Northern Cambodia: Ecotourism sites

Cambodian hill tribes and totem poles - northern Cambodia

Most of north-eastern Cambodia has yet to be discovered by the outside world. It's a remote area where Cambodian hill tribes live in isolation. Each Cambodian hill tribe has its own language, culture and traditions. Although their traditional dress isn't as colourful as that of the mountain tribes in Thailand or Vietnam, their culture is just as interesting and perhaps even more rustic and authentic. During your Cambodia trip from Phnom Penh to southern Laos, add this module to your itinerary as a detour; it's a worthwhile addition for those with a little more time to spend here and who are looking for less well known areas in Cambodia. From Stung Treng in northern Cambodia you'll travel by car to Banlung, where refreshing waterfalls and the Tampuan Cambodian hill tribes will be visited.

Kratie

The river is home to Irrawaddy dolphins, fish, and birds. The province is mostly covered in dense forest. Kratié is known for its attractive riverside scenery and its green villages and paddies.

Ratanakiri

Ratanakiri has been occupied by the highland Khmer Loeu people, who are a minority elsewhere in Cambodia. Ratanakiri Province was created in 1959 from land that had been the eastern area of Stung Treng Province. Larger-scale agriculture occurs on rubber, coffee, and cashew plantations. Khmer Loeu typically practice subsistence slash and burn shifting cultivation in small villages of between 20 and 60 nuclear families.

Mondulkiri

80 percent of the Mondulkiri's population is made up of ten tribal minorities, with the majority of them being Phnong. The remaining 20 percent are Khmer, Chinese and Muslim Cham. The population lives off the land, planting rice, fruit trees and a variety of vegetables. Others grow strawberries, coffee, rubber and cashew nuts. 80 percent of the Mondulkiri's population is made up of ten tribal minorities, with the majority of them being Phnong. The remaining 20 percent are Khmer, Chinese and Muslim Cham. The population lives off the land, planting rice, fruit trees and a variety of vegetables. Others grow strawberries, coffee, rubber and cashew nuts.

Many majestic waterfalls are found in Mondulkiri.

Bou Sra Waterfall: Located at Pich Chinda District, 43 kilometers from Senmonorom town, Bou Sra is the largest waterfall, made famous by a popular Khmer song in Mondulkiri and has two stages.

Senmonorom Waterfall: 5 km from town and an easy walk, is not much to look at and used to be a nice picnic spot until the Japanese built a hydro electric power station there and stole all the water.

Romnea Waterfall: 10 kilometers from Senmonorom, is actually 1 of 3 large waterfalls that has now been deforested and privatised by a Guesthouse.

Stung Treng
Stung Treng is located on a high sandy bank overlooking the Mekong River, where it is joined by the Se Kong river. It is about 400 km from Phnom Penh and 40 km south of the Laos border.

Angkor_Woder of the World

Angkor Wat (Wat temple) is the central feature of the Angkor UNESCO World Heritage Site containing the magnificent remains of the Khmer civilization. Angkor Wat's rising series of five towers culminates in an impressive central tower that symbolizes mythical Mount Meru. Thousands of feet of wall space are covered with intricate carving depicting scenes from Hindu mythology.

Angkor Wat is visually, architecturally and artistically breathtaking. It is a massive three-tiered pyramid crowned by five lotus-like towers rising 65 meters from ground level. Angkor Wat is the centerpiece of any visit to the temples of Angkor. Apsaras are beautiful, supernatural women. They are youthful and elegant, and proficient in the art of dancing. They are the wives of the Gandharvas, the court servants of Indra. They dance to the music made by their husbands, usually in the palaces of the gods, and entertain gods and fallen heroes. As caretakers of fallen heroes, they may be compared to the valkyries of Norse mythology.
Angkor Wat is surrounded by a moat and an exterior wall measuring 1300 meters x 1500 meters. The temple itself is 1 km square and consists of three levels surmounted by a central tower. The walls of the temple are covered inside and out with bas-reliefs and carvings. Nearly 2000 distinctively rendered apsara carvings adorn the walls throughout the temple and represent some of the finest examples of apsara carvings in Angkorian era art. But it is the exterior walls of the lower level that display the most extraordinary bas-reliefs, depicting stories and characters from Hindu mythology and the historical wars of Suryavarman II. It is in the viewing of the bas-reliefs that a tour guide can be very helpful.

Kampong Som: Wonderful Beach

The Kampong Som Group of Islands is a group of islands of Cambodia, located in the Gulf of Thailand. Kampong Som, is a province in southern Cambodia on the Gulf of Thailand. This port city is a growing Cambodian urban center, located 185 kilometres (115 mi) southwest of the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh. The province is named after King Father Norodom Sihanouk and grew up around the construction of Sihanoukville Port. Sihanoukville attracts tourists with its laidback beach atmosphere when compared to Thailand's more developed ones. However, the city has attracted not only tourists, but several NGOs and foreign and national investors in the last years in order to develop not only the growing tourist industry, but its capacity as an international sea port and other sectors like textile and real estate.

Beaches

• Occheuteal Beach and Serendipity Beach: Occheuteal Beach is a long and narrow strip of beach lined with Casuarina trees, grass umbrellas, rental chairs and little drink huts. Many huts were bulldozed by the government to make way for a supposed new resort. This has raised concerns with human rights organizations. The northern section has become known as Serendipity Beach and is a popular beach with western tourists, noted for small guesthouse rooms right on the beach. Aside from these guest houses on the beach there are around 30 beach huts serving good value meals and a wide selection of drinks. Most popular huts along this stretch of beach are the Shore bar which hold regular beach parties. The sustainability of the Occheuteal beach was a primary consideration of various stakeholders, which brought about the development of a tourism development and management plan in 2005.^[13]

• Otres Beach: Beyond a small headland at the south end of Ochheuteal is the similar Otres Beach.

• Sokha Beach: Sokha Beach is located just west of Serendipity Beach. This beach is privately owned by Sokha Beach Hotel, the first five-star luxury beach hotel in Cambodia. It provides many facilities with a wide white sandy beach, but hotel guards may prevent visitors who are not guests from going on to the beach.

• Independence Beach: Independence Beach is located next to Sokha Beach on its west. The beach was named after the old Independence Hotel. This beach offers a good stretch of clean sand. Situated at the northern end of the beach is Independence Hotel and Koh Pos Beach with a tiny island only 800m off the coast. Koh Pos is known for its rock strewn shoreline.

• Victory Beach: Victory beach is situated at the furthest north of the peninsula of Sihanoukville. It was the original backpacker beach and is still popular with budget travelers. At the northern end of the beach is located the deep sea port. Apart from white sand and blue sea, this beach offers a good spot to enjoy the sunset.