Eastern Cambodia Explorer

📍 Phnom Penh Airport to Phnom Penh (11 km): 30 mins

Wecome to Cambodia! Upon arrival at Phnom Penh International Airport, be welcomed by the local English-speaking guide and be transferred to the hotel.

Overnight in Phnom Penh

Inclusions:

📍 Phnom Penh - Snoul (230km) 4.5 hours Snoul - Sen Monorom (130km) 2.5 hours

This morning be picked up at the hotel by private air-conditioned vehicle for transfer to somewhere off the beaten tourist trail, Sen Monorom, Mondulkiri, a quiet and beautiful town nestled into the hills. 
After 4.5 hours into the long voyage. Lunch break on the way, lunch is on your own expense. Continue to Sen Monorom. Check in your hotel, and enjoy the rest of the day at leisure. 

Overnight in Sen Monorom

Inclusions:

☕ Breakfast

📍 Sen Monorom - Elephant Valley Project ~45 minutes

Get picked up from your hotel at 07:15am for transfer to the Elephant Valley Project, a sanctuary for elephants within a 1,500 hectare reserve where the elephants can roam and learn how to be semi wild elephants again. Spend the morning with one group of elephants and also give back by volunteering! You will hike out to meet one group of elephants in the morning in their natural forest habitat. Enjoy the buffet lunch in the base camp at midday and then join locals, staff and other volunteers on the many projects it takes to keep the sanctuary running for example reforestation, farming for elephant food and small building projects (note these activities are not with the elephants), you can take this time the afternoon to relax at the base camp and enjoy the beautiful scenery! Return to the hotel at 5:30pm.  

Note: As the elephants are located in valleys that are accessible by dirt trails and stairs, visitors with mobility issues may not be able to visit the elephants in their natural habitat and may be constrained to the elephant center and “elephant spa” during dry season months and may be unable to visit EVP during Green Season, when the path down to the center can be very slippery. Join-In tour is limited to 12 guests and only available Sunday-Fri.

Overnight in Sen Monorom

Inclusions:

☕ Breakfast, 🥘 Lunch

📍 Sen Monorom - Bousra Falls (35km) 45 minutes

Depart from the hotel at 8am for the approximately forty five minutes drive from Sen Monorom town to the natural highlight of the region: Bousra Waterfall, a particularly scenic two-tier waterfall and the largest in Cambodia. Cascading some 10m on the first tier and 25m on the second, the waterfall is a popular spot for local tourists, especially on weekends and public holidays.

Snap some memorable souvenir photos. Lunch can be enjoyed beside a picturesque reservoir if it hasn’t been taken at the falls.

On the way back, we can stop along the way at the various plantations of the local people. What was once a vast landscape of rugged nature has since become a place where many have started cultivating crops due to the cooler temperatures and fertile ground. 

Among others you might see pepper, cassava, rubber or even tea where your guide can stop briefly and explain the intricacies involved. Visit the Coffee Plantation that allows visitors to walk through the groves of coffee plants. 

Finally, depending on the time of the day and energy levels, take a drive up to stop at an overlook of the wide area that is visible from the breezy viewpoint and before head back to the hotel, continue up to Dohkrormom Mountain to enjoy the sunset and a great view of the rapidly growing provincial capital. 

Overnight in Sen Monorom

Inclusions:

☕ Breakfast, 🥘 Lunch

📍 Sen Monorom - Banlung (185km) 3 hours

07:30am Depart early from Sen Monorom for the drive to Banlung. The 196 km route was once known as “the death highway” both because it was heavily bombed by American B52s during the Vietnam War and because it was once a multi-day slog of potholes and treacherous river crossings. The recently built road now only takes around three hours. 

Upon arrival in Banlung, stop briefly at Eisan Reclining Buddha Pagoda, which offers panoramic views of the rapidly-growing provincial capital. (Alternatively this can be done at sunset including Phnom Svay, a popular place for locals). 

Then continue to a local villager house and have lunch there, the Tampuon family. The Tampuon are one of numerous tribal communities that populate Rattanakiri province. Enjoy local Tampuon food with the former village chief and his wife to discuss their lifestyle. After lunch, visit their neighbor’s home and try a hand at weaving local textiles. Next, visit another village where a local resident will show how rice wine is produced.

After learning about making wine, head over to Banlung’s star attraction: Yeak Laom. This almost perfectly circular lake in the middle of the forest was created by a volcanic eruption around 700,000 years ago. Take a walk around the lake, stopping at wooden decks along the waterfront to swim and relax with local visitors. The 2.5km trip around the lake takes 35 minutes with stops to swim, if desired. Otherwise, enjoy the fresh, clear waters of the lake on a deck or in a hammock and enjoy the atmosphere before check-in the hotel. 

Overnight in Banlung

Inclusions:

☕ Breakfast, 🥘 Lunch

Departing your hotel at 8:00am, today explore the rural tribal communities that live in the Ratanakiri countryside. 

First stop at the Banlung market, soak up the lively atmosphere of the market and learn more about the different types of fruit, vegetables and other surprising culinary ingredients.

Continue to a Kreung village, one of Ratanakiri’s diverse tribal communities, for a walk around their village. Now located just beside the road, this tribe had long been isolated from the rest of Cambodia before new infrastructure was developed in recent years. Notice the tobacco pipes that most of the women in the village enjoy and stop to chat with locals if you are curious about their lives. 

Back in town for lunch (own arrangement). 

In the afternoon, continue to visit another tribal community that is known for its “bamboo shower” and continue to the locals mining for the gems after which Ratanakiri province is named (“Ratanakiri” translates as “Mountain of precious stones“). Unlike modern mining methods that devastate the land, traditional mining consists of digging a small hole, down which a miner descends, sending buckets of earth up to sift through for stones.

Return at your hotel 

Overnight in Banlung 

Inclusions:

☕ Breakfast

📍 Banlung – Sambour District (234km): 3hrs 45 mins Sambour Dirtrict - Kampi (20km): 30 mins Kampi - Kratie (17km): 30 minutes

From Banlung to Kratie, stop to visit Wat Sorsor Mouy Roy in the village of Sambo. The vihara (temple sanctuary) of the so-called ‘100 Pillars Pagoda’ is an important historical and cultural building and quite famous for its legend involving a princess and a crocodile. 

Housed in the grounds of the 100 Pillar Pagoda and partnered with the Buddhist monks that reside there, is a small Turtle Conservation Center. Their goal is to conserve one of the world’s rarest and largest freshwater turtles, the Cantor’s softshell turtle, through a community-led nest protection scheme. The largest-known wild population survives in the Mekong River but it is endangered here and is almost extinct in Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. 

Depending on the season, stop for lunch at Kampi.  

After lunch, get on board a local boat and be taken to the preferred feeding grounds of these fascinating creatures, Irrawaddy Dolphins. As soon as the first dolphin is spotted, the boat driver will turn the engine off to follow the dolphins silently (duration 1 to 1.5 hours).

Then we will head to Kratie town and embark our private ferry to Koh Trong Island. Pick up by your personal Tuk Tuk’s Driver to your hotel on the island. Enjoy your free time and hotel facilities before exploring the island the next day. 

Inclusions:

☕ Breakfast, 🥘 Lunch

This morning, enjoy a ride around Koh Trong, only a 10 minute boat ride across the Mekong River from Kratie. This island displays typical Cambodian village life, where people’s livelihood largely depends on rice farming and fruit cultivation (Koh Trong is famous for its pomelo, a fruit similar to grapefruit). Choose to take a local horse cart or pedal around the island on a bicycle. The first stop is the island’s wat, where a special activity awaits - a tree planting project initiated by a local farmer, in order to recultivate the once densely forested island. Contribute to the project by planting a tree here that will not only carry your name tag, it will leave a positive impact on the island.

Lunch will be served by local villagers on the island, enjoying the authentic island dish.

Then relax yourself on Koh Trong after lunch, and enjoy the hotel facilities.

Overnight in Kratie 

Inclusions:

☕ Breakfast, 🥘 Lunch

📍 Kratie - Chhlong (35km): 1 hour Chhlong – Hanchey (62km): 1.5 hours Hanchey – Kampong Cham (20km): 30 minutes Kampong Cham - Phnom Penh (125km): 2.5 hours 4.5 hours

Breakfast at the hotel, followed by departure back towards Phnom Penh at 8:00am. While leaving Kratie town, stop briefly at Wat Rokakandal, a beautiful temple from the early 19th century with some unique wall paintings located on the banks of the Mekong. 

Next stop along the way is the charming riverside town of Chhlong (transfer time ca. 45 minutes), a tiny village on the Mekong River with many French colonial houses that are amongst the most beautiful in Cambodia. Stroll around town briefly if desired, including a visit to the bustling morning market. 

Continuing along the old river-front road through charming pastoral countryside, cross the Mekong River by a new bridge built in 2021 at the next destination: Wat Hanchey. This charming pagoda occupies a hilltop overlooking the Mekong River. Next to a large, modern pagoda stands a tall brick stupa from the pre-Angkorian era and houses a shrine featuring the head of a statue in the likeness of 12th-13th century king Jayavarman VII. This is likely part of a Jayabudhamahanatha, 108 of which the king sent out to the far-flung provinces of his empire.

Lunch in the provincial capital of Kampong Cham, which lies along the Mekong River and features a riverside lighthouse, built during the French Colonial era.  

If travelling between December through May, there is a chance to take a brief detour to visit Kampong Cham’s iconic bamboo bridge. Traditionally constructed each year to allow access to the island of Koh Pen in the Mekong River southeast of Kampong Cham, the bridge is later destroyed by the river as the water’s rise each rainy season. Although a new, permanent bridge has recently been constructed to the south, the locals continue to build the bamboo bridge as it draws both local and international tourists to the riverbank. 

Around 15 minutes into the voyage, stop to visit Nokor Bachey temple in Kampong Cham. Wat Nokor is both charming and interesting, featuring beautiful wall paintings adorning a modern Buddhist pagoda built inside the grounds of an Angkor-era temple, the only temple of such design in Cambodia. 

Finally, on the way back to Phnom Penh, stop briefly at Skun, a village famous for its curious roadside snacks including grilled frogs, scorpions, and tarantulas! Taste some of the creepy crawlers if feeling adventurous and bold! It’s possible to play with the giant spiders who have been defanged prior to arrival at the market.

Upon arrival in Phnom Penh, check-in the hotel. 

Overnight in Phnom Penh
 

Inclusions:

☕ Breakfast, 🥘 Lunch

Breakfast at hotel.

Be picked up at the hotel and transferred to the airport for the departure flight. 

Inclusions:

☕ Breakfast