Sorng Rokavorn: Part 2

I have already told you all a little bit about our time in Sorng Rokavorn but here is the rest of the story... :) Sorng Rokavorn was the first forest we visited and we spent a few days working out our methodology. We stayed in two separate locations within the Community Forest.

At the first place, we stayed with 'Mum' at her house.  It was convenient to have a house and access to the village well water but it also meant we were further from the actual forest. That meant a lot of early mornings (waking up as early as 3:30am) so that we could be inside the forest before sunrise, which is when the birds are most active. After returning from birding it was usually lunch time (steamed rice is always the main part of each meal) and afterwards we would take a nap or just relax for a bit. Occasionally some of the local people would play Sey with us when we had free time. It is a game a bit like hacky sack. This video shows exactly what it looked like watching the people play it on the streets of Phnom Penh…but we were not nearly as skilled as they are… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo5dd5haIsY

In the afternoon we were often led around the forest by the monk Bun Saluth in search of good locations for camera traps or for afternoon birding.  He was a fast walker and after just a few hours we would be worn out. Usually we returned to the village before sunset and enjoyed another meal of steamed rice and for dessert our cook always brought us watermelon because she could tell how much we loved having fruit.

Mum is cooking our food! This is the entire kitchen.

Deb is taking stellar shots of birds as usual.

One of the MANY sunrises we got to see. 

This is the inside of Mum's house. She is a community forest member that was helping us conduct our research.

This is the outside of the first house we stayed in. Of all our forest accommodations, it was the only place we stayed that had a door.

A typical hike through dense grassy areas lead by a very speedy monk.

At our second location in Sorng Rokavorn, Bun Saluth had organized the building of an outhouse, a small house and a gazebo-like structure in preparation for some sort of eco-tourism to support the forest in the future. We felt like we were being pampered, even with the giant spiders always lurking in the bathroom. It was great living inside of the community forest as it allowed us to really get a feeling for the forest… and also because we didn’t have to wake up quite so early and hike to it. :P We set up more camera traps and spent many hours conversing with Bun Saluth about the forest and the animals that resided there. 

Here are a few pictures of where we stayed at our second location. It was my favorite because it was so open and there were enough spaces for us all to hang our hammocks.

More photos of our daily hikes through the forests...

While hiking, we always came across interesting spirally plants, crazy looking bugs and very spiky plants. On the right is a resin tree. Locals build fires in the trunk of the tree to collect the sap which they use for many things including repairing boats.

:)