Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Virachey National Park
Daily • $5/day • Treks into the park must be arranged through the Virachey National Park Eco-tourism O
ce
in Banlung (see box, p.231),
apart from one tour offered by DutchCo (see p.231)
Spreading north of Voen Sai, the
Virachey National Park
covers more than three
thousand square kilometres of remote, mountainous countryside running north to the
Laos border and east to Vietnam, comprising a mix of landscapes from dense jungle
lowlands through to montane forests and rolling upland savannahs. It's also the largest
“protected” area in Cambodia, although exactly what kind of protection it's currently
receiving is a moot point - local reports suggest that as much as sixty percent of the
park has already been earmarked for future logging.
Virachey's outstandingly rich
wildlife
is yet to be fully explored or understood. The
world's largest population of rare northern yellow-cheeked
gibbons
in the
Veun
Sai-Siem Pang Conservation Area
adjoining the park weren't discovered until as recently
as 2010, while a couple of other entirely new species - the iridescent short-legged lizard
and Walston's tube-nosed bat - have also recently been unearthed for the first time.
Other forest inhabitants include elephants, pig-tailed macaques, douc langurs, sun
bears, the rare giant ibis and clouded leopards. Rumours of tigers and Javan rhinos
living deep inside the forest also occasionally surface, although the alleged sightings
may contain rather more fiction than fact.
Visiting the park
(see p.231), the most challenging and rewarding expedition is the
week-long trek to the remote grassland wilderness of
Phnom Veal Thom
, with
spectacular views over the mountainous hinterlands bordering Laos and Vietnam.
Shorter treks include the overnight trek to Yark Koung Kreav mountain and the
three-night trek to Yark Kea waterfall.
4
Lumphat
There's not much left of
LUMPHAT
, 35km south of Banlung. Capital of Rattanakiri
until 1975, when the Khmer Rouge moved it to Voen Sai, the town sustained heavy
bombing during the 1970s and still has a faintly postapocalyptic air, with a few ruined
shells of concrete buildings all that survives of its days as provincial capital, along with
patches of cratered wasteland caused by American B-52 bombing runs. There are no
land mines here, but
unexploded ordnance
may still be a risk.
Lumphat is also the jumping-off point for trips into the
Lumphat Wildlife
Sanctuary
. Some tour operators in Banlung (see box, p.231) offer treks into the
sanctuary, although as at Virachey National Park rampant logging is taking a steady
toll on the natural environment - a process which is likely to proceed with even
more unseemly haste once the new road through to Sen Monorom (see box, p.230)
is finally completed.
Mondulkiri province
The country's largest but most sparsely populated province, mountainous
Mondulkiri
sees fewer travellers in a year than Rattanakiri does in a month, although improved
access is gradually bringing Cambodia's “Wild East” into the tourist mainstream. As in
neighbouring Rattanakiri, Mondulkiri's once wild landscape has suffered greatly from
indiscriminate logging and other forms of development, including the creation of
Chinese and Australian gold mines, although areas of impenetrable jungle survive,
home to rare and endangered wildlife including elephants, Asian dogs and green
peafowl. The compact provincial capital,
Sen Monorom
, makes a good base for local
treks and visits to surrounding attractions, including the mighty
Bou Sraa
waterfall and
the innovative
Elephant Valley Project
.
