Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
U Hong II Guesthouse
Riverfront
T
085 885168.
Above the popular travellers' café (see below), this place
has neat, clean fan rooms at competitive rates and is a good
place to sort out travel and tours. Nicer (and quieter) -
albeit slight
ly
more expensive - than the original
U Hong
(see p.221).
$7
introduction to rural Cambodian life, with accommodation
in attractive wooden villas, built in traditional Khmer style
and scattered around sp
acio
us grounds, plus a superb pool,
all at competitive rates.
$50
Relais de Chhlong
Chhlong, around 20km southwest
of Kratie.
A very unexpected find along this largely
untouristed stretch of the Mekong, set in a gorgeous old
1930s colonial house with an attractive pool and fine food.
Closed for lengthy renovations at the time of writing,
although very much worth a look when it eventually
reopens - hopefully by the time you read this.
AROUND KRATIE
Rajabori Villas
Koh Trong
T
012 770150,
W
rajabori
-kratie.com.
Located on Koh Trong island (see p.217), this
stylish little boutique resort offers a very civilized
EATING AND DRINKING
KRATIE
Heng Heng
Heng Heng Guesthouse, Riverfront
T
088
836 4758.
A local alternative to the town's tourist cafés,
this large hotel restaurant serves up unexpectedly good,
mainly Chinese-style Asian food - much better than the
prosaic menu descriptions (“Fried instant noodles with
mixed vegetables”, for example) would suggest. Mains
$2.50-4.
Daily 7am-9pm.
★
beer, too, and attentive service.
Daily 7am-9pm.
Tokae
Street 10
T
097 297 2118.
Attractive little
restaurant, romantically candlelit after dark, serving good
breakfasts and an above-average range of Asian dishes at
below-average prices (most mains $2-2.50), including a
better than usual vegetarian selection. Free wi-fi.
Daily
6.30am-10pm.
U Hong II Guesthouse Café
Riverfront
T
085 885168.
Bright and spacious guesthouse café dishing up
inexpensive Khmer and Western travellers' staples, with
beer in freshly iced glasses and a decent soundtrack -
although service can be a bit erratic and it pays to check
your change.
Daily 6am-10pm.
Red Sun Falling
Riverfront
T
011 465606.
This cosy
café is a great place to either start or end your day, with the
best selection of Western breakfasts in town (carb-up with
the “Super Full Monty”, $6), good, very inexpensive Asian
mains ($2-2.50) plus a few comforting Western favourites
including chicken and chips, good salads and shakes. Cheap
4
DIRECTORY
Books
There's a decent range of secondhand books for sale
in Kratie at the
Red Sun Falling
café (see above), and a book
exchange (two for one) in the
U Hong II Guesthouse
café
(see above).
Internet access
Virtually all Kratie's hotels and
restaurants have free wi-fi. The
U Hong II Guesthouse
restaurant also has a handful of rather aged terminals
(4000 riel/hr).
Money
There are ATMs at the Canadia (Visa and
MasterCard) and Acleda (Visa only) banks in Kratie.
Stung Treng
Situated on the Sekong River 140km north of Kratie (and a similar distance west of
Banlung), the tranquil little town of
STUNG TRENG
is a bit of a backwater. For most
visitors the town is simply a staging-post en route to Laos, although the construction of
a huge new Mekong bridge nearby, connecting with a new road to Tbeang Meanchey
and then on to Siem Reap, may help revitalize the town's fortunes, opening up new
routes between central Cambodia and the northeast, and establishing Stung Treng as an
alternative gateway to the region.
There are various attractions in the countryside surrounding Stung Treng, too, many
of them covered by the
Mekong Discovery Trail
(see box, p.218). It is also the jumping-
off point for the splendid
river trip
along the Mekong to the Laos border, with glimpses
of rare Irrawaddy dolphins and thundering waterfalls en route.
The riverfront
A statue of a
pasay
fish can be found in the patch of gardens on the
riverfront
,
celebrating a prized delicacy which is caught locally in June and July near Stung Treng;
