Welcome to the Jungle

The second day of the tour has been one of our favorites so far.  After a yummy breakfast of scrambled eggs, French baguettes and more iced Cambodian coffee with sweet milk, our group, minibus and all, got on a ferry to cross the Mekong to an island where we would have our adventures.  

          

Once on the island, we drove for an hour to arrive at Preah Rumkel to get the chance to view the nearly extinct Irrawaddy Dolphins.  Nyp warned us that there are only eight dolphins living in this area, and they aren’t seen every day.  We could be waiting a long time to see them with the chance of not seeing them at all.  Instead, as soon as we got out of the van and to the river edge, Holly spotted one! 

These freshwater dolphins aren’t as playful as the ones we’re used to seeing.  Rather than jumping and frolicking, they were more inclined to leisurely come to the surface for a split second before headed under water again.  They were fun to watch, but it didn’t make for great picture taking.  Instead, we took lots of pictures of the other, more photogenic animals.  My favorite was the pet monkey (who was a bit sad with his short leash, but still lots of fun).  He really seemed to enjoy untying my shoe. 

After exploring the property, we arranged with our local guide, Vana, to take a fast boat up the Mekong to begin our trek to the Sopheak Mitt Waterfall.  The fast boat rid took about 25 minutes before trekking for another 20.  The views were amazing!  We felt like we were practically sitting in the water.  Everything around us was so green and fresh.  While traveling up the Mekong, Cambodia was on our left and Laos on our right. 

After getting out of the boat, Vana took us up through the jungle to get to the main road.  In the jungle we found one of the biggest trees I’ve ever seen, so of course we stopped to take lots of pictures.  On the road, Vana pointed out many more plants, trees, flowers and birds (for Holly).  We even ate a fruit called wild rambutan right off the vine. 

During the dry season, the water makes a considerable drop off the rocks, but now during the wet season, it looked more like a huge rapids.  It’s amazing just how much water was passing us by.  It also explained why we struggled in our little boat fighting our way upstream. 

Vana's "brother" gave us a bag of fruit, including longan.
Once it's peeled, it looks like an eyeball and tastes like cantaloupe.  

Following our Indiana Jones-esque adventure (sorry, Mom, I know you said not to do that) we headed back to the property for lunch and more dolphin spotting.  Afterward, we said our goodbyes and went back to the ferry for Stung Treng.  It was another long day on the books, but certainly worth it!