More on Mondulkiri

Janaya has written about our recent elephant trekking, but let me tell you a little more about our recent trip to an eastern province of Cambodia. Mondulkiri is definitely off the beaten track in Cambodia, but we want to see more than just Ankgor Wat and the beach. We were, however, the rare tourist family in the wild east of Cambodia.

It took seven hours to reach our destination. For this trip, we decided to rent a car and a driver. Four of us were in the back seat of the Toyota Camry, Ron in the front. One of our national staff was sure to tell us that 7 Cambodians would fit in this car along with the driver, so we had it easy. The last 40 kilometers were entirely mountainous, and through road construction. A huge project is underway and for the most part, only one lane was open. Five bridges were being built, so each time we were taken on a detour down the side of the mountain / hill, and back up again. The mountains are similar to the Appalachians, not the Rocky’s. In fact, everyone commented on how much it looked like home. Only one flat tire, when our driver crossed a threshold between tar and gravel too quickly. He had a nice spare in his trunk, but we didn’t understand why he stopped nearly in the middle of the road to change it!

We stayed at an eco-tourism lodge on top of a hill, outside of the town of Sen Monorom. It was quiet and peaceful. The kids could get some personal space wandering around the grounds and our cabin. There were cats, horses and a dog for Acacia. The lodge’s restaurant resembled a tree house, built right in the midst of the trees and with lots of plants. Being so far out of town, they pretty much had a corner on the meals for all of their guests. But they had a large menu – western and Khmer, and never were out of a food we ordered. Austin claimed that he was still required to sleep under a mosquito net on this “vacation,” he was only eating western food. The days still were warm, though cooler than here. But it was so nice to sleep under a comforter as it got nice and cool at night.

Although I thought my Khmer was pretty good, I had a terrible time communicating with our driver. We expected that he would go into town and find a cheap guesthouse and Khmer street food. But he stayed with us the whole time, even sleeping in the hammock on our porch. Felt like we had a guard. And he ate very little over the weekend.

Day one was our elephant trek to a nearby waterfall. On the second day we drove out to a plantation we had seen and walked around, seeing all sorts of tropical food growing. We continued on, on a road I would read later to be one of the worst in Cambodia. I think we got our money’s worth out of this car and driver! Very rough and full of big rocks, but alas, when we reached the waterfall, a national ecotourism site, it was beautiful. We saw a few Korean tourists there, but no westerners. Many Cambodians were there, but it was not too crowded. We certainly felt the beauty and the chance to cool off under the spray were well worth the drive. We hoped our driver did as well. He had never been there before. Our Khmer was good enough to bargain for and buy some locally grown pepper, and coffee. Later that day we drove to another waterfall, close to town, where the kids were hoping to swim. We watched some boys jump from the top into the pool, but alas, there was so much trash in that water, that we didn’t let the kids swim.

Mondulkiri – great choice for a long weekend in Cambodia.