Mondulkiri, Cambodia

On arrival, we scattered around the whole city looking for the best adventurous trek in the jungle. We decided to wait for our French friends Clement, Robin, Madelaine and Édouard to see if they would be interested in joining us in a 2 day trek during which we would have the chance to sleep into hamacs in the middle of the jungle! What a great adventure !! Gladly, everything work out and on the next morning we jumped into a tuk tuk and off we went... direction the jungle :-)
We soon found out that both of our supposedly english speaking guides had quite limited english communication skills as the answer of any question was always “I do not know”!!!

The evening before leaving on our trek, we had some street food at the very loud and busy night market. Not our best meal but we had great company!

We walked all morning through a dense forest until we reached a first waterfall. We had the chance to dip in and cool off. Soo great !!

We then had lunch near a beautiful river where Clement, Robin, my sister and I built numerous boats with bambou, wood and all sorts of material from the jungle. After placing them in the rivers current, they almost all made it until they were out of sight.

In the afternoon, the walk became a bit more difficult with quite a few rivers and streams to cross, sometimes on precarious bridges or rocks and sometimes simply walking through the stream. Removing our shoes and putting them back on was a bit long and annoying so all the children start using theirs dads shoulders as tuk tuks... until the guides decided to build little bridges with rocks in the shallower streams.

​At one point, we thought one of our guides went crazy! After helping 2 of the 4 children to cross on the rocks, he took a big rock and threw it on one side of the stream with a big “Hurgh” like sound.  He then grabbed something by the tail and wacked it on a rock. At first, mom thought it was a fish, or a frog or a ... then we all realized it was a big lizard (iguana type of lizard). As if nothing happened, he then proceeded to help the other 2 children cross the stream. Once we were all on the other side, our guide simply grabbed it by the tail and carried it over his shoulder. He then said two new words “hum supper”. That promised to be interesting!

Arrived at our spot for the night, we hung out our hamacs and started a fire to cook the supper. The guides then cut some bambou to make glasses for the parents to drink rice whisky. Judging  by their faces it must be quite strong. Our guides then cut 1 meter long bambou pieces in order to use them as pots over the fire. They sliced all the vegetables and pork, added a little bit of water and placed them on an angle over the fire. That made a delicious stew !! The lizard was cooked separately,  boiled in a regular pot. Surprisingly, it was very good and had a sweet taste.

Shortly after, it was time to sleep as we were all tired. We had one of our best night in this trip so far listening to all the jungle sounds was just amazing!

Despite a quite difficult trek, the second day went by just as fast as the first, between walking and swimming under cascades and waterfalls, we had such a great time with our friends and family. I hope we will have the chance to see them again in Siem Riep!