Wonderful overnight stay at Kulen Mountain, Siem Reap, Cambodia
It was my first time overnight camping at Kulen mountain. I have never been camping before. We planned to have a camping, and professional development and team building for ELT teachers and educators in the community of practice. Unfortunately, the project was not funded and we could cancel our plan - few people joined us with pocket money to make it happen.
I drove 120 kilometers from my province, spending 2 hours and a half to meet them in another province. There were three old-aged people and two teenagers, 13 & 14. We brought some food and drink, medical kits and a tent. I continued driving them for another 40 kilometers heading to Kulen Mountain.
Arriving at the campsite, we set off and our stuff, and visited some attractive sites: cave of bats, pound of elephant, source of water on the peak of Kulen and fews ancient temples on Kulen mount. We drove our motorcycle from one site to another under the light rain. Some sites we had to walk on were damaged by running water.
A little tired from a half day trip, we were taking a bath with cool running water in a small river on the mountain and then having a nice dinner served with local food. It was absolutely delicious. At night, we were sitting by the fire and two boys were grilling hotdogs and marshmallows. I had never tried maswallow before. We were talking about our trip before saying goodnight.
I was a son of a farmer and I used to sleep in the cottage, but never in the tent. I was listening to the sound of running water flowing in the small river on the mountain and listening to the birds chatting to each other. Soon after, I went into a deep sleep till a morning wake up. We wish to see the sunshine in the morning, but couldn't see because it was foggy.
We rushed to prepare breakfast. We got bread and hotdogs. I was driving with a boy into the community while the rest were making fire and grilling hotdogs. We could buy two bunches of bananas. We wish to buy more, the community people hadn't brought anything to sell yet.
After breakfast, we visited some toursites and drove back. It was a short camping trip, but it was fabulous to me. I learned a lot from the local tour guide and learnt parenting skills from the two boys' father. He was a great father to me and he built up his confidence and made them responsible for their personal stuff. I said goodbye and drove back to my province 120 kilometers away.
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