Cardamom Mountains

One of Southeast Asia's largest tracts of intact rainforest, on the city's doorstep

The Cardamoms rise immediately behind Koh Kong and run north and east for nearly 400 kilometres, covering close to 4.4 million hectares of rainforest, river, and waterfall. They are one of the largest and most biologically intact wildernesses in Southeast Asia, with elephants, sun bears, gibbons, and an estimated population of clouded leopards.

Most visitors do a one- or two-day jungle trek out of Koh Kong with a local operator — kayaking the upper rivers, swimming below waterfalls, sleeping in eco-lodges or hammocks. Wildlife Alliance and Chi Phat Community-Based Ecotourism (a couple of hours' drive east) are the established organisations. Visit in the dry season (November to April); the wet season closes most of the trails.

things to do sight
A story
The Cardamoms were partly off-limits to outsiders for decades — they were one of the last redoubts of the Khmer Rouge through the 1990s. As a result, the forest came through the deforestation boom in better shape than almost anywhere else in mainland Southeast Asia. Elephants, sun bears, gibbons, clouded leopards, and a small population of Indochinese tigers still live in the range.