Chi Phat

This is a little village halfway between Kampot and Koh Kong, on the fringes of the Cardamom mountains and the Kohl Kong conservation corridod. They have established a functioning community based eco tourism management plan for their village. Tourists get picked up in nearby Andoung Teuk and taken to the village. We chose to be taken here by boat which took us 2 hours. Once in the village you get your accommodation assigned to you based on a rotational system which makes sure every family in the village gets their fair share. You only choose the category of the accommodation. The same system is applied to boat drivers, guides, cooks etc. The whole small village is taken care of this way which we found an idea worthy of support. The main idea behind the concept is to prevent poaching and illegal logging. Only little problem for us is that our assigned "guest house" doesn't really have a shower... Also there is electricity available only around 5h/day.

After arrival we had dinner at the community centre with a group of tourists and had some beers with a British couple. Unfortunately, no one wants to join us on a multi-day jungle trip yet which would bring down the price.

The first day in the village we spent exploring and swimming near some rapids in the local river making up for the lack of shower ;). It was really interesting (and relaxing) to be in a real village, which we normally wouldn't be able to reach, nor to find accommodation in. The kids were cool, always laughing and saying hello.

In the evening we went on a starlight and fireflies cruise. The stars in the sky look absolutely amazing here! Which we were lucky enough to see the first and last evening in Chi Phat cause during the cruise it was cloudy and no stars were seen. That was more than made up for by the fireflies though. They were concentrated on a couple of trees along the river with one apparently being the party tree. That one was blinking like it was decorated for Christmas. Amazing!Read more