a little… saved heaps of money!

We had lunch yesterday at a charity cafe called Sister Srey, run by Melbourne sisters who train under privileged Cambodians in hospitality skills. It is another fantastic Australian initiative. To find out more go to http://heartstoharmony.org

Oh, and also an intestinal parasite….