CAMBODIA PART II - South Coast, Koh Kong, Cardamom Mountains, and the Floating Hotel

4/21/2010

Koh Kong, at Apex "Resort" Hotel . . . they didn't seem to keep the reservation, and so gave us their only remaining room - no AC, so we're going native...the place seems to be full of Thai or Cambodian families on vacation for Khmer New Year. There are lots of little kids in the pool, constantly squealing and yelling until late in the night, then starting again at about 6 am - the energy of youth. The 4 hour taxi ride was the usual - J noted that while these guys are always aggressive drivers ( I think we were passed by maybe two vehicles in four hours but passed others maybe a hundred times ), they get even more aggressive as we get close to the destination. I guess it's a consequence of the contract price versus using a meter. The pay is the same, so may as well optimize the time investment. $75.00 for a driver and the ubiquitous Toyota Camry sedan (ours had no BMW sticker to class it up a bit, but some did).

Just nailed a couple of flying ants in our hot hotel room. Not sure how we're sleeping tonight . . .we have a fan, and bbc world news and animal planet on the TV. We took a quick walk around town, it was a bit rough - approaching Borneo/Sandakan standards of urban squalor. Because of Khmer new year, there were lots of kids in the streets throwing little plastic bags of water at everyone - even tourists - they missed us, but it was kind of fun to deke them out a little. Koh Kong is a gambling and ecotourism destination . . . there is a Casino here as well as some of the largest remaining mangrove in the world.

We're hoping for a tour of the mangroves and Koh Kong Island tomorrow. Our timing seems a bit problematic - most Cambodians are on holiday, so most are not working. Our hotel seems just barely functional. Desk clerk looks about 16, other employees seem to be younger siblings, maybe 12,14 years old. Legacy of the Pol Pot regime, Cambodia is heavily weighted to the younger demographic. Tomorrow, we've been promised a room upgrade with AC. . . . I know, we should embrace the tropical swelter, but it's hovering around 100 F, even at night, with high humidity, so it's hard to sleep....part of the adventure.

Trip to Koh Kong Island - We arranged with a local tour guide company to take us on a couple of tours. First was an small open boat that took us to a remote beach on Koh Kong Island for swimming and snorkeling. There had been a storm the night before, so the water was fairly murky and the snorkeling was underwhelming. We swam in a pretty little lagoon as well, with some little fish and some algae. And hermit crabs. Our guide, Eric, was French, as were the couple from Phnom Penh with their small child. They were very tan, and have been living/working in Phnom Penh at the French Embassy. We had a nice chat over picnic lunch of a chicken/egg sandwich. We mentioned that D & P were living in Johor Bahru and they made a face and said " they must spend a lot of time in Singapore " :). On the way back we stopped for a tour of a fishing village, which was situated between the ocean and the mangrove. No way in or out except by boat.
We pulled up to an extremely scary "dock" made of many small sticks nailed to other small sticks. Then we actually got out of the boat and walked on it. One at a time. Half of the village was watching an action movie at the Cambodian People's Party building, the other half were working and relaxing under their houses in hammocks. Hammocks seem like a really good idea. D's beard seemed to provide some entertainment for the locals. Then back across the sticks to the boat for a quiet cruise through the mangrove. There is a mystifying lack of birds in Cambodia, but we did see a few mud skippers.

Trip to Waterfall - Next day, picked up by tuktuk at the Apex Hotel and taken down to a larger wooden boat with Eric, our guide. We traveled a couple of hours upriver to the limits of navigation. We disembarked on a large rock, and then clambered over boulders upriver some more. There was some discussion of Chinese dam builders, geologists looking for natural gas, etc. We saw some clear evidence of their activities. As previously noted, there are few birds or other wildlife in this area of Cambodia. Apparently wild birds and their eggs are/were a major food source for the people in hard times, and there have been many hard times. There is now official protection for wildlife in this area, but for those with power and/or money, wild and rare delicacies are still available.

After a rigorous hike, we came to a pleasant swimming area. Being dry season, much of the riverbed is exposed, but there was plenty of nice swimming. Further hiking took us to a large pool with an accessible waterfall. After swimming about halfway across, Eric led us out of the water and up onto a cliff above the pool. He said we should jump off the cliff back into the water, "No problem". But he got back in the way we all got out, so we did the same. No leap of faith for us. We then swam out to the waterfall and started to negotiate the slippery rocks behind, and make our way through the shallow cave under the waterfall. It was quite loud and the water pounded us from above. The handholds were few and it was difficult to gain purchase on the slippery rocks. About a third of the way in, D found it impossible to proceed, so he let go and went through the waterfall into the pool. Fortunately, there were no sharp rocks in that area, and he came up quickly. J was nimble enough to make it all the way across, underneath the waterfall. It was one of the more harrowing experiences of the entire trip. We were much relieved back on dry land to nurse our bruised and scraped knees, feet and hands.

Trip to Floating Hotel- We loved the floating hotel. The Four Rivers Floating Ecolodge is a series of luxury cabin tents built on floating platforms in the Tatai River, in the southern part of Cambodia. The hotel was amazing. It was so quiet there. Asia is an incredibly noisy place. Most places we visited, we could barely hear ourselves think. In our admittedly limited experience with Asia, there had never been anyplace quiet - until we came here. The lack of noise was astonishing. We found ourselves whispering so as not to disturb the silence. And the food there was really very good too. Which was essential in a place like that, because we were basically trapped there for the duration of our stay. There was no place else to go, the boat only made one trip out each day. The excursions, however, could use some work. On our first day there, we went on a hike up a dry river bed, supposedly to some cold springs for swimming. We kept climbing up, up and further up, but the river was dry. there were a few shallow, murky pools near the bottom, but no swimmable springs with clean water. Our guide, Chilli, was really nice and tried hard, but was ultimately, not particularly knowledgeable about the local flora or fauna. He dug up what appeared to be an orchid plant. But when one of the other guests asked what it was, he just said he didn't know, but that he was going to try to grow it at home because he knows it has pretty flowers. J said she thought it was an orchid, and he just said he didn't think so. The next day, we went on what we thought was an excursion into the mangroves, but we never really made it there, and ended up going to another fishing village, like the one we had visited from Koh Kong. All in all, we thought the excursions from this hotel were pretty pointless, as well as expensive.

So now we are sitting in the Phnom Penh airport, having made the four hour drive from Koh Kong to Phnom Penh in two and a half hours (thanks to Mr. Dara's insane taxi service!), we now have a three hour wait before the Air Asia ticket counter even opens... Thank goodness there is free wi-fi available to alleviate our boredom. Now if only there was food. The situation in Bangkok being what it is, and apparently getting worse, we have opted for Phuket instead. Not quite the Thai cultural experience we were hoping for, and we'll be missing out on the nearby Khao Yai National Park as well, which was our last chance to see elephants in the wild. We're still flying through BKK briefly, but thought we'd be able to do and see more without Red Shirts, Yellow Shirts, and the Thai Army troops clogging up the streets. Cut our losses, but still going to Thailand.