Northeast Cambodia Update & Impressions

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I have been traveling to Northeast Cambodia for the past 5 winter breaks and so I thought I'd put down some of things that I have noticed that have changed, happened, etc. The main reason why I visit is to trek in Virachey National Park but of course I spend plenty of time outside the park in places like Ban Lung, in the villages north of the Sesan River (at the beginning and end of the treks), and in Kratie. I did one trip to Mondulkiri from Ban Lung riding on the dirt bike trail back in February 2010, and from what I've heard that once-wild road isn't the same, with a bridge of the Srepok River and with the Lomphat Wildlife Sanctuary severly trashed. I've never been to Stung Treng and I'm not sure I'll ever get there. Anyway, for this blog post I'm going to write about things outsideof Virachey NP, rather than about my treks (whcih I've already written a lot about).

I'll begin with Ban Lung, or, better yet, the ride from Phnom Penh to Ban Lung. The ride is very long at about 11-12 hours and travel time does not seemed to have improved with the improvement of the road. I should add that I always take the big slow bus (Sorya) and that minivans travel faster. However, after taking a cramped minibus from Ban Lung to Kratie in 2011 I vowed never to repeat the experience again. OK, Ban Lung town.

I almost always stay at Tree Top Ecolodge and my friends and I stayed there one night on this trip. I had read some negative things about cameras being stolen from this place recently, and this was a big concern for me as we had 14 motion-triggered camera-traps with us for our conservation project in Virachey National Park. (and you can have a look at some of the early results of our project here). Fortunately no cameras were stolen, though a Virachey Park Ranger warned us that he had heard that cameras had been stolen from tourists at Tree Tops. However, something else peturbed me at Tree Top. I met up with a friend there who I hadn't seen in 2 years, and we were enjoying a couple of beers on the restaurant terrace area at about 10:40pm when Mr. Happy (his real English name) came over and said, "because I work very hard every day, I have to ask you to go to your room talk." 10:40pm on a Friday night. What the hell? He and his wife were sleeping beneath a mosquito net near the registration desk and he didn't like the fact that 2 guests were having a conversation on the terrace. Lame, and I'm sure that Mr. Tee, the owner, would not have agreed with this. So, up we went to our $7 rooms, which, while they look nice enough, have paper-thin walls. My friend and I conversed for about 2 minutes before both doors to the rooms on either side of swung open simultaneously and disgruntled guests asked us to stop talking. One said, "Good night, gentlemen!" We were not shouting. I wished we had stayed down the road at Borann Lodge as planned, though the $7 room I had there in 2013 were not all that nice (read my trekking partner Howie Nielsen's excellent trip report of our 13-day trek to Mera Mountain here ). Well, what can one expect for $7?

The road from Ban Lung to TaVang is now almost either entirely deforested or converted to cashew nut plantations, though a few majestic patches of old growth jungle remain. The Sesan itself is in big trouble as the highly controversial Sesan 2 Dam is currently under construction in Stung Treng. This dam will forever alter the river and it will inundate numerous villages. See these villages now because this is where some of the best fun is to be had in Ratanakiri; drinking rice wine all night with the local Brao and Kreung people is one of my favorite pasttimes. These villages are changing too as many families now have scooters and generators, which means modern noise and lots of Gangnam Style late into the night. Nonetheless, it's still a damn good time, especially when you find yourself dragged out onto the dirt dance floor and compelled to bust a move to K-Pop classics.

What else is there to do besides trek in Virachey? Well, you have village homestays and treks in the community forests that can be arranged by any guesthouse in Ban Lung, though the community forests, like Virachey, are getting hammered by illegal logging and land conversion. Pierre Yves Clais, owner of the beautiful Terres Rouge , can arrange treks to a remote and until recently almost entirely unknown ancient Jarai temple south of Ban Lung. He wrote a great article for the Cambodia Daily about this temple and the threats to the local environment which you can read here. You can also take a boat trip to the Tampuan Cemetary, a place I've now visited 3 times because we pass by it on our way from Kompong Commune to the town of Voen Sai after the Veal Thom Grasslands trek. A raucous town has now grown up behind the cemetery and it has a cement boat landing with lots of people hanging around.

What else to do in Ratanakiri? Gibbon Spotting Cambodia gets rave reviews. It is situated in a place called the Voen Sai-Siem Pang Protected Forest that was set up with the help of Conservation International. This forest is adjacent to Virachey National Park and you reach it by traveling to Voen Sai and taking a boat up the lovely O Lai Lai River where you'll overnight either in one of the villages or at their research station, or both. My friend Do Yok speaks excellent English as well as about 8 other languages and he's one of the best guides in Ban Lung, but he was recently bit by a cobra on a trek and he is currently recovering at a hospital in Sihanoukville. Hopefully he will be walking and ready to guide treks again by the late Fall.

And oh yeah, how could I forget the sacred and serene Yeak Loam Lake, which remains as majestic as when I first saw it in January 2010. A walk around and/or a swim in this lake is a must. For those who want more info on the awesome Virachey National Park, you can check out my old blogs, which begin here with 7 Days in Virachey NP .

Kratie

I always find myself spending a couple of nights here on my way back to Phnom Penh. The last couple of times I stayed at the Heng Heng 2 Guesthouse located right on the Mekong River. This place ($7 fan rooms, $15 with AC) has a fantastic balcony and the staff are very helpful. Superb location too. Just down the road is the Silver Dolphin Guesthouse (can't find a link for it). This seems to be the "place to be" after the popular Yu Hong 2, and apparently there is a rooftop terrace where you can watch the sun set over the Mekong free of all obstructions. Finally, there is an extravagantly beautiful place on Koh Tong Island called Rajabori, which is run by the same guy (Mr. Clais) who runs Terres Rouge in Ban Lung. If you're going over to the island for ecotourism or a to check out the villages (I hear there are also places to do village homestays there) then you might want to check out Rajabori, a seriously stylin' place.

Have I missed anything about Kratie? I strongly suggest going to the big market in the center of town for breakfast rather than eating tourist fare at your guesthouse. Why go all the way to Kratie to eat bacon and eggs? Eat at the damn market! (thanks for that line, Jared, even though you were writing about the Ban Lung market -and I'd say the same thing for that: get away from your guesthouse and find out where the locals eat. Standard advice for anywhere, I know, but I notice that a heck of a lot of barangs eat tourist food in their guesthouses). Oh, and here's one more thing you can do in both Ban Lung and Kratie -get a haircut! Really, it's a nice local experience.

Elsewhere and other stuff

I haven't been back to Mondulkiri since 2010 so I'm not going to put down anything other than the hyperlink to the original blog post that I wrote up about that place.

Finally, although I said this post wouldn't be about Virachey, I do want to mention that the Park and my friends and I have started up a new kind of trek there: camera-trap ecotourism, which you can read more about here. Basically, when you trek to the Veal Thom Grasslands (7 days) you can help service our camera traps, changing memory cards and batteries with the rangers. In doing this you are directly helping out with a conservation initiative, and trust me, checking those memory cards is damn good fun, as you get to see what kind of wild animals are wandering around in your footsteps when you're not around. Those interested in doing this should contact Virachey ranger Sou Soukern ([phone]) If you cannot get a hold of Sou, send me an email and I'll see what I can do: [e-mail]

Overall, it's no exaggeration to say that the region is going up the smoke of bulldozers and chain saws, while even the picturesque "love huts" scattered around the province are beginning to disappear. And yet there are still great adventures to be had in Ratanakiri and beyond. And there are some signs of hope. PM Hun Sen, certainly not one known for having a green thumb, recently signed off on a new 70,000 hectare reserve in Siem Pang district to protect the Giant Ibis. In addition, wild elephants are apparently doing well in Mondulkiri (I'll add that we found elephant footprints on our recent 13-day trek in Virachey), and the Cambodian government rececently signed some pledges to become more green. Ah yes, and if anyone is interested in reading more about my adventure, I published a book, Called Away by a Mountain Spriit: Journeys to the Green Corridor . You can read the Taipei Times' review of the book here .

***UPDATE: Mongabay.com just published a new interview that I did with them about Virachey, my NGO Habitat ID, and our camera-trapping program there. Check it out!

****NEW UPDATE: The Virachey National Park staff have asked me to help raise money to buy boats so that they can patrol the Sesan River. This once-mighty river is a major conduit for the transportation of illegal timber and poached wildlife. I have started up an Indiegogo fundraising campaign to buy them the boats.

If I can think of anything else I'll add it.

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Photos

Ban Lung
downtown Ban Lung about 2 blocks from the market

Sesan
the once-mighty Sesan River

village home near the Sesan River
there are still many unique villages north of the Sesan River

Tok Mok
village kids use a bamboo raft to cross the Tok Mok River, a tributary of the Sesan that has its origins in the remote border mountains of Virachey NP

drinking time!
Time for rice wine in Ratanakiri!

Howie2
remote village somewhere near the O Lai Lai Village. Photo by Howie Nielsen

Kratie
sitting at the Silver Dolphin Restaurant and guesthouse

DSC00321
sunset on the Mekong in Kratie

Yu Hong 2
Is the popular Yu Hong 2 restaurant and guesthouse the only place that sells Beer Lao in the Northeast