This is a rather late posting. We made this trip mid-February and I never got around to editing the photos. Mainly coz when we got back, that’s when Phnom Penh had its almost daily power cuts, then March arrived and I was swamped with stuff to do. I found myself just browsing for custom made t-shirts instead of doing the editing. Sigh. The internet could be really distracting.

But anyhow, here’s some pics spam of our recent Mondulkiri trip. With my usual nonsense commentary. Ha! And I really should mention, I love Mondulkiri with a fierce passion. I don’t know why. I think this goes to my top 3 favorite places here in Cambodia. It’s remote, almost wild, with a totally different terrain than the rest of the country, gorgeous natural scenery and just awesome cool weather.

We were actually just tagging along with Hi-ace and his students, so the trip was like a ‘group tour’ with strict time schedules and whatnots but I didn’t mind, it turned out to be actually fun. We left real early and we made a brief stop in Kampong Cham to check out the Rubber Trees. It was not as boring as it sounds, it was actually interesting, check out my separate post on that.

I was surprised to see the roads were now in tip top condition. My butt was happy because the ride was now smoother than the last time with all the mud and potholes on the road, but the adventurous spirit in me was kinda sad. I really must have missed that first time we went to Mondulkiri in 2010.  That time we all had to get down the bus, and walk coz the mud was just too sticky! But now the roads are all paved and nice, so travel time is now on average 7-8 hours from Phnom Penh.

It was also not as green as before, perhaps because this is the dry season. And its also sad to see a lot of forests are being cleared (some were obviously burned) to make way for more rubber plantation. Sigh. The lure of money.

A few kilometers before reaching Sen Monorom, the students demanded a brief stop on the road. They were obviously happy with the pine trees and the nice temperature drop. They couldn’t stop taking photos, and I also can’t stop taking photos of them taking photos. Hahaha.

Once we reached Sen Monorom, we opted to go to the Ocean of Trees aka. Sea Forest instead of checking in the hotel first. The problem though was that the climb going that way was so steep, our bus couldn’t get up. So we were ordered to get down and walk. And I’m glad I did get down and walk as I got to capture this: a monk making a lonesome climb up a hill..

Reason why I’m usually absent from my daily coffee haunts, Twitter convos and blogging: Khmer language classes! I finally took the plunge and the time out to do some serious Khmer language learning. I know a couple of my friends tell me wow, finally. Hahaha. I know I should have done this a couple of years ago, but I was really thinking Khmer was a difficult language to learn, and what I needed to learn Hi-ace can teach me.

The problem with hubby teaching me is that we only get to do some serious learning on the first day and then we revert to our usual habit of talking to each other in English. It’s a hard habit to break and it really got in the way of me learning the language.

So when a friend told us that Khmer classes for foreigners at Institute of Foreign Language were accepting students for this term, I signed up.

I’m pretty much amazed that there are lots of foreigners learning to read/write/speak the Cambodian language. And contrary to my previous expectations that I would have a really hard time to learn it, well, I’m surprisingly learning it well and at a steady pace. And to think I don’t really have that much aptitude for languages!

IFL’s Khmer for Foreigners teaches both reading/writing as well as spoken Khmer, but level 1 focuses more on reading and writing. And if you ask me, I find it particularly better to learn all at the same time, instead of learning speaking first then reading and writing later. And I find writing Khmer scripts so so awesome. They have really beautiful and ornate characters.

I actually wrote these!

Now I’ve something to look forward to everyday, something new. Learning the language means I can get a lot more closer to the Cambodian experience and the thought that I’ll be able to converse in Khmer and I can bargain like a local for plus size clothing just makes me happy. Hahaha. And also, I’m making a dream come true: learn a 3rd language before I turn 35. Yay for me!!!

Seems like my ongoing gallery update will take a bit more time. No matter how much I push, other things just get in the way. I’m also watermarking all images because I know its just as easy to grab images I actually shot and posted here and claim it. That already happened to some of my images which were downloaded and uploaded to some sites without permission.

I know I’m not a pro photographer and my photos leaves a lot to be desired but I worked on it, they involve some effort on my part so asking permission would be the least I would ask and a linkback would be nice if the images would be used. I’m not stingy, I just think its the right thing to do to give credit where credit is due. And its even worse when some sites use my images and hotlink them to my server, so I had to get a bit techie and disable hotlinking from third party sites. Even if the process of watermarking all my previous images is a tedious task, I’m going to do it. Mind you I would much rather spend my time mooning over silver jewelry, but this must be done.

So this watermarking thing is holding me up making a really awesome and pretty gallery but we’ll get there. Hopefully soon enough. Just watch out for it.

I do wonder why its such a hardship to properly credit used images like this? See. The image above belongs to:

Image: goldsaint / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Two young Khmer girls giving some alms to an elder and doing the sompiah as a sign of respect. The elder in turn give thanks and blessings. This is one of favorite snapshots of Cambodia, it says a lot of their culture. Respecting elders is big deal here.

Orkun Charan is the Khmer phrase for ‘thank you very much’.  Snapshot taken in Pursat, last year 2011.

Phnom Chisor, Takeo is just a few hours drive from Phnom Penh and one of the main features of this ‘mountain’ temple is a reclining Buddha.

I kinda like this place. Not very touristy and you get the feeling that its so remote. But its not really. The climb up the temples were just gasp inducing. Lol. Or maybe I’m just out of shape.