Ratinakiri ... 10-13.4.11

It's school holidays for two weeks and Chloie and I decided to go see another part of Cambodia ... if you look at the map below you'll see that it should have been a simple direct trip that would have taken maybe 3 hours max ... instead it took us pretty much the whole way around Cambodia and 15 hours to get us from Siem Reap to Bunlang in Ratinakiri Province! Ridiculous!

The Ecolodge

Our friendly Ecolodge staff

Our Cabin

Anyway, so after an extremely long bus ride (which was so full they put seats in the aisles!) we arrived at the ecolodge where the very nice staff cooked us dinner and kept the power on an hour later than usual so that we would have time to settle in.

One way bridge!

The bus was so packed that people had to sit on plastic chairs in the aisle!

Let me explain about the ecolodge ... firstly it is awesome! about 2km from the centre of town and set in the bush. Everything is ecologically friendly, hence why it's called an ecolodge! It's very clean, hot water is only from 6-9pm when the electricity is on ... for the rest of the day there's no power except by the solar powered batteries that run little lights in each room. But they ask you not to use it unless absolutely necessary, so as to conserve energy. 

I really enjoyed it! In fact it was pretty much just like our place in Siem Reap, except that we didn't have to pump water or wash dishes! lol

We spent 2 full days in Ratinakiri. Ratnakiri has a very big rubber trade so there are rubber trees everywhere!

This is how they get rubber from the rubber trees!

Me with my Motto driver! First experience on a Motto in Cambodia! Very scary at first!!!

Some friendly kids we met at one of the waterfalls! All they wanted was their moment of fame in front of the camera! :D

The first day we went to see some waterfalls and the reclining buddah and then we went swimming in the crater lake. It was supposed to be a 20-30min walk from our lodge, up a mountain, through a garden and to the lake, but an hour later we were no where near it and completely lost!!! At least we found the mountain and garden! But the map wasn't very clear and the signs were virtually non-existant and everyone we asked pointed us in a different direction!! But eventually we made it and had about an hour left before sunset to swim and get back to the lodge!

Dried up waterfall

The Crater Lake

Originally I thought that it was called a crater lake because it was in a dried up volcano but it turns out it's just a massive crater they think was formed by a meteor or something. It's about 800m in diameter. The water is clean and beautiful, a sort of mirky green but it's beautiful none the less!

The Reclining Buddah

A very friendly but sadly blind puppy came to play :D

The Swinging Bridge!!! At one of the waterfalls

Yes ... I fell over and hurt my foot ... unfortunately I fell on gravel and little stones got stuck in the wound :(

Chloie putting her nursing skills to practice and fixing up my poor foot!

Beautiful waterfall

On the second day we went back to the garden in the morning and just read in the shade, it was really nice! In the afternoon we went to see another waterfall and ride an elephant and in then went back to the lake.

Sunset

The garden ... imagine what it looks like in the wet season!

Chloie relaxing in the garden

Poor, sad, starving but very cute monkey :(

First elephant ride!

;P

All in all it was an awesome two days. The only downer of the trip was that the elephant were being mistreated which was horrible and ruined the elephant ride for us. 

It's very sad to see how animals are mistreated purely for the entertainment of tourists. I guess in a way it's kind of like how the devil mistreats those who choose to follow him instead of Christ. He doesn't really care about us, who we are, or what we do with our lives. He uses us purely as a source of entertainment, trying to win the fight against God.

Another waterfall

3 on 1 bike!! Terrifying!

Cotton :D

the trail to the sunset viewing platform