Banlung is situated in Ratanakiri Province in the remote north east corner of Cambodia. It feels very far from anywhere and in many ways it is: three-quarters of the population are illiterate and it is the one of the poorest regions of Cambodia. Nonetheless, it is an incredibly interesting region to visit as life for much of the population remains almost the same today as it has for hundred of years.

To get there, we caught the tourist bus from the 4000 Islands in southern Laos across the Cambodian border (after paying the minor bribe) to the town of Stung Treng, where we waited a few hours for the connecting "tourist" bus to Banlung. When the bus arrived it was definitely of the local –– not the tourist –– variety. It was packed! People were sitting in the aisle, atop heavy bags of supplies like rice. Others were standing in the stairway in the front.

We were astonished to find an empty bench with space for two right at the front of the bus. No doubt several people had been booted out for us as we'd paid tourist rates. Feeling quite bad (but also a little glad), we piled in with our big backpacks on our laps and crowds pressed up against us.

The ride took three-and-half-hours along the most dusty road we've ever seen –– the red dust was so fine that when another vehicle passed visibility went down to zero and we would have to stop and wait for it to settle.

Alarmingly, for most of journey from Stung Treng to Banlung, there were tragic signs of the stash-and-burn deforestation taking place. From the road, in both directions for as far as you could see, the forests were being burned down to make space for agricultural land. It was heart-wrenchingly sad to see first-hand.

Arriving in Banlung was surreal –– at the end of this long, bad and incredibly dusty road was a fairly normal town with paved roads and a reasonable selection of hotels, restaurants and shops.

Treetops

We stayed at the fabulous Treetops Eco Lodge, run by a local legend, Mr T. Treetops is probably the best value for money accommodation that we have experienced on our whole trip. For US$10, we got our own beautifully decorated bungalow with a lovely inside/outside en-suite bathroom and a wrap-around balcony. Each bungalow is secluded and very private. The staff is friendly and there's a chilled out restaurant which serves good, reasonably priced food and has free wifi. We loved it and happily ended up staying far longer than we had originally planned.

Hiking though the Forest

The magic about Banlung is its isolation. Until about 10 years ago, when a government sponsored influx of Khmer people began, almost all of the population consisted of minority "hill tribes".

Many of these tribes still live in a traditional way without massive influence of other cultures.  We went on a few excursions with a fantastic guide, Phe Bunlong ☎ (855) 012 872 466. We started with a visit to a few villages around Banlung where the people were a bit more westernised, although still living a very basic existence. In the villages, we saw the houses that young men and women built as part of their "right of passage" rituals.

We also went for a hike though the jungle. Sadly we saw many signs of illegal logging. Massive teak trees were being chopped down with only a small section being chopped out of the centre as this is all that the loggers could carry. Many locals blamed this illegal logging on the Cambodian military, under orders from generals and senior politicians. Unfortunately this sort of corruption seems very common in this beautiful country. As we walked further from the road, the logging diminished and we saw beautiful forests and swam in a refreshing mountain stream.  

Visiting faraway tribes

For our second excursion, we visited three very different villages. To get to the first one, we rode a hired motorbike along the dusty roads for over an hour until we reached the town of Voen Sai on the Tonle San river. This river is apparently the inspiration for the river in the movie "Apocalypse Now" although it all seemed very peaceful to us.

At Voen Sai, we hired a longtail boat with a friendly boatman and rode upstream for about an hour to visit the village of Kachon where Tampuan people live. This place felt very remote, and people still largely lived as they had for hundreds of years. They did now wear western clothes, but apparently only started doing this a few years ago. They seemed very wary of us, and many of the younger children burst into tears when they saw us. Our guide, Phe, had brought along a few sweets to give them and they soon cheered them up, although the adults still kept a good distance away from us.

With the permission of the chief, we visited the village burial ground, where we were able to get an insight into the funeral ceremonies of the village. Husband and wife share a grave (even if they die years apart). The grave is covered with a basic shelter and covered with items from this world that would be useful in the next - food, kitchen implements and other everyday items. Each grave site is surrounded by a fence and watched over by wooden statues of the deceased - the husband on the left and the woman on the right. There were statues of army men, people with glasses and pregnant ladies.

We were told that after a death, the deceased could not be properly put to rest until a buffalo was slaughtered - if the family was poor and did not have one, then the ceremony would have to wait until they managed to save up enough.

After leaving the Tampuan village we headed back downstream to visit two more villages which stood side-by-side: an ethnic Chinese village and a ethnic Lao village. It was fascinating to see how the Chinese village had remained so completely Chinese, ever after being so isolated from the rest of the outside world since it had been established more than 200 years ago. The Laos village which was the same as the villages we had seen north of the border in Laos.

Banlung was an easy place to relax –– we spent time enjoying the sunshine at a crater lake just outside of town, cycling around. We also hooked up with the small group of Banlung expats (around 7 of them) who were mostly there doing charity or social work.

Overall, Banlung was a highlight of our time in Cambodia because of its remoteness and the incredibly interesting cultures of the various tribes, although we were both saddened by the many signs of corruption and pillaging of the natural environment.