There was that time I found my favourite part of Cambodja to be the less visited northern regions. After spending time in the more or less mandatory areas around Phnom Phen and Siem Reap, we headed up to Sen Monorom to get a bit away fra the tourist mass. This turned out to be amazing! We decided on our accommodation while on the bus, so we woulnd't have to make a dicision while stuck in the middle of a group of loud and aggressive touts when we got of the bus (and this is why you bring a guidebook, folks!). This took us to a tree house hostel with all the style and charme of that of Tarzan and Jane (yes, I know that was a different continent, but there still was a clear association, alright?). Unfortunately the Tarzan and Jane hut in the tree also included all the creepy crawlies of the original one - and them spiders are massive in Cambodja!

From our little treehouse we rented motorbikes (alright, "motorbike" - I have no idea how to ride one of those things, so after a rather dissasterous failed attempt, I jumped onto the back of Nathan's), and took off to a waterfall nearby. Those af perfect places for swimming (safe when you are suddently swept away and carried down stream by the strong currents - then you realise how weak you are, when someone else has to drag you back and they do so without much effort - yes, thanks for technically saving my life there, Nathan)!

Our home for the night

There was that time I went trekking through the Cambodjan jungle. This was a multiple days project that included a sort of home stay with locals in the middle of the jungle - and a whole lot of leeches! Now, I was a little on the edge about those leeches, perhaps because the idea of bugs eating directly of my body didn't really appeal to me dispite them being fairly harmless, so I completely covered my legs and tugged my trousers into my socks, looking like I was expecting to finish the trek on a bike, before smearing my boots with that sticky tea stuff our guide assured us would keep off the leeches. All the while Nathan was walking around in shorts not giving a **** about leeches. But then again, he lived in New York.

For me the most amazing thing about the trek was not the trek itself, but staying the night in the house of a local family in the middle of the jungle. This was partly because we slept in inside a little wooden house with chickens and other animals running around on the floor, us in little hammocks that would zip up completely to form a private chrysalis. All this while listening to the sounds of the jungle right outsiude the door - so cozy! less cozy it was the next morning, when I was woken up by Nathan and one of the other guys taking down my zipped hammock while I was still sleeping in it, dragging it out side to let me wake up in the sunligt - but man, it was hilarious, and I remember laughing like a mad person while trying to protest their discision!