Equilibrium

Day 75: Koh Kong Conservation Area (K). Hindsight can be a wonderful thing. Amongst it lessons it teaches the value of keeping your mouth shut until you have all of the facts at your disposal. Arriving at Rainbow Lodge in the Cardamon mountains, I had attempted to describe the perfection of this environment – 'a utopia without downside' I had written. Today though, in a remote part of the jungle at the mercy of Mother Nature, Karen and I had discovered one of the downsides. Oh, for the gift of hindsight!

Things had started off well enough; hiring a boat to take us upstream from Rainbow Lodge we arrived at the Koh Por rapids in a lovely jungle gorge where we both cooled off in the warm crystal waters of the Tatai river. Even the advent of a passing rain shower didn't deter us – after all we were already wet already!

But as we set off on our one hour return boat trip, things took a decided turn for the worse. The sky turned from pale blue to jet black, the gentle breeze built into a gale force wind and the light rain intensified into a tropical monsoon. Against the driving rain, Karen and I clung on for dear life – soaked through to the skin and freezing cold thanks to the wind-chill. The little long-tailed boat chugged its way downstream as fast as it possibly could, but with the mounting waves and deluge of rain we were taking on board so much water that I actually thought we were going to sink! And then the storm kicked in - So near that the flash of lightning and the crash of thunder were completely simultaneous. So powerful that the sound of the thunder was actually causing shock waves along the river. The noise; deafeningly loud. The lightning; blindingly close. And there we were - on a sinking boat, travelling down an enormous river, clutching metal umbrellas in an attempt to shield ourselves from the worst of the rain, with the most powerful electric storm we had ever encountered going on right above our heads. “Sitting ducks!”, I thought.

When Karen and first talked of our travelling aspirations the best part of a year ago, I remember saying that I “Wanted to encounter situations that made me wish we hadn't embarked on our journey”. Well for half an hour today, this was one of those situations: Colder, more scared and more uncomfortable than I had been at any stage previously on our trip.

When we finally (miraculously!) made in back to Rainbow Lodge, I couldn't help thinking nature had perhaps overcompensated a little on the Pleasure & Pain Equilibrium. But then Janet greeted us with steaming mugs of hot chocolate and home-made peanut brittle and the balance was once again harmoniously restored.