We
set out at 730 a.m. We checked out of our rooms at The Boddhi Tree, but
left our luggage at the café. Our driver was a local who barely spoke a
word of English. This meant we had to make up a new word for
"waterfall". That word was "Brrrgggsssshhhhhhh!!!" (to be accompanied
by hand sign of right palm going over stationary left arm.)
It was a two-hour drive to the park, during which I mostly slept.
At
some point in the trip we stopped at a market. Uma and I stayed in the
car, the rest went out to get some food. They came back with corn,
oranges and sticky coconut rice with banana.
Once we got to Kirirom, the adventure began. We saw sun bears
lolling in the sun, deer leaping and grazing, monkeys swinging in the
trees. We trekked among the wildlife to get to the top of Phnom Dat
Chivit, the End of the World Mountain, a four-hour hike. It was all
rocks and mud and jungle.
The boys did the gentlemanly thing of leading the group. Soo
Hian was armed with a machete to clear a path for us so that we could
walk through the trees. Lianyi tapped a long stick on the ground
to deactivate any landmines that might still be buried under.
I must say I was pretty nervous throughout the hike. At some
points the jungle was so thick I was convinced we were lost. But every
once in a while we would come across tribal camps and local hunters,
and that helped reassure me.
I was absolutely certain that my
feet were going to drop off, until we came upon a huge lake. There were
two ways to cross it -- a rickety bridge with no handrails or a raft.
Uma was brave enough to try the bridge. The rest of us rafted. It was
a two-kilometre crossing. By the end of it my arms wanted to drop off
too.
Once we reached the base of the mountain, we had to climb
down about 7 million steps (Lianyi says it was more like 5
million, but it felt like more to me!) to get to the waterfall. But it
was totally worth it. The waterfall was simply the biggest thing I've
seen in my life, ever. It was roaring so loud we couldn't hear each
other. We just gaped silently at this force of nature.
And then
we were so exhausted we fell asleep by the waterfall, at one of the
small picnic shacks set up next to it. It was better than any beach
resort.
Of course after that, we had to do the whole climb-raft-hike
process all over again. But it was such a magnificient trail, thanks to
the animals and cold mountain air, that none of us really minded.
We
went back to The Boddhi Tree after that, got our luggage, and made our
way to the Sunday Guesthouse. We showered and took a walk to a
restaurant called Chit Chat café, recommended by Lonely Planet for its
bubble tea. While everyone else ordered bubble tea, I ordered an oreo
shake. The shake turned out to be ice cream blended with oreo -- it
wasn't a drink, it was really just ice cream, but it was AWESOME. I
have no idea what ice cream they used but I have never tasted
oreo-blended ice cream that tasted that good.
Of course, my
jealous friends disqualified me from the drinks battle. Farah won with
her bubble tea, I think, though I can't remember what flavour it was.
Banana?
Oh, and I got porked at dinner. Travel food lesson #2:
Always ask if a dish has pork in it if the menu holds no descriptions
of what it contains, even if the picture looks harmless.
We
traipsed back to our guesthouse after dinner, too exhausted by the day
of adventure to do much else. Lianyi and I went to Farah and Soo
Hian's room to play cards and watch Barack Obama declare his
nomination for the Presidency. Then we went to sleep.
