7/7 Chi Phat Trek Day 1

7/7/2013: We hit the trail by 7:45. My guide's name was "Rat," a boyish looking 33 year old with a big smile, and his helper was "Mao," a weathered looking 26 year old with a lazy eye who Rat referred to as "Mr. Mao." Mao used to be a poacher in the Cardamoms, so he was very adept at identifying animal tracks and animal noises. Rat is a teacher at the elementary school in town.

Yes, it was overkill to have one "client" and two guides, but it was nice to have three people to make things less awkward since Rat's English is limited and Mao's is mostly nonexistent. Rat and Mao could talk and I could just enjoy the scenery and not have to make conversation.

The plan was to hike 21km to a campsite in the jungle, spend the night in hammocks, then follow the river 14km back. For this hike, Rat and Mao were both wearing sandals.




The first part of the hike was just through some farmland, some land where cows and buffalo were grazing, and a bit of open space. We passed through an area with wild rambutan trees and picked some fruit for snacking. We also got some oranges. After that we passed through an open area that apparently had been cleared during the Khmer Rouge days, but I'm not sure for what purpose the trees were cleared. It allowed for a nice view though, as we were passing over a small hill. The view was of the surrounding hills, covered in dense, lush rain forest. It was now raining off and on, and we entered the next area, which was actually a burn area where there had recently been a big forest fire during the dry season due to a discarded cigarette. While passing through the burn area I noticed a big glob of red ants at the end of a leaf and remembered them as the same bastards that bit me at Angkor Wat. Mao grabbed a handful and popped them in his mouth, and Rat said they typically put them in sour soup.

We got out of the burn area and Rat stopped to tell me to tuck my pants into my socks and that we were now entering the real forest. I asked what they were going to do about leeches since they didn't have socks and shoes and pants, and Rat replied "we don't need to because we're Cambodian." By the end of the trip, it seems I would have been better off taking their approach.

The forest was very dark and moist, and the rain was no longer an issue. We crossed little streams and climbed over fallen trees, and the rest of the forest seemed impenetrable. We caught the first leech climbing its way up my leg and flicked it off. This became a routine, about every ten seconds I'd have to pause and flick off some leeches that were charging up my socks, looking for skin. I discovered that some were able to get right through my socks and caught a few that had already started to dig in. Meanwhile Rat was just stopping briefly and casually brushing leeches off, and it seemed like Mao wasn't having any issues at all.

We stopped for lunch near a stream and Mao and Rat got to work on preparing food. They first collected some rare dry wood and started a fire, then they starting chopping vegetables. In the meantime I discovered some fat, full leeches under my socks and brushed them off, which is much easier when they're full. Lunch was soon ready, which was a tasty rice dish with meat and veggies, and we got back on the trail.

We passed over the first set of hills and emerged from the forest into a banana plantation. There were signs of people and we soon came across a family sitting on their elevated wooden platform watching some horror movie on a laptop. It was three women and a bunch of kids, I assume the men were working. It was a really depressing place, covered in mud and garbage, with nasty dogs and chickens wandering around. Rat bought half a water bottle full of rice wine from the ladies and we continued on.

We eventually reached the camp, which had a little covered cooking area and a covered elevated platform made of bamboo for sleeping. The sleeping area was perched on a spot that overlooks the river. Rat set up the hammocks and Mao started collecting firewood. It started raining really hard and I just relaxed in the hammock and watched the rain. I decided to throw on the rain coat and go check out the small waterfall, but I ended up getting pretty soaked in the process.


I got back and Rat and Mao had cooked up a snack of egg with some bamboo shoots they had found near camp. It was really tasty. I relaxed some more in the hammock, then dinner was ready and we feasted on fried noodles and more rice with meat and veggies. We also finished off the rice wine so we could, in Rat's words, keep warm.

While cleaning up, Mao found a civet in a tree nearby and Rat and I rushed over to see. At this point it was dark, so Rat gave me his headlamp but all I could see were two very bright glowing eyes staring back at me. Mao made some "civet noises" which just sound like smooching and it seemed to keep the civet interested for a bit, but then we lost interest since we could only see its eyes.

Everyone got in their hammocks at 8:30, since we only had one headlamp between the three of us. I planned to lay there and enjoy the sounds of the jungle but instead fell asleep and slept for ten hours.

Besides the civet, these are the other animal signs we came across:
porcupine tracks, wild dog tracks, turtle poo, smelled a dead wild pig killed by either tiger or wild dog (those are the animals that hunt wild pig), heard a gibbon

Photo album: https://picasaweb.google.com/108933817613007660268/20130707ChiPhatDay2?authuser=0&feat=directlink