Leaning back in the crude bamboo basket we twisted around to look behind. Rich tropical vegetation already obscured the huts of the Pnong village we had just left. The basket was much more comfortable than we expected and despite gently swaying with the rhythm of the elephant’s stride we immediately felt secure. Drifting quietly through the virgin forest about six feet above the ground we were enjoying our ride. It was when we reached the edge of a very steep escarpment that we realised that we were in an all terrain vehicle which could cope, intelligently, with anything. Over we went, our trusty elephant bracing its front legs against the precipitous incline and almost sitting on its back legs to keep us more or less, sort of level.  So we plunged through dense forest, up and down narrow jungle tracks. Rattah our mahout shouted loud guttural commands and the elephant tore down obstructing trees and trampled them flat to maintain the path. These forests were in Mondulkiri a province on the east of Cambodia near the border with Vietnam. The newspapers had been recently full of pictures of tigers and leopards in this area and that added spice to our trip.

With us were Andy and Trish, fellow VSO volunteers, who lived in Modulkiri and advised the Provincial Department of Education on schools for the indigenous Pnong people. The Pnong used the elephants for logging and realised that tourists would also pay for adventurous elephant rides.  These were wild elephants tamed when very young and taught to respond to commands. They lived in the forest and came when called by the mahouts, their carers and life long work partners.

After a few hours we reached a river and waterfall where we stopped for lunch. We watched with mounting interest as Andy and Trish stepped out of their basket, onto the head of their elephant and then nimbly onto the raised bank of the river.  We wondered how we were going to dismount. As we explored the crystal clear pool at the foot of the waterfall the mahouts unstrapped the baskets and released the elephants into the forest to let them graze.  Shafts of sunlight illuminated the forest pool and caught brightly coloured butterflies flitting over the river, while birds twittered in the trees. Expertly casting circular nets the mahouts fished the pool and quickly caught enough fish to be cooked over an open fire for our lunch. The whole situation was idyllic.

As we dozed with full stomachs the mahouts called the elephants back. They emerged from the forest and seemed to relish cavorting in the river as the mahouts washed them down. It was a classic scene of elephants lying in the water and spraying water with their trunks. Being by this time expert elephant riders, we happily climbed aboard for the journey back to the village.  We chatted to Rattah in Kymer and laughed as our elephant pitched off into the forest after a tasty morsel, only to be shouted at to bring it back to path.

It was a wonderful experience and a great day. 
     
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Thong Khmun is a lovely rural district in Kampong Cham provience. In late April the rain had just begun, the soil was rich and moist and a fragrance of renewal filled the air. Yen Chanthol a 43 year old farmer and his wife Yen Sokhom were digging with hoes on their land. They paused to wipe their brows, smiled to each other then smiled to their son working nearby.

Soh Theavuth and his friend Kim Sophoan were anxious to bring in their fishing nets as early as possible to avoid working in the scorching mid day heat. The sky was clear and blue and even in the early morning it was getting hot. Their nets were laid in the River Mekong just off the main island near Kampong Cham.  If they had looked up they would have seen us in a bus crossing the big bridge on our way east to see friends in Mondulkiri Province.

There was a clang and Yen Chanthol frowned and looked down at the muddy metal cylinder his hoe had struck. Sokhom looked up and their son walked over curious to see what was there.  The explosion could be heard in the village. As mud splattered back down to earth Chanthol lay mortally injured and Sokhom writhed in agony with her serious leg injuries. Their son had been thrown off his feet by the blast of the exploding mortar round and was also injured.

The bang distracted Soh Theavuth as he pulled in his unusually heavy nets. But he shrugged it off and pulled the 200lb US bomb into his canoe.  He was delighted to have acquired this weight of scrap metal and tried to calculate its value as he and his friend paddled for the shore. By the time he was home and had aborted his attempt to hack saw off the tail fin we were well on our way to Mondulkiri.

The road we were on was graded latterite which turns to mush in the rainy season. Already engineers were working on widening the forest road prior to eventually surfacing it. So as we inched past in the bus we watched soldiers and CMAC teams sweeping the edge of the road for mines and unexploded bombs. CMAC is the Cambodian Mine Action Centre and they employ over 3000 deminers organised into 48 platoons, working across the country.

We had visited the CMAC Training centre previously and had been briefed on the millions of mines and unexploded ordnance still scattered around Cambodia. They were left from US bombing of the Ho Chi Minh trail in the 1970s and the conflict with the Khmer Rouge which was only finally resolved in 1999. We were very impressed with the dog teams and watched the mine sniffer dogs being trained. Happily the number of deaths, injuries and amputations each month is falling but there was still 875 causalities in 2005 of which 157 were deaths. Unfortunately Yen Chanthol and his family had just been added to this toll of death and suffering.  

The scrap metal merchant told Soh Theavuth in no uncertain terms what he could do with his bomb and spelled out the obvious dangers. So Theavuth dumped it back on a sandbank where a VSO friend of ours discovered it and phoned CMAC, who disposed of it safely.

Walking in the lovely hills of Mondulkiri we were shown long lines of bomb craters from B52 strikes still clearly visible. Margaret was concerned about them but Allan reckoned that standing in a bomb crater must be the safest place to be, since clearly the bomb has already exploded.

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For more information on the work of CMAC click on www.cmac.org.kh