So we just got back from our long buggy trek! Ok well it wasn't that long but it felt like forever! I've never been backpacking before and now and forever have no more plans to go again! I pretty much hate hiking, just completely not my thing especially on tiny trails in the middle of the jungle with spiders the size of your hand! The funny thing was that there was a group of adults who were trekking at the same time on basically the same trail only they went the reverse direction that we did. We beat them to the camp spots and to the finish every time! And they looked so pissed off it was hilarious, my mom yelled at them when we were swimming in the river by our first camp spot, "What took you so long??!" and one of the women gave her such a dirty look. It was pretty funny, they didn't look happy at all. And I thought that I was in a bad mood! On the trek trail it was about a foot wide at the widest part and had a lot of spiky plants with thorns that ripped into your legs, my legs haven't had a very good time the last two days. I have long scratches and punctures around my ankles, but the worst one I got on a tree, when I was jumping off a log I looked down and saw a piece just carving a long line through my shin like butter, it was kind of nasty. We had the same guide from our boat trip, Sok Phaorn and we had a guide from one of the minority tribes and he knew the jungle really well. He was pretty short though so when he led I walked into a lot of spider webs that he didn't catch when he was walking. But most of the way he carried a spider stick that he waved in front of him and looked for the huge spiders, there were so many bugs especially ants and spiders. While we camped my mom got up at night to go to the bathroom and for some reason she didn't put on her shoes and she stepped into a red ant nest and got bitten all over her foot. We camped by the river and there was a small waterfall that was really nice to swim in. There was a long vine that my brother and Sok Phaorn both grabbed to swing from to drop into the water Tarzan style. When we were hiking I cranked up my iPod and then one foot in front of the next, my favorite song was For Your Entertainment by Adam Lambert. "Didn't know what you were getting into...now I'm gonna turn up the heat" It was sooooooooooooooo hot!!!! We knew that it was going to be really hot but it didn't prepare you for the actual heat! The food was amazing though, we had huge mounds of rice and fried vegetables and beef or pork, in Khmer it's called Cha Creiung. I'm not really sure how to spell it though. For dinner on thanksgiving which we had at 2 AM Berkeley time on your Thanksgiving day but our 5:30 PM we had rice, and a lemongrass vegetable that was cooked a traditional way in bamboo and fried vegetables and beef. We set up camp in a house frame that we covered with a tarp inside and on the roof, then we put up our hammocks. They were the US Airforce issue and had mosquito nets built in, the house frame was cool, all the supports were leaning out because all the force when we were in our hammocks was inwards and if the supports were straight the frame would have collapsed on top of us. Then we climbed into our camouflage hammocks and zipped up our mosquito nets and went to sleep, there were relaxing sounds of the waterfall outside and we were so tired we fell asleep quickly. The next morning I woke up and read a book then got up and looked around, I was second to last getting up. The last person was our guide Sok Phaorn which is kind of funny because our other guide got up at around 5 but Sok Phaorn's only 22 so I guess he still sleeps in and doesn't work in the fields so he doesn't really have to get up early. Before breakfast when I was getting dressed I saw a scorpion, it had crawled onto the tarp on the floor and was hiding in the fold on the floor. The guide from the minority, Khong split a piece of bamboo with his machete and picked it up chopstick style and roasted it in the fire before burning it. It was cool because you could see the scorpions poison dripping out of its body. Then for breakfast we had bread and butter and jam and fish Khong had caught in the river. Then we packed up camp and continued our hike. Our hike today was a lot easier than the hikes the other day, I'm not sure why but I think the trails were wider or something. But we went along faster and after about three hours we stopped along a stream for lunch. We were on a family's farm and the kids came down and swam with us in the stream, my mom gave them a beach ball which they played volleyball with. It's kind of ironic that one the reasons I'm happy to have left Berkeley at this time is that I'm missing the rest of the volleyball unit in PE and here there's a huge volleyball craze, you see kids playing all the time. But after lunch we walked for about another hour pretty much straight uphill and finally we finished. As we walked towards the road we were all shouting "YES CIVILIZATION AT LAST!!!" It was pretty funny, so we went to a nearby shop and had cold drinks and called the man who organized it all Mr. Sita to come pick us up.
Apres Mr. Sita eu nous, nous allons a chute d'eau mais il a ete seche jusqu'a deja. Alors nous allons a Crater Lake ou nous allons il ya deux jours. Il a ete parfait! L'eau est tres beau et chaude. Puis nous rentrons a la hotel appelle Tree Top. Et j'ai pris une douche froid.
That's all for now! We possibly might be going to Laos next but we're going to have a lazy day tomorrow!
Ming :)
No comments:
Post a Comment