7/6 Day 1 in Chi Phat

7/6/2013: In the morning I booked my trip through the Wildlife Alliance. The plan was to do a guided "trek" from Chi Phat into the forest, spend one night in the jungle in a hammock, then return to Chi Phat the next day by a different route. I was able to pay for some of it with Thai Baht, so my money reserves weren't as much of an issue.

Chi Phat village

View of the river that runs through town - I crossed it the night before on the "ferry"

I had a day to kill in town, then, so I rented a mountain bike for $5. First, though, I had to go buy some long pants since I was told there would be leeches on the trek and I hadn't packed any pants. I strolled over to the "market" and pretty quickly found some light material pants. The problem was that the longest ones were still only a little better than capri-length on me. Cambodia is one of the shortest countries in the world, although I'm not sure if that explains the limited selection of pants length in this remote, poor village. Anyhow, I still bought the pants for $3, and the girl that sold the pants to me flashed a smirk at another guy as if to imply she was stealing from me.

I started my bike ride and headed north out of town. This place apparently isn't yet accustomed to seeing white people, so I got lots of waves and smiles and "hellos", mostly from children, as I pedaled through. I got a better look at the village and was struck by the number of children, the rustic-ness of the houses (almost all simple wooden structures), and how many chickens, pigs, and cows live in the town.

My first stop was at some rapids just outside of town, which were pretty nice. I continued north through some more spread out villages and then followed a single track trail a few hundred yards to a really nice waterfall. It wasn't tall, but very wide, and had an impressive amount of water flowing over it since it is a few weeks into the rainy season.


I continued north and there were fewer houses along the road now. One stretch of road had a ravine next to it with lots of buffalo (domesticated) hanging out in the water to cool off. Further on I saw a sign on a tree that warned about landmines in the area. Apparently the Khmer Rouge had made it all the way out to Chi Phat.



I kept following the road, at one point carrying my bike across a wide shallow river. There were no longer any more signs of people living there, but I did see a number of people working at a reforestation area. I eventually stopped and turned around, afraid that I was maybe following the same path I'd be hiking the next day.

I returned to town and figured I should get a hat as well, so I found a nice Nike hat for $2.

After that I biked back to the rapids and read my book and watched a guy wash his motorbike in the river for over an hour.

One interesting thing I noticed in town was that many of the women wear matching 2 piece flannel pajamas, and not just for sleeping. I saw at least ten different women wearing "happy teddy" pajamas with cute teddy bear patterns all over. I assumed it was just a donation or a cheap option for clothing, but Bryse Gaboury later told me he's been seeing that look all over Cambodia for as long as he's been in the country.



Photo album: https://picasaweb.google.com/108933817613007660268/20130706ChiPhatDay1?authuser=0&feat=directlink