Day 16 (Wed 30 Sep): Banlung (forest trek)

I was horrified. We’d arrived at Mr Ny’s farm to find him “making rice”. As the owner of a de-husking machine, he provides rice for the whole village. Working from 5am, his day doesn’t really start until he’s treated whatever bags have been delivered for that day. “Health and safety” would have had a field day: dirty bags, wicker baskets, unwashed hands… even one of the family dogs got in on the act. But Cambodia have bigger fish to fry (y’know, minor things like poor human rights and extensive, deep-rooted political corruption) before stuff like comes to the top of the agenda. And they all seemed fine to me…

I was keen to get going as I knew I’d have to walk slowly, but I couldn’t really pull him away from his rice-making so we eventually left at 0945. We = me, Mr Ny and his two dogs, Nanggap (female, 18 months, just had puppies,tended to stay close, protective, very obedient):

… and Perk (male, 3 years, a wanderer, disappeared for long periods, but always returned when called, handsome, also very obedient):

Mr Ny fashioned me a walking pole out of some bamboo – it saved me a fall more than once that day:

“An animal!”. Mr My stopped and watched. “A monkey.” Cool – I strained to try to see it. Then he picked up a stone and hurled it in the monkey’s direction. At first I thought it was to get it to move so I could see it… but then he set his dogs on it. I was horrified.

You could hear the squeals – long, anguished, painful… and then nothing.

“They kill the monkey?”

“Yes, they kill it, ” he said still looking at the forest. Then he turned and saw my face. Someone with zero EQ could have read my face.

“They no kill monkey. It ran up tree.”

Sounded like they bl**dy well killed the monkey to me, I thought. And he could give me no reason why. Maybe it was a language thing, but I strongly suspected it was because there wasn’t one. He looked sheepish.

Happily, things improved after that and we trekked steadily:

Lunch stop:

Dragon fruit:

He worked out that I was a slow walker and we took shortcuts, the last one straight up the river to the waterfall we’d been aiming for. I’d given up taking my shoes/socks off at each river crossing – they dried between soaks anyway. Just wish the rep had warned me.

The waterfall was tiny but pretty – a nominal place to head for a day trip (we were just in the forest – it’d have taken days to get to the national park and back):

And I was determined to swim after all that walking:

He’d told me the route back was 3 hours. Nothing shorter? No. But there was. People dream of going “off the beaten track” (not understanding that, unless you go to the earth’s extremes, there isn’t such a thing). By necessity and circumstance, we went off the normal track, his machete sometimes clearing the way, sometimes back-tracking.

We stopped for a rest at a hut about 30 mins from civilisation:

Then I witnessed something I am honoured to have seen: he invited me into the hut and, on a bamboo mezzanine level, the old man (who had a connection with Buddha – I can’t remember what they call it), performed a good-luck ceremony for the woman who was sick. A visit to the doctor hadn’t healed her, so they were trying alternatives. It involved two cows made out of folded leaves and toothpicks, each with a candle and a separate candle with a substance around the base. He squatted (amazing mobility – his butt was brushing the floor), spoke very, very fast and proceeded to melt something over the candle and wave it near the woman, then sprinkle the substance over each of the cows. He didn’t stop for at least 2 or 3 minutes. Whilst I don’t think the procedure itself has much scientific merit, the placebo effect is well-documented. I hope she gets better 🙂

Arrived back at Village 5 (a logical but somewhat uninspired name) two hours later.

And now the bit you’ve been waiting for – the wildlife review. It started well with my shoe this morning – must have come back with me last night: