The new Cardamom Tented Camp in Botum Sakor National Park in southwest Cambodia has announced 3 day/2 night and 4 day/3 night packages for nature tourists.
The safari-style camp with nine furnished and comfortable boutique tents, each with a private bathroom, is open for booking now, with the soft opening on 1 November.
Both packages have been created for nature tourists whose expenditure will help keep the forest standing. An economically viable Cardamom Tented Camp helps keep the area out of the hands of loggers, poachers and mining operators.
Each package includes an introductory presentation on the magnificent 18,000 hectare Botum Sakor National Park followed by guided hikes by rangers. Guests follow abandoned poaching and logging trails through dense forest home to macaques, gibbons, hornbills and more. Hikers can inspect confiscated snares, traps and improvised hunting rifles at a ranger station.
After hiking, guests have the option of kayaking back to the tented camp on the Preak Tachan river.
Each inclusive package with breakfast, lunch and dinner in the camp’s riverside restaurant allows time for guests to explore by themselves or in small groups, or to simply lounge by the floating pier at the camp with binoculars spotting some of the hundreds of bird species in the park. Guests have the option of joining a second ranger patrol on a different route during their stay.
Asian elephants, dhole, clouded leopards, hog badgers, sun bears, mouse deer and pangolin all rely on the mature forest habitat around the camp.
“The Cardamom Tented Camp helps keep the forest standing,” says Willem Niemeijer, CEO of YAANA Ventures, the sustainable tourism company invited to create a low-impact ecotourism camp. “We can’t take the forest’s survival for granted. Each visitor helps us show the world that well managed ecotourism is a viable alternative to logging and hunting.”
At the eco-camp, which is a three way initiative between the Minor International, YAANA Ventures and Wildlife Alliance, a percentage of the revenue will go directly to Wildlife Alliance. Wildlife Alliance is supported by the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation, an initiative of the Minor Group. Any tented camp profits will be reinvested locally.
The two new packages can start at the Wildlife Alliance lodge and pier in Trapeang Rung at set times or include transfers in an air-conditioned vehicle from Phnom Penh or Trat airport in Thailand. From Trapeang Rung it is a one-hour river trip to the Cardamom Tented Camp.
Trapeang Rung is located along Route 48 approximately one hour’s drive from the Hat Lek-Koh Kong border with Thailand. It is two hours north of Sihanoukville. A regular local bus service between Phnom Penh and Koh Kong stops on request at Trapeang Rung.
The price of the 3D/2N package commencing in Trapeang Rung starts at US$198 per person on a twin/double sharing basis (single room surcharge US$65). The 4D/3N package starts at US$289 (single room surcharge US$95). The packages, including pre-arranged transfers from Trat or Phnom Penh, are US$389 and US$479 respectively. There are discounts for transfer pickup or drop off at Sihanoukville.
Helicopter transfers from either Siem Reap or Phnom Penh can be arranged by the Cardamom Tented Camp.
Rates for tour operators are available on application to [email protected]. Further information: CardamomTentedCamp.com.
