YOUTH CAMPING &
COMMUNITY EVENT
Rattanakiri, Cambodia
12-15 May 2007
RESORTS OVERVIEW
The organizing committees provide you information about places we are going to visit:
About RATTANAK KIRI
Bordering Vietnam's central Highlands and Laos are the remote provinces of Ratanakiri and
Mondulkiri, both with thickly forested hilly terrain, hilltribe people, and abundant wildlife. Commercial enterprises in the region include logging, gem mining, and rubber plantations. 
Ratanakiri is accessible by air from Phnom Penh. Over 80% of Ratanakiri's population of 72,000 is classified as hilltribe, mainly Jarai, Krunh, Brou, and Tampuan. The 12 ethnic minority groups are collectively called Khmer Loeu (highlanders), a name coined by Sihanouk in the 1940s. Some of the groups are found across the border of Vietnam's Central highlands or in Southern Laos. Many also still wear traditional costume - Krung women in sarongs and bare-breasted, Brou women with tattooed faces and ivory tusk earrings in their elongated earlobes. Less than 60,000 hilltribes people now remain and their numbers are further threatened by a high mortality rate from malaria, diarrhea and childbirth complications. Their lives and livelihoods are now also threatened by the encroachment of logging into their territory.
The recent history of Ratanakiri is not a happy one. During the Vietnam War the province of Ratanakiri was devastated by American carpet booming because it formed part of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, which continued to run relatively undisturbed by the wanton destruction. However, the bombing not only killed and injured many tribes-people, it also drove away the animals they hunted and destroyed their farmlands. The Khmer Rouge used Ratanakiri as their main base of operations in the early 1970s; when they came to power in 1975, the Khmer Rouge wiped out at least half the tribal population. Most highlanders in Ratanakiri are animist and practice slash-burn agriculture. They farm rice and grow vegetable, and raise water buffalo and cows.
They also hunt, using crossbows with poison-tipped bamboo arrows. Sacrifice to the numerous animal spirits of the forest is common, and regularly performed for any special events such as marriage, the construction of a new thatch-roofed hut, or a move to a new village location. At these events a feast is held, a pig sacrificed and large quantities of rice wine consumed. At these gatherings the spirits believed to take a possession of certain individuals, who in a trance lose their own personality and take on that of the spirit, acting out a particular animist trait. Pries tesses regarded as the spiritual healers contact ancestral spirits and relay dreams.
Highland women enjoy as much freedom as men. They are free to divorce a husband who is cruel, and decisions on childbirth are the exclusive domain of women. If an unmarriageable women finds herself pregnant, she is not disgraced the man responsible, if not willing to marry, must reimburse the woman's family. The going rate is four buffaloes, some pigs, a few chickens and rice wine.
Ban Lung, population 10,000, is the principal town in Ratanakiri province, and lies 155km east of Stung Treng. There may be direct flights into Bang Lung. You can get to Bang Lung in five or seven hours, but the road may be washed out in the May - November monsoon season. In parts of Ratanakiri, the only vehicles that move during the rainy season are oxcarts and elephants.
Kachang Waterfall 
Kachang Waterfall is situated 6km. north - west of Banlung. This Waterfall is located in the Kontung stream and flows into the Sre Pok River. The height of it is 12 m. and the water flows and falls throughout the year. A beautiful or magnificent landscape and huge amounts of fresh mist surround the waterfall. The visitors can take a bath and sit to look at the waterfall and other natural scenic beauties. or the visitors can also go around to view other natural sights on foot or take an elephants ride.
Cha Ung Waterfall 
Cha Ung Waterfall is situated 8 km. west of Banlung and it flows throughout the year. The source of water creating this Waterfall flowed from Eisey Patamak Mountain ( Svay Mountain) . Below this Waterfall is a big hole, visitors can stand or sit to watch the waterfall from behind, and inhale the cool fresh air stemming from it.
Thmor Da Resort
Veal rum Plan (stone field ) is situated 14 km. North of Banlung. Stones cover the surface of this place and a dense around it. The visitors can go there and discover its beautiful attraction.
Yeak Loam Lake
Yeak Loam Lake is situated 5 km. south - east of Banlung. The Yeak Loam lake (volcanic crater) is the most beautiful lake of Ratanakiri formed by a volcanic eruption almost 4,000 years ago with 50 m. deep, 800 m. diameter and a walking path around the lake of 2,500 m. Two hundred meters of the track is a quaint wooden building housing tribal handicraft, the Crafts Museum.
