Wild Cambodia: 12 days in the Cardamoms, Mondulkiri and the north
Cambodia has the largest surviving rainforest in mainland Southeast Asia, an eastern highland plateau where the Bunong still farm, and a temple on a cliff edge that almost nobody who visits Angkor ever sees. This route goes to all three, and it costs you comfort to do it.
- Duration
- 12 days
- Pace
- Active
- Hotel changes
- 7
- Best months
- Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb
- From
- $1,920 per person
Twelve days, seven hotel changes, long drives on rough road, and accommodation that ranges from a good hotel in Siem Reap to a tent with a bucket shower. It is the most physically demanding Cambodia itinerary we build and it is our own favourite.
Who it suits: travellers who have been to Asia before, are comfortable with six-hour drives on poor surfaces, and would trade a marble bathroom for a night in the forest. Walking is up to five hours a day on some days, on flat to rolling ground, in heat. No technical difficulty.
Your specialist: Paz Prosianoy, with our Hanoi office arranging the community lodges and the park access.
Day by day
Day 1: Arrive Siem Reap. Transfer, an hour from the airport, and nothing else.
Day 2: Angkor, one strong day. The Bayon and Angkor Thom at opening, Ta Prohm, and Angkor Wat in the late afternoon. One day only, deliberately, because the temples on this trip are the ones almost nobody goes to and they come later.
Day 3: Koh Ker and Beng Mealea. North-east on improving road. Beng Mealea first, uncleared and collapsing into the forest, then Koh Ker, briefly the Khmer capital in the tenth century, with a seven-tiered sandstone pyramid you can climb. Overnight in a simple guesthouse at Sra Em, which is functional and no more.
Day 4: Preah Vihear. Up the escarpment by four-wheel drive to the temple on the cliff edge, 1,700 feet (525 m) above the plain, laid out along a north to south axis over half a mile of stone. On a clear morning you see into Thailand. This temple sits on a contested border and access depends on the situation at the time, so we confirm it is open and sensible before your trip and we hold an alternative day. Afternoon drive to Kampong Thom, roughly five hours, with a stop at Sambor Prei Kuk, the pre-Angkorian brick towers in the forest that predate Angkor Wat by five centuries.
Day 5: Kampong Thom to Kratie. Five hours east to the Mekong. Late afternoon boat at Kampi to look for Irrawaddy dolphins. Be realistic: the population in this stretch of river is very small, sightings are usually a dorsal fin at distance, and the value of the hour is the river rather than the animals. Overnight in Kratie in a simple riverside guesthouse.
Day 6: Kratie to Mondulkiri. Four to five hours east and uphill onto the plateau, to Sen Monorom at about 2,600 feet (800 m), where the air is noticeably cooler and there are pine trees, which is not what anybody expects of Cambodia. Afternoon at the Bou Sra waterfall, a two-stage fall in forest.
Day 7: Elephants and Bunong forest. A full day at an elephant sanctuary where the animals are retired from logging and tourism and are observed and walked with rather than ridden or bathed on demand. We do not book riding camps anywhere in Asia. Afternoon walking in the forest with a Bunong guide, learning what the forest is used for by people who live in it.
Day 8: Mondulkiri to Phnom Penh. The long one. Seven to eight hours west, with a lunch stop. There is no way to shorten this that does not involve a flight that does not exist. Arrive early evening, hotel, dinner in the city.
Day 9: Phnom Penh. Tuol Sleng in the morning with the audio guide, then a quiet afternoon. On a trip that is otherwise about forests, this morning is what makes the rest of Cambodia legible.
Day 10: Phnom Penh to the Cardamoms. Five to six hours west and south into the Cardamom Mountains. Two nights in a tented camp or a community lodge on a river, depending on availability and water levels. Power is limited, hot water may be solar, the walls are canvas and the forest is loud at night.
Day 11: The Cardamoms. A full day: a river trek, or a boat up a flooded forest channel, or a walk with a former poacher now working as a ranger, which is the single best conversation available in Cambodian tourism. Night walk if you want it.
Day 12: Out to the coast or to Phnom Penh. Four hours to Sihanoukville port for a flight, or five and a half back to Phnom Penh. Or stay: this is where we most often add two nights on Koh Rong Sanloem.
What is included
Accommodation throughout, ranging from good hotels in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh to simple provincial guesthouses and a tented camp, all meals in the Cardamoms and Mondulkiri, a private four-wheel drive with driver for the whole route, an English-speaking guide from day 3 to day 12, a Bunong guide in Mondulkiri, park and community fees, the one-day Angkor pass, the Kampi and Cardamom boats, and a WhatsApp group with your consultant and our Hanoi office.
What we would change, and when
- Travelling outside the dry season? We will not run this route from June to October. The Mondulkiri and Cardamom roads become mud, some sections are impassable and the community lodges close. This is a November to February itinerary and we would rather move your dates than your expectations.
- Not interested in Angkor? Cut days 1 and 2 and start in Phnom Penh, running the route in reverse. Twelve days becomes ten.
- Want Ratanakiri as well? Add three days north from Mondulkiri to Banlung for the Yeak Laom crater lake and the waterfalls. It is a rough drive and it is worth it.
- Prefer real beds throughout? Then this is not your route. Boutique Cambodia goes to the Cardamoms in a tented camp with a proper bathroom and skips the east entirely.
Honest notes
Day 8 is eight hours in a vehicle. We have tried every alternative and there is not one. If that is unacceptable, we split it with a night at Kampong Cham on the Mekong, which adds a day and a mediocre hotel but halves the driving.
The dolphins are a real risk of disappointment. We include the boat because the Mekong at Kratie at dusk is worth an hour regardless, but if the only reason you are going is to see dolphins, we would tell you to spend the day elsewhere.
The accommodation in Sra Em, Kratie and the Cardamoms is basic. Clean, safe, sometimes air-conditioned and sometimes not, occasionally with intermittent power. We say this at the proposal stage, not on arrival.
Unexploded ordnance is still present in parts of the north near the Thai border. This is why the Preah Vihear day stays on marked paths and with a local guide, and it is not negotiable.
Built by Paz Prosianoy, our Southeast and Central Asia specialist, and checked by our Hanoi office before it goes out.
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