Kulen Mountain

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Hi guys, Steph and Annie here again to write about Day 16 of our trip. After our glorious rest day we were back in to the swing of things and met the Friends Forever kids at the oh so early time of 7:45 to make the two hour bus ride up to Kulen Mountain. Everyone was really pumped because we’d heard so much about the beautiful sights we would see this day. However the excitement gradually died down as everyone started to fall asleep on the bus or feel car-sick on the terribly long, excruciatingly windy and extremely bumpy road.

Upon reaching the Mountain we visited the largest Buddha in Cambodia and the Cambodian kids were extremely excited, as this was something they’d dreamt of visiting for years. The view from where the Buddha was situated was absolutely breathtaking. Looking over the treetops you could see valleys upon valleys that stretched for miles. One thing that astounded most of the team members was the large number of beggars sitting on the steps on the way up to the Buddha, asking for “one dollar”. It was very hard to walk away from the child beggars in particular, some of which would have been no older than four.

On the walk back down to the buses, we passed a range of merchant stalls selling a variety of items from rings and key chains to traditional Cambodian medicines (yes, this included tree roots and even the bones of pigs and monkeys that are to be mixed into tea).

After this we took the short trip up to our swimming destination for the day and ate a wonderful lunch of rice, chicken, fish and dragon fruit.

After lunch we abandoned the ‘wait-one-hour-before-swimming’ rule and ran to the nearest waterfall. We splashed around in the pool and stood under the waterfall for about half an hour before we were told that there was an even bigger waterfall just downstream. We all hurried down the long 100% completely unsafe its-a-wonder-we-didn’t-die slippery steps that were nailed in at hilariously odd angles. We were not disappointed. The next waterfall was absolutely HUGE. 12 metres to be exact. The view from the bottom was like something out of Jurassic Park with vines, ferns, piles of smooth rocks,  fallen logs covered in moss and everything concealed in a fine layer of water. We wasted no time jumping in and swimming across the large pool to climb the rocks beneath the waterfall and stand underneath while the water pounded down on our backs. Many brave souls were soon climbing up the slippery rock face to jump into the eight metre deep water below.

All too quickly it was time to go and we all made the long trip back to Siem Reap, where we went out to dinner with the Plan staff.  We were seated at the tables about to start eating when in walked Mr Foley and his family.  They were just as surprised to see us as we were to see them.  They were just in Siem Reap for a few days and, of all the restaurants in the town to choose from, they chose the same one as us.  Mr Foley got around to all of the members of the team for a quick chat and then decided that perhaps another restaurant might provide a quieter dining environment for his family.

Overall it was one of the best days of the trip and we all had an absolutely incredible time!