Monkey Mountain

An early start and a minivan came by to pick me up from the hostel in Siem Reap at 6.30am. I had picked a random place on the map to travel to - Kompong Cham -  a small town on the Mekong in the south of the country.

French-influenced bus breakfast

The bus journey was 6 hours - not bad - but I was sat right at the front and every 10 seconds the driver would honk the extra loud horn to let motorbike riders know we were coming up behind them. Throw a few screaming kids into the mix and it wasn't the most relaxing journey. I was the only westerner on the bus so I was hoping to get a bit of a feel of non-touristy Cambodia.

Arrived in Kompong Cham, dumped my stuff in a cheap and basic hostel and went out to find what I could. I bumped into a westerner on the street so asked her what there was to do around here. She said pretty much nothing so it looked like it was going to be a bit of a let down of an afternoon. Then she said, Oh, but there's a monkey mountain nearby". Result.

Monkey!

Monk!

Five minutes later I was in a tuk tuk on my way to monkey mountain. It was a little old Buddhist temple on a mountain. $2 to get in and about 50cents for a big bunch of bananas to feed the monkeys. I met a friendly monk who was sweeping the temple and wanted to practice his English. I gave him half my bananas and we fed loads of little monkeys and a couple of larger ones which made me consider the fact that I hadn't had my rabies jab. They were very friendly and docile though and it was good having the chance to chat to a monk after I missed my 'Monk Chat' a few weeks earlier. 

Big smarmy head

I went for a walk around the temple area - it was almost totally deserted and it really felt like a long way from Siam Reap. A nice change to much more rural and local Cambodia.

Despite its pushiness compared to Thailand, the dust, the noise and the general mad traffic, I really like Cambodia. The people are really friendly and reading about their history it shows what a horrific time they've had.

1st aid kit

Poor but effective bandaging

Oh, and I had to bandage my ankle up after I caught it in an ATM door. It's not bad but it bloody hurt and I'm trying to keep the dust out.