Tuesday, 17 July 2012

KOH KONG

I must confess that Im a little out of my mind sometimes. I mean, most sane people stay on the main track, but I enjoy taking small detours, sometimes for the best and others not so much. I took a 6am bus and got to Koh Kong by 11am. The bus only stoped at the staion for 30 seconds and they neglected to tell me that we were in  Koh Kong until we started moving again.... They dropped me off at a random restaurant along the road. The bus was full of tourists to my relief, but it turned out that I was the only person getting off at that stop, everyone else was going directly to Vietnam. I took a motorbike to a hostel I had researched (had to be a little better prepared after the Kong Lor fiasco). I went for a walk though the town and realized that not many tourists must make it there. After walking for half an hour I managed to find a restaurant, no menu, just pointed at random pots and pans. Weirdest meal Ive had so far, no idea what it was.
With lots of sign langugage I managed to get a moto driver to take me to the mangroove forrest. It was 15 minutes out of town and had a 600m walkway surrounded by mangroove trees. At the end of the walkway there was an observation tower overlooking the whole forest with the river zigzaging through it.



The next day I had booked a trekk. When I woke up it was pouring rain. Got on the tuk tuk with my trusty raincoat and we went to pick up a french couple. We drove to the river and got on a slowboat. The rain had calmed down butit it was still drizzling. The mountains in the rain looked spectacular, with creeping clouds and a misterious air that hovered over the whole forest. The ride was over an hour and we got off in the middle of the jungle. Thats when I realized that our main guide was mute. The french couple was nice, they were funny but seemed a bit out of place judging by their clumsy steps and overly prepaired equipment. First we reached the bamboo forest which was rather strange. When bamboo treees get to a certain height they can't support themselves, forming arched tunnels. After a steep climb, we got to a lookout point.  You could see all the mountains and the river. Beautiful.

We continued on throguh a different kind of forrest, taller trees, small streams, and leeches. I lost count after 9... it was quite shocking at the start, but you learn how to get them off. The key is to make sure that both heads are detached and its easier to use a stick or a rock rather than your hands. I was quite lucky though; Leonel got one on his mmmm (and he was wearing long pants) and Chloey got one on her bum. Too funny.




We had lunch by two small waterfalls. The guides urged us to go swimming but it was too cold and the current looked really strong. After lunch, they broke the news that we had to cross the river. It was rough, the current was pushing and the rocks were incredibly slippery. I held on to my belongings so tigthly, like I was holding on for my life. The guide had just lost his cellphone to the current and it had dissapeared down the river in less that a split second. Throughout the rest of the trekk adventure awaited. The jungle was dark, wet and slippery. The path faded and the leeches continued to attack. We were meant to crosss back throgh the river but the current was picking up and had become too strong to cross. The guide had to create a new path with his machete. Eventually we made it back to the place where our boat was, but one of the guides had to cross the river to get the boat. He managed to get across and in a few hours we were back into civilization.



Despite the rain, Kong Koh went out with a bang!



more pics at:    http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151748709545476.477254.503055475&type=3

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