Chambok Homestay

We departed Shianoukville on a private 16-seat bus at 9:00 am Thursday, February 8, headed for a Homestay at Chambok. The ride, by private 16-seat bus, took about 5 hours.  Chambok is a rural farming community of about 900 families, maybe 4,000 people spread over the entire area. Most farming centers on rice, mangos and similar crops.   The area is promoting Ecotourism, with a number of Khmer stilt houses designated for Homestay. About the community:  https://chambok.org

Upon arrival, we met the families we would be staying with in two houses and inspected the dogs.  Pretty basic. Each room was fitted with 5 or 6 pads on the floor, covered with mosquito netting.  After getting oriented, we took a stroll through the neighborhood with our guide Jae, after which we took the bus to the community center where we had an orientation talkmby a delightful young lady who works for the organization. Thereafter, she led 5 of  us on a trek through the jungle to a stream and waterfall. There were huge, VW Van sized,boulders in the stream bed. Our quote told us they’d washed down last rainy season when a dam upstream failed.  We got to an area where some serious scrambling over boulders was required. I opted to wait there as I didn’t want to chance a slip or twist of the ankle (I’d save that for later.  More on that in a subsequent post). Reports were that the waterfall was quite impressive, with a pool where some swam at the base.

Back at the visitor center and we hung around and then were fed a meal by our hosts. After that there was a dance show put on by the local,kids.  Very entertaining, and they were all so cute with big smiles.   Of course, as with kids everywhere, there were a couple cut-ups in the group.   After that it was back to our Homestay houses, which were next door to each other.  We met, at one with the owners and the owner of the other one for questions and answers.  Most people in the village attend school only up to 9th grade. Most have not traveled far from their village in their lifetimes. They asked us about our lives, whether there is farming where we come from, what it’s,like to live there.

After out get-together we all turned in.  In the morning, the consensus was no one had slept very well. I’m a side sleeper and the thin pad didn’t provide much cushion for my bony hips.  Paul, who,was in the bed next night greeted me in the morning with, “You’re a bloody loud bastard.”  Apparently my snoring kept him awake.

We headed back to the community center for a breakfast of coffee, eggs and fried rice, after which we piled back into the bus for the 6 hour trip to Kampong Cham, on the Mekong River. Factoid – the Mekong is the longest River in Asia.

I am having trouble uploading photos to this post. I will try with a new post.  Hint to self - an iPad is great, but not a substitute for a laptop.