I woke up a couple of times last night. Once because of the deafening sound of a thunder shower, with heaving rains and lightnings. Really, the sound of the rain pour was so strong that it got me up almost in panic. An other time I got awoken by something slightly funnier; cows just chillin' in the garden of my guesthouse! I have seen cows often in Cambodia, but never so close from my window. Those beasts can be loud at times haha! Anyway, I woke up very early this morning, the reason being that I want to hike in the Kep national park, and to avoid the heat I thought I would get an early start. I head up to the restaurant to have a breakfast ans a take away lunch. As always, it took almost an hour to order the food, ingest the food and pay. But from what I heard, they chopped the vegetables and made everything fresh for me! Not so early anymore.
Je me suis reveillée plusieur fois pendant la nuit. Les quelques premières fois a cause d'un orage et de pluies torentielles qui m'ont fait sursauter plus d'une fois. Une autre fois a cause de mes amies les vaches, oui les vache qui se promènent dans le jardin de ma guesthouse hahaha! J'ai rencontré plusieurs vache au Cambodge, mais je n'ai jamais passé la nuit aussi prés d'une. Leurs meuglements nocturne m'ont prise par surprise haha! Je me suis reveillé trés tôt ce matin, espèrant pouvoir echaper aux forte chaleurs en commencant la randonnée dans le parc national de Kep tôt. Je monte a l'étage pour commender mon petit dejeuner et un dejeuner a emporter. Comme toujours, le service prend du temps, mais la nourriture est fraiche.
I prepare my bag and head down to the nearby shop to buy a big bottle of water. And I'm on my way! I have to find the starting point of the hike, I have to walk a couple of kilometers on the blazing hot asphalte... Yes it is already that smoking.
I find my way to the entrance, there is nobody there, whatever, I'll pay the dollar fee if I meet the guard on the way. There are many French bed and breakfast here, signs for home made ice cream and lemonade make my gluttony for sweets resurface, I might stop later for a taste.
It is way cooler in the shade of the forest, the floor of the jungle is already dry; it's like it never rained last night...
Je prepare mon sac, descend acheter une grosse bouteille d'eau au commerce d'en bas et je me met en route. Je dois d'abord trouver le point de depart de la randonnée, je dois marcher quelques kilometres sur la route, l'asphalte emplis le sentiment de chaleur... ca promet pour la suite.
Je trouve la route en terre qui devrait me mener a l'entrée du parc. Je ne vois pas de garde a l'entrée, tant pis je payerai le dollars de frais de parc si je le vois en route. Sur le chemin, je decouvre plusieur maison d'hotes francaises. Je m'y arreterais peut etre plus tard pour y manger une glace.
Il fais déjà plus frais dans l'ombre de la forêt, le sol de la jungle est sec, comme si la pluie de la veille était juste le produit de mon imagination...
And here is the story of how I got "attacked" by a snake. By doing this hike into the jungle, I was hoping to spot wildlife of some sort, especially wild monkeys and lizards.
While I was on the trail, I heard a loud noise coming from a tree on my side. I stopped and carefully took a peek at the thing moving on the branch, my first thought was to think it was a small monkey, a second later I thought of a big rat trying to balance itself on the branch.... NOPE it was a snake a big, heavy, black and slimy snake. As soon as I realized it was no monkey, I just started to get back on my way, nothing scary there. I had a good 4 meters distance from it after all. I could have just kept on going and the story would have been that. But the snake decided otherwise, it jumped right on the spot where I was standing.... well it didn't really have time to jump on ME as I quickly raced away from its path. I actually ran a good six or seven meters in a eye beat before turning to check on the situation. The snake followed me for a couple of seconds and in a "snaky" slide, just went away on the other side of the trail. I am still unsure if it deliberately jumped to murder me or if it just casually wanted to land on my head to sun bath for the afternoon... what scared me the most was my reaction (once again) when I saw it was a snake; it's like no fuck was given on that moment...
Needless to say that I finished the end of the hike a bit quicker than I would have thought.
Et sinon oui je me suis faite "attaquer" par un serpent. En faisant cette randonnée j'èspérais pouvoir observer la faune et la flore de l'Asie du Sud est, des singes et des lezards en particulier.
En marchant sur le chemin, j'ai entendu un grand bruit venant d'un arbre sur le coté du chemin et a ma hauteur. Je m'arrete et sans m'approcher je jète un coup d'oeil. A première vue c'est un petit singe qui essai de se balancer sur une branche... non ca a plutôt l'air d'un gros rat... ah non c'est un serpent, un gros serpent, lourd et visqueux. Le corps noir et le ventre assez clair. Je ne panique pas, aprés tout je ne suis pas sur son chemin, et j'ai bien quatre mêtre de distance, j'aurais juste pu me remetre en route et l'histoire ce serait arrètée la. Mais le serpent en a voulu autrement, il se jète juste à l'endroit ou je me tiens! Bon il n'a pas vraiment eu le temps de sauter sur moi puisque j'ai vite couru six ou sept metres en quelques secondes, avant de me retourner pour verifier la situation. Le serpent me suit avant de glisser de l'autre côté du chemin.
Je ne suis toujours pas sûre si le serpent a essayer de m'assasiner ou voulait juste se servir de ma tête comme chaise longue pour faire sa bronzette matinale.
J'ai fini la randonnée assez rapidement en fait.
Back at the guesthouse, I will nap for a few hours then head to the crab market for a few prawn tempura. The prawns are good but the breading tastes a bit yeasty. The food is fresh, I have no doubts about that, but I was not expecting that. Later that day I met an American retired man, he is hanging out at the convenience stall with the girls from the guesthouse. He offers me a beer and we have a chat. With us sits an old Cambodian woman, she is drunk and has a lot to talk about. She takes my hand, repeats the same words over and over. She looks at me straight in the eyes, then puts her hand to her heart. I ask the receptionist to translate that one word she repeat on and on. "ah it means friend, you are her friend". I smile and repeats that same word to her. She smiles back, but her looks are sad. People tell me that she is all alone, her husband died and she doesn't have children anymore. I couldn't help but wonder how old she was and who she was before the Khmer Rouge... It was a rather intriguing experience, I wish we could have communicated better, this woman must have a lot of stories to tell.
De retour a la guesthouse, je decide de faire une sieste bien meritée, a mon réveil, je me rend au marché au crabe ou je vais manger des crevettes tempura. Les crevettes sont bonnes mais la panure est bizarre. Plus tard dans la journée je rencontre un americain retraité, il traine avec les filles de ma guesthouse. Il m'offre une bière et on parle un peu. A notre table est assise une vielle cambodgienne, elle a bu et elle veux absolument me parler. Je ne comprend rien a ce qu'elle me dit, elle me prend la main la serre et me montre son coeur. Je demande a la receptioniste de me traduire le mot khmer qu'elle repète en boucle "elle dit amie, tu es son amie". La vielle a l'air triste, on me raconte qu'elle est seule, son mari est mort et elle n'a plus d'enfants. En la voyant je ne peux m'empêcher de penser aux Khmer Rouges et aux horreurs de la guerre...
Oh by the way; today in the jungle I rescued a lizard that was stuck in a plastic cup. The poor animal couldn't get out of it...
