Mondulkiri or Sen Monorem

Mondulkiri or Sen Monorem

380km to the north-east of Phnom Penh lie the grassy uplands and the monsoon forests of Mondolkiri province, one of the least populated and most inaccessible areas of Cambodia. Its capital, Sen Monorem is a recent town, now acting as a market place for the entire province.

Sen Monorem exists now simply because of the long - 1.7km - airport runway along the top of the ridge. It's not a "stupid place to put a runway" as it was here first, the town grew up around it after 1979 when people returned from the Koh Nyaek area to the north where Pol Pot had collected most of the local population. The original settlements at what is now Sen Monorem is by the bottom of the hill in the area by the town's hospital. Originally, the road in from the south crossed the small river o the north of the current bridge, but an air strike bombed the old crossing and the road was rerouted to avoid the damage.

Today, Sen Monorem is a dusty market town, with all the local government offices scared around the ridge and the two valleys either side. Also present in the town are a large number of NGOs, so the place is awash with foreigners and the cafes and bars all serve the backpacker staple of banana pancakes. These NGOs are working hard to improve education, health and government capacity in one of Cambodia’s most disadvantaged areas. Mention of the area in both the Rough Guide and Lonely Planet has brought a flurry of tourism investment in town but also along the road to the waterfalls at Bousra to the north-east; not all this investment is helping the local indigenous people as it is primarily funded by Khmer families and companies, often to the exclusion of the local Bunong people. These days, Sen Monorem is primarily a Khmer town, and the Bunong are becoming increasingly marginalized in the settlements at the edge of town and in their villages, many of which are reachable only on foot.

The guide books have, as ever, created a steady - and growing - stream of tourists making for the specified sights, then returning by taxi to Phnom Penh two days later. It's a pity because it's a long way to come to see a waterfall and ride an elephant. There is a lot more to see than just the waterfalls though, and Mondolkiri is a fabulous place for the adventurous to get away from it all, and wander on the plateaus, in the forests and by the many rivers in the area. The Bunong people, who are 85% of the population, live in settlements all around the area and there are four areas of significant biodiversity within easy reach of Sen Monorem. Both Snuol Wildlife Reserve and the Siema Biodiversity Conservation Area are passed on the way in, taking up much of the land between Snuol and the town of Ou Reang, with the Phnom Prech Wildlife Reserve north-west of Sen Monorem and the deeply mysterious and extensive Phnom Nam Lyre Wildlife Reserve on the Vietnamese border.

High up on the Mondolkiri plateau is the beautiful little village called Dak Dam, set in a small notch in the rolling hills, protected from the howling winds that scour these hills throughout the dry season from the north-east.


The village is split into three; the boundary of each is a small stream. The first village is Pu Chhob, then past the lake are Pu Antreng and the third, on the eastern slope is Pu Ralech. This village of 500 people is almost entirely Bunong, although ten or so Khmer families have moved in to the village in recent years. The villages sit at the head of a wide forested valley, which stretches its green fingers into the village. Villagers will be happy to show you the upper stretches of this mixed deciduous and evergreen forest. Ask at the Commune Council Office (opposite the school) or the Electoral Commission Office (the big building nearer the little bridge) to see if they can find an interpreter.

Dak Dam was moved here in the 1970s from its old location, just 200m from the Vietnamese border to the southeast of here. The main road to Dak Dam from Sen Monorem continues to the border. The old Dak Dam was abandoned after being hit by bombs – it lay right next to a small French airstrip.
The new Dak Dam was also abandoned during the Pol Pot regime when the villagers were forcibly evacuated to the Koh Nyek area of northern Mondolkiri, returning to their village in 1979.
Today the village is extremely poor, but robust. They practice swidden agriculture but in a careful manner that doesn’t push into the forest. In the village they raise pigs and chickens for sale, and each family has a small plot where they grow vegetables and there are fruit trees.