Staying one step ahead of the guidebooks - March 2008

Every year staff from the UK and the Australian offices make a number of visits to Asia, ensuring that we are always 100% up-to-date with new and past favourite hotels, that we’re the first to explore the new and upcoming destinations and that we all spend time with our local teams. This trips also ensure that we keep our ‘ears to ground’ – meeting travellers, learning new routes and discovering new and exciting activities and sites.

In early April, Nick returned from an inspection trip of Battambang, N.E Cambodia and Southern Laos. With several unvisited destinations on his list it was a chance to get away from the city and do what he enjoys most – getting off-road and dirty!

Click to go back

Phnom Penh

‘Arriving in Phnom Penh is like greeting an old friend; it’s impossible to forget the smells, the sights and the hustle and bustle of the city. Passing by the Independence Monument en route from the airport, I had to stop myself giving it a wave. After the long flight there’s only one thing on my mind - food (surely the best way to start any visit to Asia), so I joined several Cambodian colleagues at Romdeng, sister to the well established Friends restaurant. Both aim to provide vocational training and create life-changing opportunities for some of Phnom Penh’s many disadvantaged street children through on-site training and employment. By eating at either, not only are you donating towards a great cause (we tend to include a visit to Friends in most of our Phnom Penh programmes), you’re also getting to eat some seriously good Khmer cuisine.
Think fried bamboo shoots, Khmer spicy chicken soup and a sublime fish curry - all washed down with several Beer Angkor of course.

Having visited Phnom Penh just last year my stay was not to be a long one but there was just enough time to inspect a few new properties. After a very comfortable nights sleep at the wonderful Pavilion I visited its recently opened and equally excellent sister property Kabiki, aimed at young families visiting the city. The property is boutique-style and offers superb family rooms with private grassed terraces and bunk beds for the kids – there are also two swimming pools and designated play area.
I was equally as impressed with the brand new Villa Langka with its unusual rooms and colonial atmosphere (I particularly loved Room 20 with its hidden mezzanine floor).
However, I wasn’t here to spend time in Phnom Penh and was soon dragged away by the ever reliable Mr Valit and we were soon on the newly paved road to Battambang, one of the few destinations in Cambodia yet to escape my attention. Valit heads the local team in Cambodia, ensuring that everything runs smoothly for our clients from the moment they arrive to the moment they board their plane at the end of their holiday - in short he’s our very own Mr Fix-It.

Battambang

I’ve always said that it’s the getting from A to B that makes travelling in South East Asia so amazing and Cambodia is certainly no exception. The five hour drive to Battambang, to the west of the Tonlé Sap, passed quickly as we passed through the many hamlets that line road, stopping to eat and to visit several towns of interest including an entire population of silversmiths and another of stone workers.
The road may now be paved but little else has changed. I marvelled, as any visitor to Indochina does, at the variety (and size) of goods being transported by moped - a family of five; two mopeds sharing the load of eight (yes, count them) double mattresses; pigs on a ‘one-way ticket’, hale bales literally engulfing the driver to give create the illusion of a hay stack on wheels…’quick the farmers not looking, let’s leg it’!
Arriving on the outskirts of the provincial town of Battambang, I stopped to meet with the director of the Peaceful Children’s Home, a privately funded orphanage that works with disadvantaged local children and those orphaned due to poverty and ill-health of their parents.
The orphanage does some outstanding work with the children, ensuring that they receive a good school education followed by either university or vocational training. This year Selective Asia has launched the Selective Travel Foundation the aim of which is to creating another channel for ensuring we make a positive contribution to the destinations we love to work and travel in.
With help from our local team in Cambodia, in particular Valit and his wife Tharry, one our most popular guides, we have selected the Peaceful Children’s Home for the Foundations first project. We are extremely proud to be involved with a group of passionate individuals who make so much difference on a daily basis.

As the sun set, Valit and I arrived at Wat Kor Village and pulled into the drive of the Ancient House, a home-stay just a few miles from the centre of Battambang. A traditional wooden house, over 100 years in age and set on stilts close to the banks of the Sangker River. The aim of home stays is to offer clients the opportunity to truly experience Cambodian day-to-day life and interact with locals away from the tourist sites and hotel receptions.
After a chance to freshen up, we were served some fine Khmer food including the best Ammoc fish I’d ever eaten – who needs fine dining when you’ve got mums home cooking?!
We spent a relaxing evening conversing with our hosts (a grasp of French helps with the older members who were schooled during colonial years), finally falling asleep to the sound of a wedding being held on the far banks of the river.
Awaking to the call of the cockerel (and what I presume was the last standing at the previous nights wedding!), we washed in the Ancient House’s western style lavatory and a more traditional water trough ‘shower’.

We spent a pleasant morning in Battambang exploring the fresh food market early and strolling along the river bank. During the day I visited a number of sites and temples close to Battambang. The well-known ‘Bamboo Train’ in all honesty was disappointing but Prasat Banon surpassed expectations. The climb up the 358 steps was tough in the 35 deg heat but well worth the effort; I had the summit to myself, allowing me to enjoy the stunning views and the five towered temple in solitude aside from a monkey who seemed more interested in my camera bag than the fresh offerings that had been left that morning.

I also visited the Phnom Sam Pov Pagoda and the infamous ‘ghost cave’. Having visited several killing fields on previous trips I was particularly pleased find myself in complete solitude. This was no tourist attraction, it was an opportunity to try and make sense of what this country went through in the late 70’s - I came away none the wiser.
For anyone who feels that this type of site should not be open to visitors you may be interested to know that it is law in Cambodia that the ‘killing fields’ are preserved as they are found and made open to the public as a way of ensuring that future generations and visitors to the country learn from the horrors that the Cambodian people experienced until the Pol Pot regime. I for one find the sites of immense interest and whilst it is always disturbing spending time at any of the 301 known killing fields spread throughout Cambodia, it is very real thing that happened and I feel it my duty to learn as much about the recent Cambodian history as that of Angkor era.

Back in Battambang there were hotels to inspect – the stand out properties being the wonderfully colonial La Villa and the recently opened Rottanak Resort with its glass fronted villas surrounding a stunning swimming pool. Both hotels are within easy walking distance of the town centre. The restaurant at La Villa is superb and no stay in Battamabang is complete without a sampling!

Heading north-east, on a southern baring!

Over the coming 36 hours Valit and I covered a huge distance, and whilst the drive was beautiful I would not necessarily recommend anyone copy it. Our route took us through Siem Reap, south down the eastern side of the Tonlé Sap and then north towards Laos – plotted on a map the journey resembled the lines on a stenograph machine by the time we finally arrived in Banlung - there are several connecting roads still much required in Cambodia!
En route we stopped only to make inspections in Kampong Cham, Kampong Thom, Chhlong and Kratie. I had visited the later two around eight years earlier but found that little had changed aside from the welcome arrival of an excellent property in Chhlong - Le Relais. Located on the banks of the Mekong River in this extremely sleepy and some-what run down riverside village, Le Relais is truly a step back in time to the days of French rule and rubber plantations (Michelin were based close-by). The two Mekong Suites are simply outstanding and I’m told that the chef is superb.

After a night in Siem Reap, our journey was actually taking us right into the north east corner of the country, close to the borders with both Laos and Vietnam. Whilst the 12 hour drive was undoubtedly long (and would usually be broken with at least one nights stop in Chhlong or Kratie) it’s one of the finest I’ve ever made in Asia. With the 5* hotels of Siem Reap a distant memory, we passed through dusty hamlets, bustling villages and through provincial towns with the colonial past still much in evidence. The scenery was breathtaking and the hours passed quickly, too quickly if anything.

Banlung and the north east of Cambodia

I had a day of ‘holiday’ in Ratanakiri (just three hotel inspections to squeeze in) so Valit and I switched to two wheels to help maximise our time, and am I glad we did. If you are comfortable on a motorbike then the dust trails around the provincial capital of Banlung are a joy.
With the assistance of Saveth, a resident of Banlung for the past 16 years and one of Selective Asia’s regular guides (although car/minibus is his regular form of transportation!), we covered approximately 180km’s during daylight hours and this allowed us to include a visit to the Kroung minority tribe village of Kres where young boys live in small huts alongside their parents homes whilst reaching manhood and discover excellent vantage points with panoramic views across the miles of wild forests and national parks that stretched out in front of us. Crossing a Mekong tributary at Vensay we visited Chinese and Laos villages without the need to actually leave Cambodia! It became evident that the Chinese business acumen wasn’t just a factor in the China Towns found in the western world – the difference in housing, schooling and shops was most obvious.
Back on to the dusty trails and after another 40 km’s we reached Kachon Village, undoubtedly the highlight of my day. Having travelled extensively in Asia for the past 16 years I thought I’d seen it all but once again I was proved wrong. My simplistic vocabulary cannot possibly describe the eerie atmosphere of the forests surrounding the village – frankly Stephen King would have struggled. The Jarai people of the village have a very unique mourning process that involves three burials and as many party’s. Before dieing everyone resides in a hut they build for themselves; they also take care of their own coffins as well as carving strange, brightly coloured statues resembling human beings of weird proportions.
During my visit, we ventured deep in the forests where smoke plumes drifted over the wooden statues whilst a family gathered round the grave of a recently deceased. It would be another three months before they re-gathered to bury the body a second time and there were several celebrations to be had before then.

There was just time to visit several waterfalls as well as take a swim in the wonderfully refreshing crater lake named Yeak Lom before a final night at the excellent Terre Rouge Lodge, close to the centre of dusty Banlung - then another day, another sunrise – this time we were half way to Laos.'

.....to be continued