Beyond our backyard is a famous trail that leads to the summit of God's Back Mountain, and finally I got a chance to explore a portion of it.
Trailhead Upgrades 🗺️
I've lived in this area for over a year, and only now have I found the time to explore the trail that so many hikers come here for. Our house is one of the closest places to the trailhead, and quite often mountain guides use our land for parking. Our plans are to develop our land into a sort of basecamp for hikers because nobody in the village has made any big efforts to cater to these underserved visitors. We had heard that a rich businessman recently put up trail signs along the way, and within the first 20 meters of the trail we were greeted with a small trail info sign.
This hiking opportunity came when a friend of ours and his girlfriend came to visit us for the second time. On his first trip he came with his mother who is not very young or physically fit, but he he expressed interest in exploring the trail on a future trip. So this time around Monkey-B played hookey from school to join us for some adventure, but this experience is far more educational than anything she's learning in public school classroom.
🪓 Mankind's Taste For Destruction 🪚
Generally speaking, in the Khmer culture there is an almost subconscious belief that forest are home to evil spirits, ghosts, and basically all things negative, and I must assume this belief has not helped to prevent the loss of nearly all of Cambodia's wilderness. Even here in the last virgin forest of Cambodia, only 10 km away clearcutting has become so bad that the unnatural grasslands where forest once stood are host to wildfires each year that further threaten the edges of the forest that remain.
Even the beginning of the trailhead is full of clearcut forest, actually home to our neighbor's illegal garden. The Wildlife Alliance occasionally cuts her mango and banana trees to discourage her from using this land as a personal garden, but it hasn't stopped her from ensuring the fate of this land along the trail will never be forest again. Luckily though after 15 minutes of walking the virgin forest began to show itself.
Absolutely Beautiful ⛰️
On the summit of the mountain there is a view of the Gulf of Thailand that is technically Thailand. If you look on a map along the southern Thai-Cambodian border, you'll notice a long narrow strip of Thailand that is only a few kilometers wide. This strip of land unfortunately prevents Cambodian access to the sea, so we'll never be able to legally descend the mountain's opposite face for a swim in the ocean.
We had no intention of summiting the mountain on this day, we just wanted to explore the condition of the trail and whether or not there were many confusing forks in the trail that would necessitate a guide for the first trip. To our surprise the main path was very clear, so we hiked for about 2+ hours before returning home. Something I noticed on the trip was that both Monkey-B and my buddy's girlfriend felt scared of the forest, but in more of a supernatural way.
I did my best to explain to Monkey-B that in my culture we are a taught a love of nature and that it is beautiful. Even when we would take quiet pauses to listen for monkey or other animal sounds, I noticed these moments were even more tense for our Cambodian hikers. What frightens Cambodians is the same force that creates an awe and respect for nature within other cultures, but within a few hours Monkey-B had already lost all feelings of fear. I really think more and more Cambodians should do things like hiking in old-growth forests because it would begin to eliminate the fear and negative feelings the culture has towards the wilderness.
Lastly I should mention that this area of Cambodia is full of landmines, so it's probably not wise to take more than 5 or 6 steps away from the well-beaten path because you could very well be the first post-genocide/war human to put your foot in any particular location. Stay tuned for Part 2 because I took far too many pics for just one post...........
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