Khiri in the Cardamons

Khiri Travel has launched small group tours to Cambodia’s Cardamom mountains, considered one of the largest tropical forests in Southeast Asia.

The company is promoting Chi Phat in the Cardamoms as a new adventure destination for mountain biking, trekking, kayaking, wildlife spotting, bird watching and waterfall discoveries

“The southern Cardamom mountains are an exceptionally beautiful area,” says Frans Betgem co-founder of Khiri Travel, which specialises in Thailand and the Mekong region.

Although Chi Phat is not an easy proposition at the moment for individual travellers, Khiri Travel has started to include it for specialist tours.

In April, Khiri Lotus, the division of Khiri Travel that specialises in mid-priced soft adventure travel for small groups, will take a group of Dutch students to visit Chi Phat as part of a two-week Laos-Cambodia overland trip.

In Chi Phat the group will ride mountain bikes, visit a 300-plus year old archaeological site of the Khmer Lue tribe, which left behind giant jars associated with funeral rites, similar to those found on the Plain of Jars in Laos.

The mountain bike trail passes through forest, grasslands, rivers, streams and an elephant crossing area. The bikers will stop at the Teuk Vet waterfall and a cave home to a large bat colony. Accommodation is in a guest house.

Khiri Travel is supporting the efforts of the Wildlife Alliance which started the community-based ecotourism (CBET) project in Chi Phat in 2006. Chi Phat comprises four villages on the banks of the Phipot River. Wildlife Alliance says that Chi Phat received 829 tourists in 2009.

Wildlife Alliance and its community based ecotourism partners have created a dedicated website to the Chi Phat area of the southern Cardamoms.