All activities / Trekking / Hiking / Cardamom Mountains
Trekking / Hiking in Cardamom Mountains
Southeast Asia's largest surviving tract of contiguous rainforest, spread across southwestern Cambodia, a wild expanse of jungle-clad ridges, rivers and waterfalls that shelters Asian elephants, clouded leopards, sun bears and pileated gibbons and is protected through community ecotourism and ranger-backed conservation projects.
Why here
The Cardamoms are the largest unbroken rainforest left in mainland Southeast Asia, and trekking here funds the fight to keep it standing. This is proper jungle walking, through dense forest to hidden waterfalls, river crossings and post-Angkorian burial-jar sites, with the chance of hornbills, gibbons and, for the lucky, sign of elephant. Two models sit side by side. At Chi Phat, a village of former loggers and poachers turned guides runs multi-day treks, mountain-bike rides and river kayaking from a community base, with nights in homestays or forest hammock camps. Deeper in, a small tented camp inside a national park lets you trek with a naturalist and shadow the Wildlife Alliance rangers who patrol the trails. Either way the walking is remote, humid and genuinely wild.
Best months
The dry season from November to April is trekking time, with firmer trails and safer river crossings. The May to October wet season swells the rivers and makes leeches and mud a constant, though the forest is at its greenest. It is hot and very humid year-round under the canopy, so treks start early. Multi-day routes camp in the forest or use village homestays, and a local guide is required.
Getting there & around
Chi Phat is reached from the town of Andoung Tuek on the coastal road between Koh Kong and Sihanoukville, then a boat or moto up the Preak Piphot river to the village, where the community office arranges guides, treks and homestays. The tented camp inside Botum Sakor National Park is reached by road and boat with a transfer from its Phnom Penh office. Both need booking ahead. Bring boots, a rain layer, leech socks for the wet season and cash, as card payment is limited.
Skill levels: beginner, intermediate, advanced
Schools & guides (2)
Cardamom Tented Camp
OutfitterCardamom Tented Camp sits inside Botum Sakor National Park on the Preak Tachan River, a low-impact camp of nine tents run in partnership with Wildlife Alliance, whose rangers are stationed on site. Guests trek old poaching and logging trails with a naturalist guide, kayak the river, join night boat safaris and can shadow ranger patrols and camera-trap checks. The forest holds Asian elephants, clouded leopards, sun bears and dholes, and camp fees fund the ranger station.
Chi Phat
OutfitterChi Phat is a community-based ecotourism project set up in 2007 by Wildlife Alliance in a remote village of the southern Cardamom Mountains, created to give former loggers and poachers a living from conservation. Trained village guides lead multi-day treks, mountain-bike rides and kayaking on jungle trails that reach waterfalls, wildlife points and post-Angkorian burial-jar sites, with nights in homestays or forest hammock camps. Trips are booked through the community office, not an agency.