A couple of days of just hanging out: I didn't want to get sunburn

February 4, 2015

JP left the following morning, but Wil (with one L) and the two French girls stayed at the Banlung Balcony for a couple more days, and so naturally I joined them. We all got on really well together and it turned out to be the really fun time that I had been hoping for from Ban Lung.

On the first day Wil rented a bicycle and we all cycled to a nearby waterfall, although we had to cycle a lot further than advertised, as Wil turned out to not be the competent navigator he so boldly appeared. Caroline and Maïté had their own bikes of course. They'd bought them cheaply somewhere, in Thailand I think, and had been cycling all around Cambodia on them, during what had originally been planned as a conventional backpacking trip. And before very long Wil was talking about getting a bicycle to travel with too. I liked that a lot. I'm thinking of setting up some sort of charity to help more backpackers see the light and move over to bicycle touring.

Wil (with one L) being converted to the idea of bicycle touring (note that kids in Cambodia also cycle around in school uniform a lot)

Wil (with one L) chasing Caroline (with one L)

Caroline ignoring the happy, smiling, waving child, because for these two days, we were not in Asia

Maïté and Caroline - check out their cool homemade racks for holding their backpacks

At the waterfall there was a shop selling some suspicious items of local handicraft

The waterfall! What a great spot to hang out!

We hung out at the waterfall most of the day, just relaxing, having fun, and occasionally hurting ourselves by cliff jumping into the water from above. I challenged Wil to another race, this time involving starting behind the waterfall and giving me a six second headstart. He still beat me. I realised my mistake was in challenging him to a purely swimming race, and came up with a complicated obstacle race that also involved collecting sticks (and giving me a ten second headstart.) I finally won.

I felt a little overdressed but I didn't want to get sunburn, you know

We went back to our accommodation and spent our evening filled with cheap beer and lots of laughter. It had been a great day.

In fact it had been such a great day that the next day we did our very best to replicate it. This time we went back to the crater lake, which of course the girls had not seen before, and hung out there instead. Again Wil and I had our races, and again there was plenty of diving in. Only trouble being that I cannot dive. Never have been able to, almost certainly never will. But I was determined to try, and decided that with a former competitive swimmer to teach me, this was my moment to learn.

So I tried to dive in, which caused me a lot of pain and everyone else a great deal of amusement. I just couldn't get it, no matter how many times I tried, or what Wil or anyone else advised me to do. Eventually Wil filmed one of my attempts, so that I could try and self-analyse. To be honest I still can't understand what I was doing wrong. Have a look at the footage he took and see if you can tell what they were laughing at:

I can't see anything funny about that. Anyway, finally it grew late and I gave up, and we went back to our accommodation and spent our evening filled with cheap beer and lots of laughter. It had been a great day. Just like the day before. Excellent.

I have no comment to make about this photo

04/02/15 - 29km unloaded

05/02/15 - 11km unloaded

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