From very, very far away the plateau-like panorama of the Kulen Mountains in Cambodia resembles a calm and deep blue sea, and you must blink or perhaps rub your eyes to be believing what you see. Whichever way you turn your head, the same plateau stretches for miles around; indeed, as the guide enlightened us, the mountain range is more than thirty three kilometers long and almost three kilometers across at the widest points, though elevation wise it is just over a thousand feet. Notwithstanding, the vista does do a lot to elevate your spirits as you glide towards it, your excitement and expectations growing bigger and bigger as the guide rattles off the events in the day's itinerary.
The ride there as you set off from the hotel after an early breakfast is about two hours long, with stops for toilets and refreshments on the way. I had skipped the breakfast and had had only a robust cup of tea so this pit stop allowed me to pick up a fresh, warm chicken bao to nibble on as we went into the forest reserve, after a brief nap and dreaming away for the first half of the ride. The cool breeze through the thick foliage felt beautiful on an otherwise hot day, and we emerged from the vehicle at our first formal spot: a rocky outcrop of the plateau that made for the most memorable photo ops as we preened and posed provocatively close to the edge of the almost vertical cliffside.
The greenery encompassing and engulfing the plateau was overwhelming to say the least, but the Vietnamese duo in our group simply stated that it was not nearly as impressive as was to be found in their country, and I got another taste of the cultural friction between various ethnicities in Asia, and SE Asia to be particular (after another similar one where Cambodian cuisine was touted to be a notch superior to Thai cuisine). In any case, I filled my senses to the brim and my camera too, before realizing that the phone battery was already down to nearly half, and we had not yet got through even half the day...!
After everyone had more or less got their trip portfolios clicked for this part of the tour, we delved deeper into the forest towards the waterfalls (in the next edition of POD), passing sleepy hamlets and hawker stalls laid out with exotic herbs and roots that the villagers regularly forage from the wilderness, and which are supposed to have magically curative powers for a range of ailments from influenza to impotence. It would be a good idea to haggle for a good bargain if paying in local currency instead of American dollars, for which the rates are rather fixed and non negotiable. Judging from the look of the natural cures available here, it is certainly tempting to pick up a few items; it probably could not get more authentic.
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