We got to this place on the border of Cambodia and Laos on the information given to us by AVT. They arranged everything for us to get to this little known eco village. This Village is 40KM north of Stung Treng. We were taken to Stung Treng and transferred by the village minibus full of people and supplies back tot he Eco Village on a very bumpy road. This felt like travelling, there was no phone signal, no road signs, just a dusty road.
After around 1 hour we were at the eco village and shown to our bungalow. It looked straight over the Mekong river, and had a dolphin watching platform. (We never saw any dolphins from the platform) We arrived at the village which should have been a quiet eutopia, with nothing to do but watch the river, and the little boats, but when we arrived there was a huge village party happening. The Khmer new year gets celebrated for between 7 and 9 days in the villages, and showed no sign of stopping. Music was played all day, and it was about 4 songs in a cycle. (We could sign these to you if you wanted without even speaking Khmer) There was only one person in the viillage that spoke english, but they were unavailable so we had fun asking for lunch and drinks etc.
The weather was hot, and sunny, and the river was gorgeous. At sunset we got a little local boat out to see the rare Irawuddy Dolphin. We were lucky to see them because they think there is less than 30 in the wild now, and their numbers are dropping. Two of the dolphins live near the Eco village and dont move too far, we stayed two night in our bamboo hut on thin matress on the floor. Both nights we took a bot trip, and both nights we saw the dolphins. They were quite shy and hid from the camera, with the rubbish cameraman (Me) only managed to snap a few dorsal fins.
The Khmer New year celebrations went on long into the night, and the Village people played the perfect hosts. We had to play drinking games, and drink beer with them. Some were a little worse for wear after drinking in the sun all day, but they were still very kind.
The next day we visited a huge waterfall, although it was dry season it was still an impressive sight. Sadly the area surrounding the waterfall was full of litter, which spoiled such a beautiful sight. We dipped our feet in, and spent around an hour or so here before heading back to the village.
This place was not what we expected, we were expecting to have nothing to do but read our books by the river. Our room didn't even have electricity. But we were blasted by a celebration, and were very much involved. We were playing drinking games, and dancing with the locals. This is when we really saw the smiles of Cambodia, and the charm of the country.
The next morning it was back on the village minibus at 7am for the ride to Stung Treng. It took a long time as our driver stopped at every house in the village and picked up parcels, and packed more and more people in to the van. But we made it with Plenty of time before our connecting Bus to 4000 Islands in Laos.
 |
| Sunset over the Mekong River at Preah Rumkel |
 |
| The Huge Waterfall ( We forgot to write down the name) |
 |
| The RARE Irawuddy Dolphin |
 |
| Another Sunset Mekong river shot! |
No comments:
Post a Comment