I. Ratanakiri in Brief
Ratanakiri is the province, which was founded in 1959 by the King Sihanouk, where it had been in the Eastern of Stung Treng and located in the Northeast of Cambodia. Ratanakiri is approximately 588 Kilometers from Phnom Penh that can be spent in two days by overland and about an hour by flight. Ratanakiri used to have a provincial capital called Lumpat town that now is called the ghost town where the heavily US bombing destroyed almost the whole area, and even now we can still observe some big bomb craters and the ruined buildings by the earlier of 1970s. Then later on, the provincial capital was moved to Banlung after the Khmer Rouge. This changing was not just because of the bombing but also the way looking for a better location to form a better provincial capital.
Banlung City Town
Ratnakiri (Banlung) is an area where is featured with high and dense forest cover, low population and fertile forestland. More than that, Ratanakiri is the first and the only province in Cambodia that obtained a very strong impact of the volcano in the 700,000 years ago. However, because of the volcano’s ashes that produced such a fertile land, it is a great gift to the people in Banlung for cultivations and other forms of agricultures. More than that, the volcano’s result also formed a beautiful crater lake in Ratanakiri, which is named Yakloam by the indigenous people. Yakloam Crater Lake is now become the protected area under a project called Drive project ‘Developing Remote Indigenous Village Education’ where the Tompoun indigenous groups and others Cambodians consider to be a holy and a scared place for them to worship and to pray for helps, as they are animists.
Because of the great protection of the lake, its beauty and cleanness of the water, history of the lake, legends related, and the wonderful belief of the indigenous has attracted many tourists to visit every year. Actually, now it is become one of the main attraction destinations for both international tourists and domestic tourists. Lots more than that, Ratanakiri is an excellent place for relax and spend some times, exploring rain forest in the Hierarchy National Park that rich in wildlife, waterfalls, and discovering the differences of indigenous’ culture that it is said to be that Ratanakiri is a home for hill tribe communities.
(1stday) Traveling from PP to Kratie, then boat from Kratie to StungTreng and 4x4 directly to Ratanakiri or simply just take a fly
(2ndday) car(s) to visit the beautiful Yaklom Crater Lake, visiting Tompoun tribe cultural center exhibition, an hour trek around the lake and beautiful waterfalls.
This is the Jarai Tribe house, they live together in this house in the about 50 families...This tribe has been considered by other tourists that they have been originated from Malaysian since the language is quite similar
(3rdday" (Special offer) a few hours by car(s) to visit Andong Meas District, then a few hrs treks into the jungle, mountain, visiting Jarai tribe communities, and an overnight in their village (in the jungle). Tasting their traditional rice-wine, playing their traditional music (gongs), understanding from their culture, etc.
Groom and Bride houses represent the person is ready to get married and a prove that they are independet. They stay there for until they get married....but do not mean these two house owners have to get married with each other...means also they can select some else..
(4thDay) Start our trekking back to the Angdong Meas Dictrics, get our car drive to explore other tribe communities, and visiting their real traditional groom & bride houses in the Kreung Tribe’s
