Unique Places in Cambodia

The red khmers might have lost the power in Cambodia more than 30 years ago, but they still have one lilttle town in western Cambodia where they stand Strong and that is thee town called Pailin.
Pol Pot lived near here until he died, little over a decade and ago and "Brother number 3" Leng Sary lived here right up until 2007 when he was arrested and you still have large numbers of their supporters living in town.

These days it´s little but a quite backwater town though, but i must say that i enjoyed visitieng the place just to feel the history of Cambodia now that i have been to all the main memorials for the Pol Pot regime.

Pailin can serve as a way in or out of Cambodia too as it´s a border town even if it´s a border crossing that very few people use.
I crossed the border there from Cambodia to Thailand and it was very fast and straight forward and recommended if you have your own trabsport (Iwas travelling by bicycle).
Be aware though that public transport on the Thai side of the border is very limited.

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HI ok this has got to be the most out of the way isolated places we have been fortunate enough t have visited. We were told about this by a couple of hardend back packers while staying in KEP way down in the south of cambodia.
So on a spur of the moment decsion we decided to go.
So it was back to phnom phen for a couple of days then the local bus (if you can call it a bus :-)) )to a place caled KRATIE half way to ratanakiri province.
Three Breakdowns one change of gearbox and ten hours later we finally arrived in ban lung/ or bong long as it says on the map :-)
It was 2am in the morning when we arrived the town was somthing out of the wild west. Total darkens luck was on ourside tho as a pick up truck was waiting to take us to our digs :-)) and eco lodge in the forrest /rain

Koh Ker is 2.5 to 3 hours by road, and the road is (as stated above) good, so wet season shouldn't be a problem. There is a LOT to see there, however - and you can get lunch locally, so I'd suggest leaving early (may have to pay driver/guide more!). Stopping at Beng Mealea on the way back is fine, but you're right - no way to visit Roluos as well. If you want to get photos, then consider staying overnight - it will be like having the Angkor Park to yourself!

I'd recommend either About Asia (www.aboutasiatravel.com) or Peace of Angkor (www.peaceofangkor.com) - both small specialist tour companies that do that sort of thing.

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The ancient Khmer Dharmasala Route or Royal Road runs from Preah Khan in the Angkor Temple Complex to Phimai in Thailand. It was built during the 12th and 13th centuries by the Mahayana Buddhist emperor Jayavarman VII and includes 17 dharmasalas (rest stops) along the way. I had been to several of these dharmasalas on the Thai side and wanted to visit some on the Cambodian side in March 2010. From Asger Mollerup's article, I chose Rest Stop #6, Prohm Kel and Spean Top, as one possibility for a day trip out of Seam Reap. Spean Top is a huge bridge with 34 arches and runs about 7 meters above the old Ochee River. Prohm Kel is the associated rest stop about 200-300 meters to the northwest in a nearby field. There are pictures here and in a travelogue below.

In March 2010, Prohm Kel was a remote, totally undeveloped site that I only found with some difficulty (and a lot of luck). It is located ~40 km north of Kralanh, on the old NH68 highway. See the travelogue below about the road to Prohm Kel and how to find it. When the new (wide) NH68 road is finished, Prohm Kel will be an easy half day trip out of Siem Reap and a highly visited site. I recommend trying to make it there before then and see the unrestored site. A local school teacher, Muy Prol (012-597862 or 097-6425380), happened to pass by on his motorcycle when I was walking around looking for the site. He speaks good English and offered to take me there (I was within one kilometer). He said that I was the second person that he had taken there.

Why I'm sad?...because for some reason you'll always see the best for last and then you're craving to go there again. Damn! It's the bar that I've missed there. You see if you have a local guide, be prepared to think at their level. Make sure you get the guide who are versatile otherwise you'll only visited places which are within his radius only. Try to think outside the box when you're at places like Phnom Penh and do a lot of internet research before you go there.

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I just come back from a wondefull experience through Cambodia lifestyle. We had booked a 12 days trip with A La Carte Cambodia that we had tailored to our need: discover Cambodia's life. Indeed, we had a lot more than expected. My favorite destinations were the trek that we had in the Jungle of Mondolkiri by elephants with the minorities and a boat trip from Kompong Thom to Pursat. We had met very few tourists during our 12 days trip but we have met many local cambodian persons, the hospitality is wonderfull here ! You can contact directly Bunna who had prepared our tour and follow up with an extrem professionalism and friendlyness.

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Ratanakiri is located in north east Cambodia and is home to some of the few minority tribes in Cambodia.
There were previously lot's of minorities in Cambodia, but they were either driven away or killed during the khmer rouge years.
Ratanakiri used to be an unsafe place, but it's fine now and have recently opened up to tourism.
You can visit the minority villages in the region and there is also some good jungle trekking there.
The town of Ratanakiri is not that pretty, but it's a bustling place with some charm to it and i quite enjoyed my time there.

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Our hotel in Siem Reap (Indochine Pavillion) arranged for us a trip to the lake. Tonle Sap is the largest lake in Asia: 2500 square km in dry season, swelling to 12,500 square km in the rainy season - up to 7% of the entire surface of Cambodia! The trip by motor boat was rather long, but the adventure began once we transferred into a wooden canoe, propelled by a local who (it seemed to me) was perched in a rather dangerous position on its bow. We entered a sunken mangrove forest, and the feeling was that he was rowing among the crowns of the trees. The silence was eerie, broken only by the swishing sound of the paddle and the occasional chirping of a bird. It was early December, so the water was still high, but we were told that at the end of the winter, the ground gets dry and one can drive a car through the mangrove forest.
A unique experience - I wouldn't have missed for the world!