Today we took an excursion into the Preah Sihanouk National Park, also known as Ream National Park for reasons I don't quite comprehend. We were shuttled from our guesthouse to one of the other guesthouses in town for a "continental breakfast" (baguette, butter, jam & honey, coffee & tea) then whisked to the park by minibus. The tour itself started with a boat ride down the Prek Tuk Sap. The riverbank was dotted with fishing huts and there were a few boats out on the river net fishing and oystering. It was really quite lovely.
Things turned a bit more interesting as we approached the small fishing village near the mouth of the river. I had watched one of the other boats in our group as it approached and pulled up to a pier at the far end of the village. It turned out our pilot had other ideas. The next thing we know there's a whump strong enough to make the whole boat shudder -- a pretty distinctive sign that the boat's keel has just struck ground.
The first attempt didn't quite stick us, so we had four or five more before the boat became well and truly stuck it the sand about 50 yards from shore. The boat immediately started rocking violently, so we all hopped out and made our way to the beach. The rotund old French man on our boat did an impressive job of rapidly stripping down to his speedo for the trip.
We spent about 30 or 40 minutes walking through some dense jungle. Unfortunately, there was not much wildlife to be seen along the walk -- our tour group was making enough noise to scare off the bravest of creatures. We were rewarded with a beautiful beach and a nice swim at the end of our walk.
After the swim, we hiked back to the fishing village where a lunch of grilled barracuda steaks, slaw and baguettes was waiting for us. There was mass confusion at the food hut, meaning we had to walk the rickety pier repeatedly, but the food was tasty so it was worth it in the end.
During the ride back up the river the sky opened up on us, dumping an unbelievable amount of rain on us in a very short time. Today was the day that proved the waterproof camera was a wise investment. Thanks to Sarah and Calvin for the tip.
Time for a swim and a Mekong Bucket. Enjoy.
3 comments:
Which camera did you guys end up getting? It definitely is nice for us to have one that is waterproof. Arlo loves to watch videos of himself, then chew on the camera.
What happened to the fishing cats??
we wondered about the fishing cats, too. will you bring one home? can we play with it?
Sarah -- It's the 720 SW. We picked one up online pretty cheap before the trip. Works great, though I sometimes wish the zoom were more powerful.
Sarah and the pups -- We just didn't see any. Apparently they are shy and don't like noisy French tourists in speedos.
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