The mere mention of Cambodia brings to mind the images of watching a sunrise amidst a crowd at the Angkor Wat, chilling on a hammock on Koh Rong Islands, scurrying through disturbing historical facts at Phnom Penh’s museums, and relishing Khmer cuisines in its night markets. And this is typically what the itinerary for Cambodia for five days looks like. But stretch that stay and you will be able to familiarise yourself with the other side of Cambodia - quaint towns like Kampot, Kratie, and Battambang; landscape provinces like Ratanakiri and Mondulkiri; the old mountain capital, Oudong, and much more.
My husband and I decided to explore a bit of this other side during our fortnight-long Cambodia travel. And among those, the province of Ratanakiri - the gemstone mountain - remains our favourite. Towards the Northeastern side of Cambodia lies Ratanakiri with Ban Lung town as its capital. It’s not really a hidden or unfamiliar place for we saw lots of foreign travellers flocking it. It is usually ignored by the itinerary-driven mind. We dropped the idea of browsing blog posts about this place and submitted ourselves to the driver at the Airbnb homestay we had opted.
Damn my memory that cannot recollect the name of the slim but muscular driver who drove the 4X4 jeep that we were lent by our homestay lady. I was marvelled at the way he waded through slushy mud on the narrow roads leading to the waterfalls around. If one of the wheels got stuck in a lump of watery mud, which happened twice, it took double the energy and power to get it off. We couldn’t thank him enough for having put that much effort into the journey that led to beautiful destinations.
Walking behind the waterfall
Ratanakiri comes alive with a number of splendid waterfalls. Most of them are well within 15 kms distance from Ban Lung town. Although we visited during off-season, we did see three of them falling with energy and vigour: Ou Sean Lair - a cascading, floored waterfall; Kan Chang - one that falls to make a pool of natural water; and Cha Ong - the waterfall behind which you can walk. No, you don’t have to trespass. It’s an accessible spot. I felt amused, like a child, to stand behind a waterfall and feel small droplets sprinkling on my face.
One can also walk across few of these waterfalls. For instance, at Ou Sean Lair, we saw empty bamboo huts that seemed like zones to chill out amidst pure nature with the sound of gushing waters in the air.
For once, there were no vendors coming behind us, no crowd, and we couldn’t feel any gladder about our off-season timing. But the best was yet to come.
Lake Yeak Loam
Imagine a lake right in the middle of mountains, imagine the water in it to be green and clean, and imagine there is no board that says, ‘Swimming is prohibited’. This place is not merely an imagination but is for real. It’s called, Yeak Loam lake. This unusual crater lake is 48-meters deep, and was a result of a volcano that occurred centuries ago.
My husband took oblivious pleasure in diving into this crater lake, and he swam with a swag. As for me, never had I regretted not knowing swimming as much as I did that afternoon. But sitting on the wooden log with my feet dipped in water, listening to the sound of birds, and all that serenity around, made up for it. After my husband finished a couple of dives, we sat there quietly, wondering about the depths of this lake, wondering how an eruption has caused something so beautiful and breathtaking.
There’s more to Ratanakiri and we could only do so much during our two-day stay. If we were to visit this province again, we would set on foot, this time trek between the waterfalls, and spend some time trying to learn about the life and living of the tribes that live here, to whom this gemstone mountain province perhaps belongs.
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