Crater Time in the Wild East

Crater Time in the Wild East
Experience an award-winning ecoretreat in the mountainous province of Ratanakiri, Cambodia's ‘Wild East’.
The experience: Yaklom Hill Lodge is the leading ecolodge in Cambodia and has been recognised by several tourism organisations such as Green Globe Awards and Responsible Tourism. This peaceful lodge is set in a lush tract of jungle near the beautiful volcanic crater lake of Yeak Loam. This rich habitat includes more than 60 species of birds and several types of small mammal. Accommodation is in attractive wooden cottages
and includes singles, doubles, triples and a family cottage. There is also a traditional hilltribe house which can sleep up to eight people. All have a private bathroom and electricity by night to power a fan and some lights. The lodge is currently looking at ways to improve solar power and eliminate the need for a generator. The lodge also includes an evocative restaurant and bar.

There are several viewing platforms dotted about the site, offering lush jungle views for sunrise or sunset. There are also nature trails, affording the possibility of bird and wildlife sightings. The lodge also has an extensive trekking programme around Ratanakiri and can organise day walks, overnight treks to tribal villages and longer treks into Virachey National Park. Yaklom Hill Lodge is the ideal place to get away from it all and experience another side of Cambodia, among minority peoples in their mountain home.

How it helps: Yaklom Hill Lodge promotes ecotourism, culturally sensitive tourism and community tourism. The lodge tries to conserve local environment and ecology by protecting vegetation in the lodge area and the habitats of wild animals. It promotes sustainable cultural tourism with the participation of local villagers and
it contributes to local communities in support of community development. The lodge pays serious attention to conserving the natural environment and resources, and minimizing its impact on nature. This includes saving water, minimizing the use of conventional energy and promoting the use of renewable energy such as solar power. The lodge also promotes inter-cultural exchange between visitors and indigenous villagers through
its trekking and village home stay programmes. The lodge supports communities with overnight fees for the host families or direct contribution to the host villages through their community development activities. All staff at Yaklom Hill Lodge are locally recruited. The multi-ethnic staff includes the Tompuon, Kreung, Khmer and Lao ethnic groups.

Woven with Respect
From the red earth of Preah Vihear, a community of determined landmine survivors is creating a sustainable income through traditional weaving.
The experience: Weaves of Cambodia is a village-based silk weaving studio located in the remote province of Preah Vihear in the far north of Cambodia. It was established in 1997 to offer employment opportunities for landmine survivors. The studio is directed by American textile designer Carol Cassidy, who also runs a renowned silk weaving outlet in Vientiane.

Visitors are welcome to explore the studio in Tbeng Meanchey in Preah Vihear province. Tours are available and staff are happy to explain every step of the production process. This part of Cambodia sees fewer tourists than most, so the team are always happy to meet new visitors and demonstrate their skills. There is a small showroom at the studio where visitors can purchase unique handmade silk accessories such
as scarves and shawls. Continuous training in colour theory, textile design, marketing and management has contributed to a reputation of excellence throughout Cambodia.

Weaves of Cambodia offers handwoven silk with a commitment to quality, craftsmanship and creativity. The world-class textiles are sold in design shops throughout Asia, Europe and the United States.
How it helps: Working closely with Village Focus International, Weaves of Cambodia is a community-
based enterprise employing landmine survivors and disabled people. Preah Vihear has one of the
highest levels of landmine victims in the country and this project tries to focus on vulnerable women and their families.
Weaves of Cambodia strives to uphold Fair Trade values. It provides a rare employment opportunity for physically challenged artisans to earn a significant income that supports the entire family. The remote Studio enables the weavers of Tbeng Meanchey to stay in their rural homes, be gainfully employed, have professional integrity and contribute to the economy.
Weaves of Cambodia is Khmer managed and employs more than 40 rural artisans. Weaves is making strides toward self-sufficiency and hopes to remain a viable model for weaving success in Cambodia. Village Focus assists with management, marketing, development and accounting. Weaves' silk is helping Cambodia weave a brighter future.

Phnom Penh visit

PHNOM PENH

Phnom Penh: the name can not help but conjure up an image of the exotic. This is the Asia that many dreamt of when first planning their adventures overseas. Phnom Penh is a crossroads of Asia’, past and present, a city of extremes of poverty and excess, of charm and chaos, but one that never fails to captivate.

Once the ‘pearl of Asia’, Phnom Penh’s shine was tarnished by the impact of war and revolution. But that’s history and Phnom Penh has risen from the ashes to take its place among the ‘in’ capitals of Asia.

Delve into the ancient past at the National Museum or struggle to make sense of the recent trauma at Tuol Sleng Museum. Browse the city’s markets for a bargain or linger in the beautiful boutiques that are putting Phnom Penh on the style map. Street-surf through the local stalls for a snack or enjoy the refined surrounds of a designer restaurant. Whatever your flavor, no matter your taste, it’s all here in Phnom Penh

The riverfront Sisowath Quay, lined with myriad restaurants and a brand-new promenade, is where most visitors gravitate. The city sprawls west from there. The main thoroughfares, Sihanouk Blvd and Norodom Blvd, intersect a few blocks east of the river at lotus-flower-like Independence Monument, a useful landmark and the point from which distances to the provinces are measured.

PHNOM PENH Sights

Royal Palace & Silver Pagoda

The Royal Palace dominates the diminutive skyline of the riverfront where the Tonlé Sap and Mekong meet, with its classic Khmer roofs and ornate gilding. It a striking structure, bearing a remarkable likeness to its counterpart in Bangkok. Hidden away behind protective walls and beneath shadows of striking ceremonial building, it’s an oasis of calm with lush gardens and leafy havens.

The Silver Pagoda is so named because it is constructed with 5000 silver tiles weighing 1kg each. It is also known as Wat Preah Keo (Pagoda of the Emerald Buddha) thanks to a 17^th-century Buddha statue made of Baccarat crystal. Check out the life-sized gold Buddha, weighing in at 90kg, and decorated with 9584 diamonds.

Upper arms must be covered and shorts must reach the knee while visiting the palace.

National Museum

The national Museum of Cambodia is home to the world’s finest collection of Khmer sculpture, a millennia’s worth and more of masterful Khmer design.

Housed in a graceful terracotta structure of traditional design (built 1917-20), it provides the perfect backdrop to an outstanding array of delicate objects.

The Angkor collection includes a giant pair of wrestling monkeys, an exquisite frieze from Banteay Srei, and the sublime statue of Jayavarman VII (r 1181-1219) meditating.

No photography is allowed except in the beautiful central courtyard.

Tuol Sleng Museum

Once a centre of learning, Tuol Svay Prey High School was taken over by Pol Pot’s security forces and transformed into Security Prison 21 (S-21). The classrooms were turned into torture chambers and equipped with various instruments to inflict pain, suffering and death. Now Tuol Sleng Museum, it was the largest incarceration centre in the country. The long corridors are hallways of ghosts containing haunting photographs of the victims, their faces staring back eerily from the past.

Like the Nazis, the Khmer Rouge leaders were meticulous in keeping records of their barbarism and each prisoner who passed through S-21 was photographed. When the Vietnamese army liberated Phnom Penh in early 1979, there were only seven prisoners alive at S-21, all of whom had used their skill such as painting or photography to stay alive.

Killing Fields of Choeung Ek

Most of the 1700 detainees held at the S-21 prison were executed at the Killing fields of Choeung Ek.

Prisoners were often bludgeoned to death to avoid wasting precious bullets. It is hard to imagine the brutality that unfolded here when wandering through this peaceful, shady former orchard, but the memorial soon brings it home, displaying more than 8000 skulls of victims and their ragged clothes.

Choeung Ek is 14km southwest of Phnom Penh. A trip out here will cost US$5 round trip on a moto or about US$20 by taxi.

Wat Phnom

Wat Phnom, Meaning Hill Temple, is appropriately set on the only hill (more like a mound at 27m) in Phnom Penh. The Wat is highly revered among locals, who flock here to pray for good luck. Legend has it that in the year 1373, the first temple was built by a lady named Penh to house four Buddha statues that she found floating in the Mekong. Penh’s statue is in a shrine dedicated to her behind the vihara (temple sanctuary).

Wat Ounalom

Wat Ounalom is the headauarters of Cambodian Buddhism. It is unexceptional, but might be worth visiting just for one eyebrow hair of Buddha himself, preciously held in a stupa located behind the main building.

Independence Monument

This monument is modeled on the central tower of Angkor Wat and was built in 1958 to commorate independence from France in 1953.

cambodia visa

cambodia visa