The excursion to Kirirom (explanations and pictures)

Dear Friends,

Apart from a few pictures aranged in a comic way, I haven't written much these past weeks and I apologize for that.

Let me try to tell you a little about my recent deeds and thoughts in Cambodia...

My excursion to Kirirom

The pictures you saw of me and two friends were taken on the day we went to the Kirirom National Park.

The friends are Nicolas and Fabien which I met at the Khmer classes of the French Cultural Center. Thanks in large part to them the mood is very good in the class and we often meet outside of the classes, whether to eat, to have a drink or for an excursion like the one on the Silk Island which I wrote about and the one to the Kirirom.

The Kirirom is a mountain which gives its name to a National Park, approximately 100 km south-west of Phnom Penh, towards Sihanoukville (the sea port and beach resort). One gets out of Phnom Penh on road 4, and drives past the airport (Pochentong) for about 70 kms before making a right on a road leading into the mountain. There are two touristic sites next to each other: Chambok and Kirirom. The first one is an ecotourism site set up by a Cambodian NGO called Mlup Baitong. We were greeted there by a team of 4 or 5 good-spirited young men and women. The price for foreigners was $3 each, plus the bicycle rental, to get into the site and be allowed to climb to the waterfall.

We tried to bargain and get away at a cheaper price but there was no way. We thought the money would really serve a purpose because there was a sense of community among the youth there and paid.

One of the youth served as our guide. He couldn't speak English, which made us improve our Khmer (at least theoretically... we should have learnt how to say root, liana, waterfall and to name many trees and fruit).

We enjoyed the short bicycle ride and the climb to the waterfall a lot, so we didn't regret the 3 dollars. It was amazing, after climbing in the heat, how the temperature dropped next to the waterfall: from over 35 degrees to some 25 degrees in a matter of meters I would say.

When we were done, we went down the road leading to Chambok to get back to the road leading to Kirirom itself. As a contrast to the entrance to Chambok, we were stopped at the entrance to the National Park by several less young officials in uniform who didn't seem to do anything apart from playing cards while waiting for the tourists to make some money through them. An official sign stated the fee for foreigners at $5 each. We were less confident there that the money would be well used, given the lazy aspect of the officials. After paying the $15 nevertheless, we were given entrance tickets which showed immediately they were reused: the paper was creased, the date had been erased and overwritten! That meant our $15 were going directly into the officials' pocket. After complaining and accompanying the official to his office to make sure he was pulling out new tickets from the stub, we got clean tickets and went in. We thought it was a small victory over corruption, although of course the chances are high that the superior of these officials was just as corrupt and that we put $15 into the pockets of an already rich official rather than in the pockets of low-level (poorer?) officials.

There is no way of knowing but I prefer the possibility of higher-level corruption. Moreover, I think we gave a clearer sign of our values by doing this way rather than, as, I realized later, other tourists do, which is paying half-price ($2.5) directly to the official and not requesting an entrance ticket...

I thought afterwards that the bad state of the road leading to the mountain showed was not surprising if the entrance fees never got anywhere...

We started climbing the road on our motorbikes. At the start of the road, the climate is as hot as in the plain, we even saw small forest fires, but, like at Chambok, there is a sudden change in the atmosphere at maybe an altitude of 500 m: it gets colder and more humid suddenly. The smell of the forest becomes strong and it is really relaxing to spend some time in bearable temperatures before returning to the heat of the plain.

There are several waterfalls. We went to one which was not too impressive in itself but we enjoyed the view and the walk in the . The only ennoying thing was litter scattered all around the creek, downstream of the place where people come to eat and rest. That's why we went for a short hike upstream.

You saw in a previous post that I had to opportunity to try the water of the creek... That's when I fell into the water: I slipped on a wet stone and found myself waist deep into the water. My cell phone and wallet were in my pocket but both survived the dip. My backpack proved quite waterproof, except for the pocket containing the map. Minimal dammage therefore (none to your servant, most importantly) and a lot of fun. We went on climbing for a short while, then turned around and when we met the pool where I had fallen, my friends pressed me to show for the camera my fondness for that pool. That's how you got the photo sequence I posted :-)

That's about it for the Kirirom excursion. Here are a few other pictues (all pictures are © Fabien):

Nicolas and I driving, on the way back.

A beautiful view from the road: a woman and children taking cows or buffaloes to the water, with hills in the background.

When getting closer to Phnom Penh on the way back, the traffic was getting heavier, with such trucks as this one carrying pigs. When I tried to overtake this truck, a momentary lack of concentration on the road when I realized the load of the truck, and excessive speed, almost cost me an accident...