Overview about Mondolkiri
Mondolkiri is a province of Cambodia bordering the provinces of Kratié to the west, Stung Treng to the northwest, Ratanakiri to the north and the country of Vietnam to the east and south, it is the most sparsely populated province in the country despite being the largest in land area. The province was created in 1961 from the eastern part of Kratié Province. The capital is the town of Senmonorom. Senmonorom is 371 km away from Phnom Penh.

How to get there

Recently going to Mondolkiri is really easy and convenient as the road is now completely upgraded and paved. There are a few options you can choose.

Option 1 (Travelling by Minivan)
Nowadays, there are a few companies are operating the route from Phnom Penh to Senmonorom city and vice versa every day with four departures mostly 7:00 am, 7:40 am, 1:00 pm and 1:40 pm. However, the 7:40 am and 1:40 pm frequently canceled depending on the number of passenger.

Here they are
1. T.C.T Mondolkiri Express
https://www.facebook.com/tctexpress111/ ... tab=photos

2. Kim Seng Fort Express
https://cambodiatransports.wordpress.co ... -mini-bus/
Option 2 (Travelling by Bus)
Nowadays, there is a bus company (Phnom Penh Soriya Transport) operating the route from Phnom Penh to Senmonorom city and vice versa every day. It has only one departure which is 7:00 am.

For us, we decided to go with T.C.T Mondolkiri Express and it turned out to be the best journey all the way from Phnom Penh to Senmonorom. The driver was really nice and not to mention, the staff was really nice, helpful and friendly. The journey took only 6 hours as the driver didn’t stop along the way to pick up the passengers; moreover we traveled via the detour. I paid $11 as i am khmer and all my friends paid $13 as they are Foreigner. In contrast, if you travel by bus, it will take roughly 10 hours, as the driver might stop countless time to pick up the passenger and the bus is not going through detour. Therefore, i strongly recommend you guys to take the minivan, if you are planning to visit Mondolkiri soon.

Accommodation

There are a few options for accommodation in Mondolkiri. You can either stay at guesthouse or hotel in Senmonorom city (Khmer style) or Bungalow hostels (Western style) which are 1 km or 2 km from the city. If you would like to see sunset and stay in a room surrounding with jungle, I strongly recommend you to stay in any Bungalows hostels below. Not to mention, all of them provide free pick up.

1. Tree Lodge
http://www.treelodgecambodia.com/photos/

2. Happy Elephant
http://www.mondulkiri-elephant.com/

3. Nature Lodge
http://www.naturelodgecambodia.com/Trav ... _guide.htm

Note: You need to book them in advanced at least, three weeks or two weeks before you go there, if you don’t want to face the same problems like us. They are so popular and all of their bungalows, huts and dorm rooms are always full.
I thought my friend booked a family bungalow at Tree lodge, but in fact he didn’t. He just asked for information. So, when we arrived there. We called them to book the bungalow for three nights, but unfortunately there were only two bungalows available for that night. It meant we only can stay there one night and we needed to check out tomorrow and look for another bungalow hostel. In that night, we took the two bungalows. The bungalows were really nice and they were really cheap. We paid only $7 per night for a (two persons) bungalow with private rest room and hot water. The next day afternoon, we checked out from Tree lodge and looked for another hostel. Luckily we found another great bungalow hostel called Happy Elephant, however the same problem happened again. There was only one family bungalow available for one night. So, it meant we have to check out again tomorrow. That bungalow was also really cheap. It was only $8 per night. It was a (four persons) bungalow, so we paid only $2 each per night, as i went there with three of my friends. Then, the next day morning, when we were about to check out, the owner came to us and asked if we would like to stay in dorm room. We all just said yes immediately. Therefore, we moved our stuffs into the dorm room and continued our third day trip. We paid only $2 each for dorm room.




Food

During our first two days, we didn’t eat out. We only had all our breakfast, lunch and dinner at the hostels. Then, the third, we decided to go around the city during night and check street foods. It turned out to be the best night, as all the foods we had were awesome. They were so yummy with reasonable price. I didn’t expect that Mondolkiri could have such foods. So if you visit there don’t forget to check the street food along the garden all the way from the two wild cow roundabout.

Where we visited

First day:
We didn’t manage to go anywhere, as we arrived there at night time already. We headed to the hostel and we spent our time together chatting at the hostel’s bar.

Second day:
We got up early in the morning, and then we had breakfast and headed to the city in order to rent a motorbike to go to Bousra waterfall. Bousra waterfall is located at the outskirt of the city approximately 40 km from the city. Nowadays the access to the Boursra waterfall is 1/3 dirt road and 2/3 paved. The 1/3 dirt road is now being upgraded and expanded. There are a few options for going to Bousra. You can go there buy private van, motorbike or bicycle. Since, we don’t have much time. So, we want to get there as fast as we can. Therefore, we decided to rent two motorbikes for $6 each, gasoline is not included. When you go to rent the motorbike, the owner always suggest to fully filling the gasoline tank. Please don’t believe them. We don’t need that much gasoline for going and coming back from Bousra waterfall, unless you want to check other places, however you need to return the motorbike before 6:00 pm. 2 liters of gasoline is enough. We spent our whole day at the waterfall. Note, you will have to pay entrance fee. 5000 riel for foreigner and 1000 riel for khmer.






Third day:
We did one day elephant trekking. The price of elephant trekking varies from different hostels and trip organizers. In many hostels and trip organizers, it costs from$35- $50 (each person) for one day trekking and $70 for two days trekking and one night stay in the jungle. However, we were so lucky to pay only $20 for one day elephant trekking (at Happy Elephant hostel), this include lunch and elephant riding from the tribal village to the waterfall in the jungle where we can swim with the elephant. However, we didn’t ride the elephant; we decided to walk with them. The access to that waterfall is really steep and always up and down. It is really hard for hiking. Anyway, it was so fun and one of my best and first hiking experience ever. Sadly, not everyone decided to walk with elephant like us. They rode them all the way from the village to the waterfall.
After 1 hour and 30 minute hiking, we arrived the waterfall and 30 minutes later the elephants carrying those heartless tourists arrived. Then, they (elephants) were released into the jungle for relaxing and feeding themselves. After two hours, they came back. So, it was time for them to swim and it was also time for us to swim with them and taking pictures. Swimming took about one hour and another half an hour for preparation to go back. We arrived the village by 4:00 pm and we spent one hour to go around and check the tribal traditional house. Elephant trekking was one of the experience I had and one of the most amazing and astonishingly activity i have done in my whole Mondolkiri trip.








Sadly, while we were hiking, we have seen a lot of deforestation and burning down the forest.




Fourth day:
Come back to Phnom Penh.

Wow. Great work, Samouth. We all appreciate you taking the time to put that together. I will definitely make that trip myself someday.

That's a great trip report - thanks for sharing.

Smaouth...the other visitors you saw there, were they mostly foreigners or Khmers?

Soi Dog wrote:Smaouth...the other visitors you saw there, were they mostly foreigners or Khmers?

They were France and Chinese. There was only me Cambodian. I have seen no khmer at the two bungalow hostels i stayed. I guess other Cambodians visitors don't like hiking and they might have stayed at the hotels or guesthouse in the city.

i forgot to talk about this one. This is a unique tribal's soup cooked in the bamboo. Unfortunately, i didn't manage to taste it, since my trip did not include this one.

excellent report! thanks!

Samouth,, great report, and what I like about it is the photos to back it up. What I have always said,, One photo speaks one thousand words.