If there’s one thing that Cambodia doesn’t have a shortage of, it’s public holidays. In the time I’ve been here, we’ve observed over half a dozen of them, and the thing that sets Cambodian holidays apart is that one day off magically turns into two or three.  A holiday falling on a Wednesday means a five day weekend. The ‘big kahuna’ holiday, Khmer New Year, is drastically inflated. The official holiday lasts three days in mid-April, but as I learned, that unofficially means the whole week.  Plus, many of the teachers at Khmer school don’t come to class the two weeks before OR after the holiday – which means a three day holiday becomes one month of vacation. I told you! Pretty darn drastic.

The last holiday was a week ago. The country had one day off to celebrate the King’s birthday, so Diana and I decided to head to the southwestern part of the country near the city of Koh Kong. Diana had found online an awesome eco-lodge just south of the city so we stayed there for two nights. It’s called 4 Rivers Eco-Lodge and it’s by far one of the coolest places I’ve ever been. The resort has twelve floating tents on a secluded river and it’s only accessible by boat. The air conditioned rooms are heavenly, the food is delicious, and there are great little excursions offered.  The tents are so awesome I want to live in one someday (http://www.exclusivetents.com/)

One night we rode full speed in a speedboat in the pitch dark looking for fireflies. They were easy to spot because they all convene around one big tree and light up in unison – I’d never seen anything like it before. We also spent a morning at a nearby fishing village playing with the cute little kids and having them show us around their pagoda and school.  It didn’t seem that they were used to seeing many foreigners, as they poked and prodded at Diana’s legs while giggling uncontrollably.

After our two days of paradise were finished, we headed to Koh Kong, where we spent one night. We hired a boat driver for the day and had him take us to another fishing village and Koh Kong Island. After our two hour boat ride, we arrived to a totally empty and deserted beach – clear blue water and all. We beach-combed and swam for a little too long – my lip became severely sunburnt and would take four days and $84 to heal. But that’s later.

The beach was so wonderful it felt fictitious. But our bliss was over, and the next morning we began our journey to Chi Phat, a fishing village two hours away.

The next two days were what you’d call an adventure. Imagine a small, desolate, Cambodian fishing village combined with Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. The one main dirt road is lined with boarded up wooden houses and the horses and buggies can be heard every few minutes transporting the vegetables, fish, or construction materials through the village. In the center of this road is the Cambodian Eco-Tourism headquarters, a small, open-aired building with a miniscule restaurant and a large, handmade map of the Chi Pat area. It is from this map that the ‘eco-tourist’ chooses their excursions; anywhere from a three day trek to an afternoon bike ride. The prices were incredibly reasonable, and the best part was that some of the villagers ran small guesthouses in their homes for $5 a night.

After thirty minutes of standing in front of the map and sorting through their itinerary binders, Diana and I decided on a waterfall bike ride, sunset viewing via moto, and a day-long river-boat ride (with possible gibbon sightings).

I won’t go too in depth about the next 48 hours, because overall they were great. The area is gorgeous and much greener and mountainous than we’re used to. The people were more than friendly and so accommodating. However, it was hot. We think in the 100’s. Our previous day in the sun proved to be our worst enemy. Because of my burns, I had to wear a long-sleeve shirt the whole time. Because of my now blistered, swollen, puss-filled, yellow, hardened lip, I couldn’t leave our room without covering up with my purple bandana. It was impossible to drink water without a straw, tooth-brushing was unbearable, and smiling was out of the question. To add to my discomfort, the village only has electricity for two hours every evening.  So, we would hurry back to our room from dinner right at 7pm and turn on the small fan. We did our best to fall asleep by 9pm so that our sweat wouldn’t make falling asleep impossible.

On our three-hour long bike ride, my discomfort quickly escaladed. I am a woman, and when I ride on a bike fitted with a male’s bike seat, I feel like……I won’t go into the description, but it wasn’t comfortable since the terrain was pretty rough. When our guide (who spoke zero English) hopped off his bike and pointed to a trail, we followed him by foot to the waterfall. Since the rain hasn’t hit hard here yet, it wasn’t flowing massively, but there was enough water to take a dip.

I was treading water and realizing how strange it feels to be wearing a long sleeve shirt while swimming when Diana comes out from around the rock where she was changing. “I think I had a leech on my leg!? I pulled it off, though.” she says, much less frantically than I would have been. “Really?” I say, “Did it hurt?”. She said she didn’t feel it at all until she saw it – she had previously taken a tumble while we were crossing a river, so we assumed it had been on her since. Right at the time she fully entered the water, I casually glanced down at my hand and saw something small and black on my ring finger. Oh my GOSH! Yes, it was a leech. I tried to pull it off but I couldn’t – the thing was attached like glue. I kicked my way over to Diana and as she attempted to pull it off it quickly expanded around my finger like a ring. Thank goodness Diana was there; otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to pull it off on my own. Knowing that it’s sucking your blood AND getting bigger by the second is petrifying. She was able to pull it off me and I clumsily maneuvered myself out of the water and across the slippery rocks to examine the rest of my body.

AHHHH! One more! This time the side of my big toe was POURING blood and after I attempted to pull the leech off, our guide thankfully stepped in and yanked it off. He probably thought the whole thing was hilarious.

On our journey back to the village an hour later, we stopped to cross a river and I looked down. MORE BLOOD! Good lord, they loved me. There was blood oozing out from between all of my toes on my left foot. “Diana!” I yelled to her as she was stepping off her bike. She looked down and this time her reply was, “I have to sit. I might faint”. So I spread apart my toes and found one little black leech hiding in the fold of my pinky toe. I was able to pull it off this time and I rinsed my foot in the water, which provided no relief since it was about 2,349 degrees.  

The rest of the bike ride was delightfully uneventful and leech-free.

Once we returned to Phnom Penh (Yay! Electricity!)  I visited a doctor to see about my lip. I was given cream to put on it daily and then he sent me in to see his nurse. The nurse spent about twenty minutes with alcohol-drenched gauze in one hand and tweezers in the other. He pulled off my dead, infected layers of blistered skin to uncover the most sensitive, pink, and cracked undercoating. He would pause to show me the yellow puss-covered gauze before applying a new piece which stung like crazy. I left the doctor’s office with a white lip (from the cream) and noticed many stares while walking to the market. I am thankful to say, one week later, that my poor lip is completely healed and my blood-sucked finger and feet are doing okay.

The children were incredibly concerned about my lip when we returned to APCA that evening. However, once I explained that I was given medicine for it and that it would soon be healed, they thought it was hilarious.   

So, on to the next holiday! This time it’s the King’s mother’s birthday, so the country will enjoy a day or two of rest to observe her 74^th year of age. I plan to pack my sunscreen and head to Malaysia to visit a college friend. I’ve never been to Kuala Lumpur before, so I’m excited to explore a different city. When I return I’ll be ONE month away from coming home to civilization! Woo hoo!