Homestay 17th October

We left Kampong Cham early in the morning and headed out on a 4 hour drive via Phnom Penh to one of the Nature Reserves in the South East of the country. The Eastern part of Cambodia has suffered huge up heavel - The Americans bombed it during the Vietnam War as they believed Viet Cong were hiding out in the jungle here - this apparently was not the case and they ended up just massacring local people and ruining the jungle landscape. After this periiod, it became a Khmer Rouge strong hold and suffered further fighting. In recent years, the Cambodian government have tried to rehabilitate the area by creating nature reserves and placing them in the custody of the indiginous people to ensure that the area is not bought up and built on.

After stopping in Phnom Penh (the cpaital city) for supplies, We drove for about an hour through the coutryside and arrived at a village inside the reserve. Here, they organise for tourists to stay overnight in the village and experience what it would be like to live out in the jungle. Apparently there are leopards as well as snakes out in the countryside. It was another early night as yet again there was obviuosly no electricity. We ate dinner cooked by the villagers but did not eat with them as we had the Kampong Cham family. i actually thought the eveing before was abetter experience. None the less, we looked around the viallge - which is only just getting a permenant school building, got caught in yet another monsoon downpour and then got ready for bed.....

We stayed in a traditional wooden, stilt house - 8 people in each house. Hannah and I at least had a decent matress on the floor (which Hannah cased out and claimed before anyone else - typical family behaviour - it must be in our genes!!) - everyone else had to make do with sleeping mats!!

Our mosquito nets had holes in which thankfully we taped up as there we mosis flying around all night. It was sweltering hot, even though being elevated from the ground gives some ventilation. I was sleeping next to the open door and kept freaking out thinking about leopards hidign out nearby! I was woken at 4am - firstly by the village pig, snorting around underneath the house, the the cows waking up and mooing, then the cokerals, and then the family we were stayng with turned on thier radio about 5am to hear their daily dose of the national anthem. I'd no idea the middle of no where could be so noisy!! To wash, we had to use a big container underneath the house and the hole in the ground toilet was in a shack. The flushing system is to pour a bowl of water into the hole - this is actually how most toilets are in Cambodia - all suprisingly clean and fairly hygenic. Breakfast was omlettes, bread and coffee but I noticed the family ate rice instead of bread.

It was a beautiful area but we were all so relieved to leave in the morning. No proper shower in this heat and humidity just makes you feel absolutley disgusting!!