Triumph at Last: The Trek to Virachey's Haling-Halang Mountain

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I've been trekking in Virachey National Park(VNP) year after year after year. This past January (2015) was my 6th trip to the park, and my fourth attempt to reach the top of the sacred Haling-Halang massif, which straddles the Cambodia-Lao border in one of the remotest corners of the Park. This time magic struck! More specifically, we had an absolutely fantastic new lead guide named Thom, a Kavet man from Voen Sai who has spent a lot of time in Virachey's backwaters. He had never actually been to Haling-Halang (HH), but he knew where it was and he was handy with a GPS, and on the morning of January 26th we left Tom-Roech Village on the Sesan River in TaVang district and we were on our way.

We made it to the Veal Thom Grasslands in about 36 hours, where we camped for the night (our 2nd night in VNP). Then, after collecting three of our camera-traps that had been set up in riparian zones of the grasslands, we marched into the northern forests in the direction of HH and the Laos border. I should probably take a minute to explain that I am also the Field Coordinator for a wildlife conservation group called Habitat ID , and in January 2014 we kicked off a camera-trap survey in the Veal Thom Grasslands and Gan Yu River Valley area of VNP. To date our cameras have unveiled a plethora of wildlife , proving conclusively that the Park is not an "empty forest" -a sad fate that has befallen many other national parks and "protected areas" (PA's) in the region. Our cameras have so far turned up: clouded leopard, marbled cat, golden cat, leopard cat, sun bear, black bear, dhole, gaur, hog badger, serow, sambar deer, Large Indian Civet, and many more species. Unfortunately we discovered that one of our cameras had been stolen and one had been destroyed by moisture. Undaunted, we moved on, stopping for a resplendent swim at the sublime D'Dar Poom Chop waterfall before proceeding to our next camp deeper in the forest.

The next day was physically punishing. It involved a very steep climb up an 1,100-meter rise called Biir Mountain. If I remember it correctly it was about six hours of steep uphill trekking, with my pack weighing about 50 pounds. I was drenched in sweat and several times I felt like giving up. I think Brao porter Peen saw this in and at one point he generously offered to carry my bag up for me. I declined...no way was I going to look like a wimp. By the time I reached the top I was ready to puke, but I made it and was greeted by a circle of our other Brao and Kavet porters who were enjoying some cigarettes and who appeared to have not even broken a sweat! We set up camp right behind Camera Trap #5, which previously snapped photos of huge gaurs, clouded leopard, golden cat, stump-tailed macaques, armies of wild pig, and loads of deer. I was sure that we'd hear wildlife that evening and sure enough a barking deer (muntjac) called out several times quite close to our camp.

The next morning we broke camp and set off. This was the point at which we turned around last year, aborting our plans to reach HH because the lead guide last year, Mr. Bon, seemed a bit unsure and the "path" -a hack-away down a steep slope- did not seem right. As it turned out, we were probably correct to bail on that plan, because we took a different direction this time, and within one hour the jungle opened up and HH loomed before us like some kind of jungle-covered volcanic cone in the distance. Our hearts soared and nearly everyone erupted in shouts of joy and anticipation: there it was, Haling-Halang, right in front of us. There could be no doubt that we were going to make it this time. The opening of the canopy also allowed us to reorient ourselves, whereas last year the path was usually just guesswork and hacking through thorns and bush. This opening appeared to be several slabs of previously molten volcanic rock -similar to rocky surfaces I have found in Veal Thom. On either side of it are small grassland areas that we took some time to explore. I had the distinct feeling that we were glimpsing some of the region's last paradises, places where man seldom trod. No doubt we were the first Westerners to see these little nooks, and I felt the eyes of hiding animals (or jungle fairies?) watching me as we roamed around. In fact, a game trail seemed to lead down the mountain towards the base of HH, and after basking in the glow of this little rocky outrcop wonderland, and after taking the time to set up two camera traps here, we set off down the mountain.

The actual Cambodia-Laos border is unmarked in this area and it is difficult to know which side you are on when you are this deep. The vast majority of the time we were in Cambodia but I believe our lunch stop by a small waterfall and creek was actually in Laos. Friend and fellow trekker Dr. Andreas Neunert, a physician from Dresden, noted "my first ever illegal border crossing!" We didn't linger long, and we were soon back in Cambodia and finding our way, back under thick canopy now, to the base of HH.

Soon the forest took on a different character. I don't know what or where the dividing line was, if it was after a stream we had crossed or a hill we had passed, but the sense that we were now in an enchanted area stopped me in my tracks. I turned to my friend and trekking partner Richard, who joined me on the first quest to reach HH back in 2011, and he concurred (for some reason we both spoke in hushed tones). I asked birder Howie Nielsen how he felt about it (Howie had joined me on the 2013 trip to the Yak Yeuk Grasslands; you can read his trip report and bird list from that trek here ), and he replied, with furrowed brow, "I don't know if I would say enchanting...but I've never seen anything as bewitching as this!" Massive multi-trunked trees with dozens if not hundreds of flying roots created a scene straight out of Lord of the Rings. One could almost expect a tree to reach out and grab him. "This is #1 forest in Cambodia...I think," VNP Ranger Leam Sou remarked. We moved on for about five minutes until we came to a large mud pit that clearly served as an animal wallowing hole. I photographed a large bear footprint in it, and Andreas commanded: "A camera goes here!" It was a very good call and a wonderful find.

Just ten minutes later we came upon another curious find: Tek-Tek or Yai-Yai feces -at least that's what the tribal porters said it was. The Tek Tek and Yai Yai are tropical versions of the Himalayan Yeti, and Cambodia's version of Sumatra's Orang Pendek or "forest man". Both Vietnamese and US soldiers claimed to have seen and fired on this mysterious creature during the Indochinese War of the 1960s and 70s, and the tribal people of Laos claim familiarity with the creature, and in Borneo it goes by the name Batutut. In Thailand it goes by the name tua yeua, and in Myanmar it is called the dtaw -great story from Gordon Young about the Dtaw linked here . Biologists-conservationists Jeffrey A McNeely and Paul Spencer Wachtel write about these creatures in their classic book Soul of the Tiger: Searching for Nature's Answers in Exotic Southeast Asia , and scholar Gregory Forth published Images of the Wildman in Southeast Asia: an anthropological perspective in 2008 with Routledge. Neither book mentions the Tek Tek or Yai Yai, though they both refer to the monsters inhabiting the wild areas of Mondulkiri province. One senior VNP staff told me that he heard that the Vietnamese had captured one in 1980 during their occupation of Cambodia and that the animal was taken to Vietnam and nothing had ever been heard of it since then. You can see a photograph of the feces at the bottom of this post.

We later set up camera trap in that location (and the guides will be going there to change memory cards in late April, so stay tuned!)

The forest was thick with huge velvety trees, some of which none of us had ever seen before, like the one that looked like it had the trunk of a coconut tree but with chipped, flaking bark. "What the heck kind of tree is that?" Someone remarked. Maybe it was me. I later posted the photo on Facebook and nobody seemed to know.

It was getting late and we needed to find a place to set up camp where we could have access to water. Aside from the mud pit the area seemed devoid of water, so we hastily made our way downhill, passing beneath a canopy of kingly trees and their thick, silky streamer roots. Finally we found a stream, and we hung our hammocks there, with the Brao and Kavet setting water to boil for rice and dinner.

Some strange phenomenon that evening. First I was struck with sleep paralysis, which is normal for me when I sleep on my back. I usually try to call out to have someone wake me up, and Richard did this for me on that evening, throwing his shoe at my hammock to snap me out of it. But about an hour later something like sleep paralysis took hold of Richard, and in a semi-dream state he called out: "there is a large animal in this camp!" Karen, Howie's wife, returned from her hammock: "No there isn't!" Still cast in spell, Richard hollered: "this camp is haunted!!!"

I have to say that just as Richard shouted "there is a large animal in this camp" I saw, in a kind of dream-daze, the outline of some kind of large-limbed creature leaping toward his hammock. It seemed to be half-animal and half spirit. It has huge bow-shaped legs, a small body, and antlers on its head.That's the best I can remember of it. Seems too much of a coincidence to easily dismiss. The highlanders did not like this scene; it spooked them. Later we heard a tree crash not far from camp.

The jungle came to life in the morning with gibbons calling out from every direction and the sound of hornbills flapping their prehistoric wings above the closed canopy. Andreas had the presence of mind to take out his iPhone and make a splendid recording of the morning jungle music at the base of HH: listen to it here!

On February 1st we set off for the top of Haling-Halang. Thom had recon'd a way up not far from camp, and by 9 AM we were on our way with just light daypacks on our backs. We began by hiking up a dry cavern that is probably a waterfall in the rainy season. We clamored over fallen tree trunks and pulled ourselves up and over large boulders. Then we had to do a bit of climbing using tree roots and loose stone as handles, and this triggered some small avalanches. Finally we reached the top of the first small hump of the Haling-Halang massif. Following a ridge line heading west, we walked in relative ease for about twenty minutes until the ridge headed down steeply though a tangle of rattan and bamboo. Thom consulted his GPS unit while we tried to figure out a way down. The way was found and we stopped for lunch at what must be the main saddle that divides the Haling Mountain peak (Haling-Halang is actually two mountains, with the latter located in Laos and the former in Cambodia, where we now stood). Howie did some birding during this break; on this trip he logged several species that had never before been recorded in Cambodia, and you can see his new complete bird list here .

In twenty or thirty minutes we were on the top. I have to admit that tears welled up in my eyes; I was realizing a dream that had obsessed me for five years now. I told Karen how I felt and she said, "let them flow." I did...a little bit. I had always dreamed that from the top of this mountain one could look south and see the Veal Thom Grasslands, a glowing golden savanna in the distance. And sure enough, through a small window in the thick wall of vegetation along the thin ridege line, I could see the grasslands bright in the distance, a rolling smudge of yellow-brown amidst the green jungle hills of VNP. And then we came upon something quite unexpected: a border marker. Somehow, some way, someone had erected a large and very heavy stone that stood at about one and a half meters high and a foot thick. My guess is that either the Lao or Cambodian government, with the help of an NGO, had villagers clear part of the peak and then helicoptered in this monument, with "Cambodge" written in French on one side and "Laos" on the other, dated at 2003 (see photos below). We took some group photos here, and then proceeded to set up two cameras on this ridge. All the while our Brao and Kavet porters were harvesting the prized young Haling-Halang bamboo, which is used for rice-wine drinking straws (see photo of Peen with his stash below). I thought I heard someone say that each stalk can be sold for 1,000 Riel in the villages.

Thom decided that we could take a "short cut" back down to camp, and while still on the ridge we came upon a rocky outcrop facing north into Laos. Climbing up on the natural stone platform we were afforded stupendous views into Laos. This is the southernmost extreme edge of Laos, an area known as Nam Ghong Provincial Protected Area or NGPPA. This is yet another area I dream about, not the least because Halang Mountain is located there. I've been told that some Brao highlanders on the Lao side of the border also revere Haling-Halang as a sacred mountain, and I would love to explore this area. We noticed a couple of fires in the distance, and way, way, way out on the horizon the Bolaven Plateau was visible. To the best of my knowledge there are no NGOs currently working in NGPPA (and in fact Habitat ID is the only one working in VNP). NGPPA abuts VNP and effectively extends the natural habitat of VNP, creating more jungle and mountainous terrain for wildlife. *Note, just last night on April 18th, I spent some time zooming around on Google Earth and discovered some dirt roads that come disturbingly close to the Cambodian border, and not much farther in there are very clear buildings inside of NGPPA. I don't know if those structures are for staff who will be constructing some of the several dams that are planned for that part of Attapeu province in Laos, or if they are...as rumors go...places where American MIA's are kept to this day! I imagine I will never find out.

The "shortcut" down was something straight out of one of my worse nightmares. The mountain was so steep that we essentially ski'd down loose dirt and leaves, grabbing trees and anything else that would stop our fall. We got stuck on two separate cliffs, where we had to pause to gather ourselves and plot a way down. The second cliff afforded magnificent views of VNP and despite my worries I pulled out the camera and took some shots (photo below). Of course we eventually made it down, with Peen telling Sou that he had saved my life. I think that's more or less true, though I cannot quite recall how or when he did that; I may have been blinded by nervousness on that treacherous descent; I worried constantly about stepping on or grabbing a poisonous snake or disturbing a nest of Giant Asian hornets . We finally entered relatively flat land and within minutes camp was in sight. "OK," said Richard. "I will never doubt these guys again." Indeed, it would have been a true shortcut if not for the hellish gradation of that mountain. Looking back on it, I think we essentially went straight down the face of it -probably not the best or safest route.

The next day was a "rest day" but we did some exploring. Me and Sou and Thom set off down a trail leading southeast. Again, those majestic streaming trees, along with strangler figs and banyan trees dying within their grasp. At one point we found five trees that had merged into one, forming a natural arch along the trail. "Best forest in Virachey," Sou repeated. Elephant sign was everywhere in the form of footprints and dung, and we vowed to return the next morning to set up some camera traps in this area. We also found a strange carving in one of the trees. The carving depicted a standing naked man with folded hands. I immediately got a creepy feeling from it, and my old Brao friend Kamla said it was a sign of the "Tek Tek," or some kind of warning about the spirits. He did not like being there at all. After a few hours out there we went back to camp and took a nap.

We followed up on our plans to set up cameras in that mesmerizing section of the forest the next morning, and Howie and Karen came along this time. Howie spotted a pair of gibbons while he was doing some birding. Gibbons called out every morning of our trek but I did not get a chance to see them; that's OK because hearing them is enough for me. By far and away my favorite sound in nature.

At last it was time to break camp and leave. After three nights at the base of HH we were on our way, but not before setting up a camera trap where we had found the "Yai Yai poop" (the Brao said it was from the Yai Yai and not the Tek Tek; the difference between them is not clear to me yet). In two days we were back at D'dar Poom Chop Waterfall resting our sore muscles and weary bones, swimming and sunbathing. Howie and I were really hoping to get another glimpse of what I am still sure was Blyth's kingfisher , currently only known to inhabit Laos and Vietnam in Indochina. Howie did not get the good look at it that I did, so he needs to err on the side of caution, which I fully understand.

There was also a "false alarm" on this trek when I thought I saw a baby tiger in one of the camera trap memory cards. Perhaps it was the magic of the jungle working its power over me, but in the viewfinder of my handheld SONY camera the orangish, stripy cat with distinct single white spots behind its ears looked like a juvenile tiger. The Brao and Kavet agreed that it was kra-tom -tiger! Well that would have been the holy grail had it been true. Perhaps Hun Sen himself would have scheduled a meeting with me. I was flying high on thinking we had a tiger pic and what that would mean for conservation in VNP. However, later, one of our trekking partners pointed out that the animal was too small to be a tiger. I should have embraced a rigorous review and reconsideration of what the animal might be, but I think that was, at that point, too painful for me. Instead I was unhappy with him, and I trust he forgives me now...we'll be out searching for "tigers" together again next year~!

We made it back up to Veal Thom by sunset, and the grasslands radiated a rich amber glow. I have probably spent two weeks in the Veal Thom Grasslands and I never tire of it. It is unique not only for Cambodia but for Southeast Asia, surpassing in both size and beauty the Yak Yeuk Grasslands due west in VNP. The next day saw us out on the O-Pong River, and my blood boiled when we met three poachers on the trail with crossbows and three dogs. Still thinking there was a baby tiger roaming around not too far off, my rage boiled over. My trekking partners tried to calm me, with Howie quipping, "They were probably thinking, hey dudes! Did you guys see any muntjac around here?" He is almost certainly correct, but nonetheless bringing dogs into the Park is illegal and their feces spreads parasites and microbes, including hookworms, which harm many forms of wildlife. Furthermore, I'm pretty sure they would kill whatever they came across, be it a muntjac or a black bear. In fact, just twenty minutes down the trail we came upon a perfectly decapitated Malayan porcupine...wonder who did that? Before we reached the river we also came upon patches of bamboo forest that had been set afire, and two nasty logging roads that push up towards grasslands. Whether or not these dirt roads are still in use I do not know.

Last night in the jungle was next to the gorgeous Chai Youy Waterfall, where we did some swimming, bathing, and meditating. I also spotted what might have been a Frogmouth or a Nightjar flying slowly overhead. And then it was out on the O-Pong all the way to Kompong Commune where a welcoming party awaited us. The party was being thrown for someone else, of course: a local "boy" who had made it big in Ban Lung, becoming a politician and business magnate. The rice wine and Angkor Beer flowed throughout the afternoon, the night, and into the next morning, and by the time we got back to the boat landing at Voen Sai I was really, really feeling it.

Since I've been back I wrote an Op-Ed piece for the Cambodia Daily about VNP, and Sou and the Kavet went back to Yak Yeuk to check on the camera traps that were deployed during a separate expedition that took place before ours, one headed up by brothers and Habitat ID collaborators Keith and Dan Pawlowski. You can read a preliminary report about the Yak Yeuk expedition and see some of the camera trap images from that effort here . Late last year the Phnom Penh Post interviewed me about Habitat ID's conservation efforts in VNP.

I still feel, quite passionately, that Virachey offers the best trek in Southeast Asia. The Veal Thom Grasslands treks begins in a Brao village on the Sesan and ends in a Kreung village farther down river in Voen Sai. The grasslands are simply awesome to behold, and this trek offers the chance to unplug from our hyper-connected lives and our electronic devices and correct some of that "nature deficit disorder."

It is easy to be skeptical, thinking that wild natural ecosystems and their animals are being obliterated throughout Cambodia and Southeast Asia in a rolling nightmare of death and destruction in the name of "development." But magical places remain, threatened as they are, and a trek in VNP offers what I think is one of the best opportunities to experience one of the last bastions of wilderness in Mainland Southeast Asia.

The following is the contact information for the three rangers who guide ecotourism treks in Virachey:

Leam Sou's Facebook page , and his phone #s: 0973334775, 0963334774 -remember to drop the zero and add 855 if calling from outside of Cambodia. If you are in Cambodia I suggest sending him a text message if he does not answer the phone.

Som Sophany's Facebook page .

Sokhoeun Mao's Facebook page .

If all else fails you can email me at: [e-mail], and you can check out our Save Virachey National Park FB page , as well as Habitat ID's FB page -both pages are updated daily. You can also follow Habitat ID on Twitter, and check the Blog section of Habitat ID's web site in a few weeks to see what turned up in the camera traps that we set up during the expedition that you just read about -maybe we'll have evidence of tiger, leopard, elephant...or Tek Tek...!

Scroll down for more photos, including some camera trap pics from last year. And if anyone would like to read more about my treks in Virachey, my book Called Away by a Mountain Spirit: Journeys to the Green Corridor is available on Amazon. You can read the Taipei Times review of the book here . On a final note, Andreas' GPS tracker calculated that we trekked a total of 142 kilometers on this expedition.

I want to personally thank everyone who joined our expedition and everyone who donated funds and equipment to the cause. If anyone would like to make a donation to future expeditions you can do so on this Save Virachey page or on Habitat ID's site .

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Photos

Start of the trek
Treks begin at the Sesan River

Bamboo viper
A bamboo pit viper is locked and loaded at the side of the trail

meeting
Thom and Sou consult the Field Guide to the Birds of Southeast Asia

Veal Thom Grasslands
Crossing the grasslands again

Snake
Speckle-bellied keelback

River crossing
Brao porter Tung crosses a stream

Our team
Group shot at a makeshift border post near Biir Mountain

Rocky outcrop
Suddenly HH came into view

Views galore!
Our hearts soared when the canopy opened up

VNP Rangers
Sou (left) Thom (right)

Mud wallow
"A camera goes here!"

Enchanted forest
The lush, bewitching forest at the base of Haling-Halang

Footprint
Sun bear...or Tek Tek?

Mysterious tree
One of the trees that no one could identify.

Enchanted
The bewitching forest at the base of HH

HH base camp
"This camp is haunted!"

On our way up
The way up HH!

Triumph at Last!
Thom and I at the border marker on the top of HH. Later I learned that this border post was helicoptered in as part of a joint Cambodia-Lao government sponsored project.

border marker
Laos side of Haling-Halang

Peen
Brao porter Peen with his harvest of valuable Haling-Halang rice-wine sucking straws!

Sou
Sou is VNP's top ranger

Laos
Looking out into Laos' little-known Nam Ghong PPA, which abuts VNP and Haling-Halang, effectively extending wildlife habitat.

Views from HH
The views of Laos and even the Yak Yeuk Grasslands were tremendous from this rock on HH

Stuck!
Taken from the steep face of HH, about halfway down where we got stuck

#1 forest in VNP!
The gnarled fairy world at the base of HH

Carving
One of the Brao porters said he felt this was some kind of warning sign regarding the "Tek Tek" or "tropical yeti" said to inhabit the region. My friend Richard and I both felt a bit creeped out by it.

Butterflied
A pair of butterflies on the Gan Yu River

VT and HH
Veal Thom in the foreground and Haling-Halang in the background as the sun sets.