No More Boredom in Sen Menorom

     Sunday morning found me enjoying a strong cup of Mondulkiri coffee and some bread with my old friends at the Green House, in beautiful downtown Sen Menorom. Now, why on EARTH did I fail to take a photo of this fine establishment? It has a wonderful open air jungly feel to it, featuring bamboo floors and plants all over, and good Khmer food, and French fries that taste incredible to one who's eaten Khmer food for more than a week. But its most important feature is the remarkable friendliness of the staff; on your second visit, you're greeted like a long lost friend.
     One of those good friends, Thea, was waiting for me with his motorbike. Perhaps I should mention that Jack had specifically warned me AGAINST taking a motorbike ride (feeling, I suppose, with some justification, that my balance left something to be desired) but after meeting Thea, I decided to disregard his warning. That was a great decision.
     I've never been on a motorbike before (or even a motorcycle) and I did not expect it to be so very exhilarating. After so much hot humidity, it was so refreshing to get the wind in my face. We drove about 20 miles, I think, to Bausra Falls, which I believe Thea said were the largest waterfalls in Cambodia. It was mostly deep rutted clay roads there, and mostly heavily-wooded scenery.

Hear the dulcet tones by clicking here.

On the path to the falls, these two gentlemen were playing these strange instruments, sort of guitar-type of things with gourds for sounding boards and . . . . . well, here they are playing the melody that has hardly left my head since I heard it. Notice that children are children everywhere, and this one looks on the verge of death by boredom.


OK, so maybe they're not the most ANIMATED musicians since Mick Jagger, but, still, . . . .

By this time, Thea decided (rightly) that I was pretty inept at using my own camera, so he took over camera duties for the rest of the trip. He is therefore to be credited with these great pix of Bausra Falls, which were really beautiful. There are two falls separated by perhaps 200 yards of user-friendly shallows.

   




Thea told me this sign said something like "Look out! Slippery! Steep drop off."

And here I am, looking out at the slippery steep drop off.