THERE IS NOWHERE TO GO BUT EVERYWHERE

Mr. Phuht (who, by the way, ran an excellent restaurant in Mondulkiri, if only I could remember the name of it) drove us back to Phnom Penh, leaving bright and early so we could explore the city to its fullest in the one day we had left in Kampuchea (which is what Cambodians still call their country).  We were able to go see the Royal Palace, wander through the Russian Market, buy some last minute souvenirs, and just soak in the city.

We also got another $7 massage, which was much less sketchy than the last one we got in Mondulkiri!  I had to fly back to Korea in order to take the flight out of Seoul provided by the Korea Society, and Jeff was flying around the world via Germany on Lufthansa.  His flight was hours after mine, so we said goodbye at the hotel and I headed for the airport while Jeff had yet another massage (and a pedicure!) and wandered around the city for the seven hours he had left until his flight took off.  

Jeff took these photos in the market after I left.  

....then he went to the Cambodian National Museum

As Jeff was taking these photos he was imagining me winging it back to Korea via Hong Kong and then beating him home by half a day.  Unfortunately, a giant typhoon had blown through Hong Kong that day, closing the airport and stranding thousands of travelers.  Dragon Air had canceled all flights to Hong Kong, with no guarantees that flights would resume for days and days.  I had the Korean Air flight that was going to leave without me if I didn't make the connection out of Hong Kong, but couldn't contact anyone from Korean Air to ask about getting switched to a later flight - as a matter of fact, my friends at Dragon Air told me that the Korean Air flights were likely to be backlogged also due to Typhoon Vicente, which was equivalent to a category 4 hurricane.  Imagine Jeff's surprise when he showed up at the airport - thinking me well on my way home - and seeing me stranded there.  Remember, we had no cell phones that would work in Asia.  It was lucky I did see him, as I had no money and was able to get a credit card off him before he took off on his flight.  I was seriously beginning to think that I would, like Tom Hanks, be living in the terminal of this airport for perhaps a week before they could get me out of there.  (And may I add that the Phnom Penh airport is definitely NOT the latest in comfort and amenities.  The only good news is that Dragon Air kept giving me restaurant vouchers.

Another blessing was that I had my laptop and there was wifi - so I set to work trying to find anything, any route, airline, boat, elephant, ANYTHING that would get me home and not cost me a jillion bucks.  Luck kicked in again when shifts changed and I found a junior employee of Dragon Air - I wish like anything I could remember that kids' name - who spoke excellent English.  I showed  him the Air Asiana flight that I'd found leaving Phnom Penh and flying straight to Seoul at midnight.  He replied that they didn't have a partnership with Air Asiana but would contact them to see if they would give me a hardship flight due to the typhoon.  Hurrah!  They did!!!  AND since it was direct it would get me to Seoul in time to catch my original flight back to the States!!  (I should mention that, even though I don't remember my  hero's name as I write this, I did get it at the time and wrote him one heck of a customer appreciation letter which I copied to Dragon Air's main office in Hong Kong.)  I had to go backwards through customs and illegally re-enter Cambodia, then go frontwards through customs with my Asiana ticket (had me a rough few moments over this maneuver)... but it worked.  By this time I was in need of another massage.  Airport massages were $10 but the stress had been going on for 13 hours at this point and I needed to defuse. Ten dollars and a few  hours later I was winging my way toward Seoul.  Had no way of letting Jeff know that things had worked out, but amazingly we were scheduled to take the same JetBlue flight from JFK to Orlando the next day.... this after leaving six hours apart, he flying from west Cambodia to Frankfurt to JFK and me going the other way around the globe - first north to Korea and then east to JFK! (the fact that he was flying west is what kept the typhoon from affecting him).  However, he ended up missing that flight!  Needless to say, I was pretty exhausted when I finally reached Orlando and was pretty darn happy to see my wonderful son Garrett there to pick me up.  AND this fabulous boy drove me home because he saw how tired I was and then turned right around and went back to Orlando to get Jeff who arrived a couple hours after me.

And so another trip is over.  The question is - where will I go next?

“There's a race of men that don't fit in, 
A race that can't sit still;
So they break the hearts of kith and kin, And they roam the world at will.
They range the field and rove the flood, 
And they climb the mountain's crest; Their's is the curse of the gypsy blood, 
And they don't know how to rest.” 
― Robert W. Service

MORE MONDULKIRI - ELEPHANTS!

Making friends with our elepants

Mr. Phuht's son and his two cousins who were visiting from the city picked us up and took us to Putang, the elephant village.  We were introduced to our mahouts (elephant jockeys) and our elephants, taking the opportunity to make friends before ascending the bamboo ladder onto the baskets on their backs. Sorry, elephants!

 Yes, Jeff was riding an elephant also, but since it's pretty hard to pass a camera back and forth from atop an elephant (and did I mention it was raining?) I had the camera for the first few hours.  I can't even begin to explain the experience of bumping along on an elephant's back through the jungle with no sound but the crunching of jungle vegetation below the elephants' feet, the chirp of the crickets, the splosh splosh splosh of the rain - until the mahout began to sing a gentle song to his elephant - that sounded oddly like a love song.

After a few hours of this - climbing up hill, down hill, waiting for our elephants as they stopped to munch on a tree - we stopped at a river that had a small waterfall for our picnic lunch.

Mr. Phuht's son and his cousins thought nothing of stripping down to his BVD's to jump off the waterfall.

 ... and after lunch we gave the elephants a bath!  How cool is this?

All I could think was, "IF this elephant rolls over......"

Scenes from atop an elephant:  

Because it was raining so frequently in Mondulkiri I don't have photos of a lot of things we did.  Mr. Phuht provided us with bicycles which we took all over the town and up and down some hills outside of town - getting pretty muddy in the rain!  The most interesting thing we saw was a giant volleyball tournament - must have been the regional playoffs with about a dozen courts having matches on them at the same time.

 The village itself was interesting and we had a few great dinners - both at Mr. Phuht's restaurant and another nearby that was a lovely place in an outdoor, tree shaded area (the trees came in handy in blocking the raindrops).  We also had a very questionable massage at a place that I think specializes on things other than Thai massage.... it was sketchy to say the least and Jeff was not that adept at fending off the younger masseuse's advances (which took place right next to where the older masseuse -or was she the madame?- was giving me something that weakly passed as a Thai massage).  

MONDULKIRI

Day 11 (B, L)

After breakfast we transfer to the village of Putang, from where we continue on elephant back along a jungle path to a scenic river. We have the opportunity to wash and feed the elephants and enjoy a picnic lunch and swim in the river before the elephants bring us back to the village. 

The road to Mondulkiri leaves the flatland of the Mekong basin behind and winds up into the jungle-y hills. We meandered  through Snoul Wildlife Sanctuary to Sen Monorom, the small provincial capital.Its relaxing scenery makes it popular with Cambodian people - and adventurous Americans - for vacations. Above is a photo from the front of our hotel.  

Mr. Phuht used his trusty 4-wheel drive vehicle to take us to waterfall deep in the hills.  I think the best part of Mondolkiri was that - FINALLY - we could cool off.

Jungle swing

 Mr. Phuht's son took us to a village where the ethnic "hill tribe" people live.  It was fascinating to see their way of life which has largely remained untouched by "progress."

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The famous Mondulkiri coffee being grown

Purchasing a woven scarf from the locals

This little girl was a skilled and speedy weaver

Entering the traditional dwelling

I'm not gonna lie, these people were all pretty drunk. Unfortunately this seems to be a common
theme among indigenous people in many of the places I've visited

All of these photos are taken inside the dwelling

Pretty sure these store the source of the inebriation


The Cambodian people, and in particular the hill tribe people, are very happy to have their photo taken.  These are shots from around the village:

After leaving the hill tribe village, we continued along scenic forest and hill paths to Romnear waterfall, where we had a quick swim and a picnic lunch. Then we visited the spectacular double drop waterfall of Bou Sraa, which is evidently quite the tourist attraction for Cambodians.  There were a lot of them there enjoying their day off with family groups.

These girls were earning a living dressing in traditional hill tribe costumes and posing with tourists, mostly Cambodian

We got to swim in the pools at the foot of the falls

We headed back to town, stopping here and there along the way when we saw something we wanted to explore.  The photo below is one of many I could post, as it is common to see motorbikes loaded down with baskets, building supplies, even livestock! 

Just before sunset we walked up to Phnom Dak Reimon, a hill from where we could admire what the locals call the ‘Sea Forest’, because of the countless undulating hills that look like the waves in the sea in the dusk.

Jeff poses with Mr. Phuht's son atop Phnom Dak Reimon

Back at the Mondulkiri Hotel we took a walk around, discovering a footbridge that evidently one had to pay to cross - as we couldn't figure out exactly how one paid we only walked halfway across.  Had an early night as we would need our energy for our awesome elephant trek tomorrow!