Two hours by boat from the Chi Phat ecotourism camp in Koh Kong province, western Cambodia, the phone signal dies and the jungle takes over. That's the launch point for a 15km overnight trek into the Cardamom Mountains — one of the largest unbroken rainforest corridors left in mainland south-east Asia, and a region that recently made headlines after researchers discovered a raft of previously unknown animal species there.
The area carries heavy history, too: ancient burial sites, and the last refuge of fleeing Khmer Rouge fighters well into the late 1980s. But what really sets the Cardamoms apart is a double layer of protection. Armed government rangers enforce national park law, while long-standing animist belief keeps huge tracts of forest effectively untouchable. Locals credit the neak ta — guardian spirits — with watching over rivers and woods, and shrines appear along the waterways, including one said to be home of the mythical White Crocodile, an omen of fate. Guides follow real etiquette on the trail: no negative talk, take nothing, and ask the gods before answering nature's call (small trees, smaller spirits — choose accordingly).
The Chi Phat community project, founded in 2007 by the Wildlife Alliance, is the practical way in. Its guides and staff are mostly former loggers, poachers and hunters who swapped exploitation for conservation — including the much-loved forest cook Mr Crab, who once drove logging trucks and now cooks over open fires for trekkers. Trips run by boat and rowboat (engines off near camp to protect wildlife) into deep-jungle base camps with hand-built sleeping platforms, waterfall-fed bathing pools and dinners of roast chicken, foraged yellow-cap mushrooms and throat-stripping Khmer rice wine, all lit by torches hung from krama scarves.
Wildlife is real but elusive: forest elephants, dholes, kingfishers, monkeys and hand-sized golden orb weavers spinning iridescent webs. Come prepared for serious heat, dengue-season mosquitoes and — in wet season — biblical downpours.
For travellers who want raw jungle without breaking the bank, this is a rare deal: a five-day package with treks, guides, food and accommodation runs about $350 per person. It's a fit for reasonably fit hikers happy with basic platforms, no signal and muddy boots — and anyone curious about a culture where spirituality is woven into everyday life, from spirit shrines to spirit-protected forests. Getting there takes a six-hour bus ride from Phnom Penh to Koh Kong, then a boat up the Preak Piphot River. Once the trees close in, it's cicadas, kingfishers and whatever the forest decides to show you.
Thanks to The Guardian Travel for the original reporting.
