Over the past couple of days, one of the K5s arranged transportation for his district to bring some people down to Kirivong District to climb this mysterious mountain that I'd been hearing about, so I decided to come along. It ended up being a majority of the 62 K5s plus a few K4s (including myself). It was comforting knowing that everyone feels comfortable fitting as many people into the van as we did (P.C., if you're reading this, it was definitely 15 people in a 15 passenger van).
About 1/4 - 1/3 of the group decided to go to the waterfall while the others (including me) went to the base of the mountain to climb it. Now, in Cambodia, when a mountain is called a mountain, it's typically a large hill, so when I say that it took an hour and a half to climb to the top, I mean serious business. This mountain wasn't kidding around. It was a mountain, comparatively. At the top of the mountain was an ancient wat (pagoda) from the 7th Century (older than Angkor Wat). Atop, an old yee-ay (elder grandmother) lay waiting for anyone who would come by to ask them to sit down and talk for a little. After we sat for awhile, we got to the very tip top, climbed up a narrow rock face and just sat down and looked at our view: rice paddies, mountains, an overcast sky and Vietnam in the background. It was absolutely breathtaking...and then it began to rain...really really rain, which was great. Why? I didn't feel so bad, then, about the fact that my shirt was dark grey because of sweat. I could pretend it was just the rainwater. Needless to say, it was a slippery ride down, and I may have slid down a small part of the mountain knocking someone over as if they were a bowling pin. Whoops! Sorry 'bout that, Kentucky. But seriously, if only my aim was that great in actual bowling, and intentionally... Anyhow, after getting down from the mountain, we all went for bubble tea at one of the trainee's house. I did not know this existed in rural Cambodia, but it does, and I'm going back. It was really hard not to get 5 or 6 of them. After the bubble teas, we all went to meet the waterfallers and chilled out there for awhile.
Needless to say, it was very fun trip, and I think it was one of those trips that really helped solidify friendships cross-village, had they not been cemented already. I look forward to the rest of training.
Talk to you soon,
Garrett
