First Day (Tuesday)
The day of 13 November was a very first day that I got a chance to go to Mondoul Kiri province to learn how to survive in the wood without nice stuff with. This was the second trip in Outdoor Leadership Project. It was so wonderful to see all the creatures in Mondoul Kiri and there are so many mountains that I couldn’t count all of it. Tuesday, was a day of a long drive to this province. Along a road to this province, I was doing Sudoku with my friends next to me on the bus, also our teachers ask us to write something that we excited about, something that we nervous about, and goals during the trip as well.
Everyone was so quiet on the bus because they are thinking about the questions that the teacher asked to answer. On the bus, it kind of bored but everyone was singing the songs, some people are looking out to see some cool creatures that you can find to show everyone. We started the bus from the city call Phnom Penh and went threw Kampong Cham, Tboung khmum, Kratie, and we arrived Mondoul Kiri, that was what I remembered.
After the bus drove into Mondoul Kiri, I was starting and stare to look out of the bus’s window to see buildings in the city and forest on the sides of the road because I never came here before so it was so surprised me to see all of them. Now it was night time and we arrived a safe location, which was a place where we are going to sleep tonight, everybody have their own jobs to do after getting out of the bus, someone goes to work on the kitchen, some were set up the tents, and some prepare the place for everyone to sleep and sit.
Tonight we ate bread but some people that weren’t yet full so they could eat can noodle, after everything was done, everyone started to go to bed but for me I was looking up to the sky to see the stars, it was very and very cold that night that I couldn’t sleep at all.
Second day (Wednesday)
Good morning! Mondoul Kiri, It was a nice morning for me to start my journey with my team on another day. It was a bright yellow mix with orange create a sensational scenery and add the mountains and trees, even more, awesome. I got up and prepare my pillow and blanket to put in a nice place and keep it for another night. I took my shower items to take a bath and change the clothes ready to eat breakfast.
We had the noodle for breakfast, after that we went to the waterfall in the forest with a guide. It was an hour trekking but I felt like just a few minutes because I saw a lot of beautiful trees, I love green color so I really enjoy a talk so much. I never take a talk before so it might be an opportunity to for me to do it and learn from it, what it felt like to talk without a vehicle. Step to another step, me and my teammates arrived the waterfall call “ Litruk” I absorb the nature there, the waterfall is flowing never stop just like Life, sometimes life always continues but one day it will end and also I thought that this waterfall will stop just the same as “LIFE”.My teacher told everyone to find a spot to sit and write something or draw something that you can think of to share everyone after 15 minutes. I just drew an imaginary picture that pops into my head. Finally, I end my drawing in the last second then I share to everyone of what I was doing during 15 minutes freedom but after we shared then everyone was getting their lunch but before that a guide was creating the fire to cook our food, interesting thing was we didn’t use any of the cookware, we just use nature to cook our food, we use the bamboo as a pot to cook our soup and the bamboo to hold the meet to put on the fire that mostly what we did, I think! The waterfall time was over, everyone ready to hike back to a sleeping place.
Today I was the one who cooks the food for everyone so my teacher went to the market in this province to buy the vegetables and chickens for dinner tonight and potatoes for a snack, we also bought bananas. The bus stopped, I just ran to the kitchen with vegetables in my hands ready to cook. I wash the vegetables with water then chop with a knife then put in the basket ready to cook but before that, I thought of the ingredient for the vegetable dish so we just have a nice dinner together.
Third day (Thursday)
Ah! Another cold morning came again. I got out of the tent and stretch my body with so many layers with clothes because it was really cold. I saw my friends’ faces, I thought they are really cheerful to continue the trip and me as well. Today I got up so early because of my habit.
My friends were running to the kitchen to cook for everyone to eat for breakfast, the dish for today was fried rice. They have done the rice then we gather to give the idea what should we put the ingredient into the rice, some people said this and some people said that but finally we did it and everyone smile to eat their breakfast.
Sit on the bus with the trekking clothes and ready to hike to another waterfall. Everyone got out of the bus and start to talk. It was a long talk which was 6 Km to arrive at the waterfall but the last everyone did it. The waterfall was so great and there was a lot of tourists to go there. There weren’t so many trash around, I was so proud of that area and also I hope that Cambodia will be clean like that area. We spent maybe 4 hours there to do some activities. I hike back from the waterfall back to the bus then we wait for the sun to set in the evening and we play some game with our teachers and take a lot of photos.
Tonight, we don’t have dinner at our sleeping place but we have dinner in the restaurant, everyone has ordered their favorite dishes after eating we drive back to sleep. everyone prepare the stuff that we used ready to go back to school tomorrow. Some people were creating the fire to the campfire. Everyone!! Shout by our teammates to call them to gather around the campfire to sit and share the experience from this trip. We ate marshmallow with cracker then we went to bed like what we did every day. Friday I went back to school.
