Kayaking and waterfalls

05.01.2017

After virtually no sleep on a mat on the floor of a stilt house, a menagerie of animals woke me up nice and early. We had our fruit and crackers for breakfast, then set off for the day. Our guide took us to see another pod of river dolphins and then to a canyon-like waterfall beside which, a brand new casino and temple was going up. Sound familiar, Ontario friends? Good lord, that will be awful when it's finished, but there it is, the battle between authenticity and development, once again.

We climbed about on the rocks, Son goat-like, jumping from point to point. I was not so confident in my balancing abilities, I stayed back a few metres. A nice woman from Siem Reap even invited me to her home when I arrived at Angkor Wat. Amazing!

Our lunch was also beautiful on the bank of the Mekong. We took the kayaks out and paddled around. I had no idea what to do with the oars, so I just used it like a canoe paddle, it must've looked ridiculous, but it worked. We saw a few water buffalo, paddled through the flooded forest and went swimming in the strong current. I was dreading paddling back upstream, but Mr. Hen piled the kayaks in a motorized boat and he drove us home. What luxury!

After finding our homestay, they only had one bed for us! Luckily, Son volunteered to sleep on the floor, so they got him another mattress. We wandered around town until dinner, and our driver for tomorrow beckoned us over to drink some Cambodian whiskey with him. Son gave him the rest of our rice wine as compensation. We had dinner with a school teacher from Australia who had lost his girlfriend to illness. She's still alive, she just went home, but he was left with no purpose and plan. We discussed possibly going on a trek together, but he was a little bit annoying. I don't know if I could've stood him for too many days. We went to bed a bit early this time, but still I didn't sleep very well again.

On the boat