9th January - Sunday

Travelling day, we watched whilst they tied our back packs to the back of the mini-bus, along with a moped and giant bags of possibly rice, it was a little concerning but they looked secure! We squeezed in as usual 4 to 3 seats cosy for a 6 hour trek! We did stop as usual on route but this time it was without any form of toilet so the locals wondered off to bushes, we just watched. Ban Lung was not dissimilar to Kratie just larger streets. We left Jon with bags and Paula and i went in search of a room. We found a guest house overlooking the valley called Tree Top, an Eco place, with a lovely view! The bungalow is all wood but not sealed, so a little drafty. The GH told us to use moto drivers to bring our bags as it was a hike and a hill ! With 20 k on my back I got on a bike, uncertain if I would loose my balance! All arrived in one piece for a late afternoon to relax, explore eat then watch a movie.

10th January - Monday

Up at a reasonable hour, night was chilly compared to what we were used to! The early morning view was pretty great to open the door too! We did a scout of tour places then headed to the lake, was a 5k walk well that's what we thought but seemed much farther to us! Arriving there was a $1 entry fee to tourists, the lake was enormous! We walked to find a spot to rest, there were 4/5 jetty's we found a quiet one in the sun ! We spent the whole day lazing, swimming and eating a spot of lunch and back to lazing again! There was a long trek back on route we saw a small group of local girls about 6 -8 age group with huge bikes, they ride with one on the back but as they are so small are unable to sit on the bike seats, not easy going up steep hills so they resorted to pushing bikes twice there size, as usual Jon to the rescue helped them they were so pleased! When we returned we booked our tour and headed back to the GH. After refreshing and arranging bits we met a guy travelling alone that wanted to join out trek, helpfully the tour man was in our hotel, so we added another.

11th January - Tuesday - Jungle Trek
We set off for our trek by boarding some moto's for a 20 min bumpy and very dusty journey to the edge of the parks. We had 2 guides, one very chatty the other did not speak much at all to start, he was mainly the man to guide us and source various jungle delights! We were all weighed down with our overnight bags 2l of water each and a hammock and set off. Pretty hard going in the heat, we started by going through farm land and finding out from the guide, how they maintain there land & rotate crops in such an environment. There were lots of cashew nut trees, they only have a 9 year life before they are pulled down. As we headed on the woodland got thicker & we got some interesting stories of foods that people living in the jungle eat, one being a certain type of ants that taste lemony! No I didn't but one of the lads tasted them and confirmed! Our guide kept disappearing off too collect bits for meals & meeting us at different points. For lunch we stopped by a little pool of water, due to the season it was low water. First they cooked us bamboo, it was odd a potato texture but tasted like nuts very nice, they dip it in sugar too, which is probably for energy. The guides were really good setting up the fire and arranging it all, the quiet one started chopping at bamboo to make cups from! Lunch was mainly rice and veg but too much of it! We trekked on the temperature not changing even in really dense jungle, I was expecting it to be cooler, not so hot. After 5 hours total trekking we arrived at our camp it had a little construction out of bamboo for all our hammocks to be set up fire areas and a cool pool with running water and a Tarzan rope! It was so nice to de-scum and refresh before the sun went down so we had time to dry off. Dinner was being started and we played some silly games to kill time getting the guides to join in with some. Bamboo is amazing it's used for almost anything this time used here to cook food in! Whilst cooking the guides gave us some very potent rice wine they had bought with them, soon after they had enough food to feed an army! One included an aubergine dish made in bamboo and lots of rice and veg as always! As we were in the jungle, it got dark very quickly it is odd without electricity we stayed up chatting for a while, hearing some very amusing stories from our guide some very difficult to understand! but after a while tiredness crept in and off to test out the hammocks!
12th January - Wednesday
I woke about 5, well that's stretching the truth not much sleep was had in a hammock! My back had had more than enough so I moved to the ground sheet and layed under the moonlight gradually see the sun come up, listening to the wildlife it was so peaceful. The guides got up shortly after first light started the fires for breakfast and collected there fishing nets from the lake, only some small ones were caught. We were given a huge bowl of noodle soup it was far too much and not my kind of breakfast ! Decided to give it a miss again. After packing up camp we set off to see more jungle delights, advising the guides we wanted the mid route! Not too easy and certainly not difficult! seemed even hotter than the first day, we were doing some steep climbs! We had some nice beaks by little streams on route but lunch we were at the quiet guides brothers farm, it was surrounded by animals chicken/pigs/cat/dogs and ducks inside in a cage too. Close by there was a stream we headed too and paddled our hot feet in the cold water, felt so good! Food as ever more rice and concoctions I don't eat but cucumber! We were taken on route through another farmers land the guide told us they were celebrating/ encouraging good crop season, the head of the family had been drinking the strong rice wine & he was pretty drunk! He was so happy to see us and invited us into his house to taste the wine, luckily they had drunk the strong stuff! We then had a short walk to the village where the moto drivers were sleeping while waiting for us! We set off on the red dirt track reasonably clean, but got back to town covered in red dust, all in need of a good shower!