Chi Phat community village

This was our last place to visit in the Cambodia. The place to have some easy going time after being in the Phnom Penh and the place to say good-bye to the country.

The Chi Phat community villige is a concept of the Wildlife Alliance, environmental NGO*. With the aim to provide sustainable turist income for the locals instead of illegal lodging and poaching to protect the nature of the Cardamon Mountains.

And after 4 days of our stay it is possible to say it's running well. People come and go. The ordinary, organised, normal way. Everything is calculated and in some cases seems a bit overpriced. There is not a great authentic passion in the service provided and it seems it's just cause people come and go. Hopefully this is the (reasonable) price to pay to support the nature protection.

To get there from the Phnom Penh it's either possible to take the Virak Buntham bus (11$, 5hrs) or, as in our case, much more interesting and (as it turned out) luckily better option by choosing an available alternative, (G.S.T company selling tickets of the Olympic transport), being unlucky ("The Olympic transport bus has a broken aircon"), being assertive ("We do not want to take the next bus 2hrs later than scheduled") , meeting a fair guy (G.S.T: "I'll organise a taxi for you for the same price") and an excellent taxi driver (fast and knowing what he is doing; though someone else might object he is driving like crazy)) to the Andoung Teuk village after just some 4hrs ride. * To go to the Chi Phat from there it is either by a boat (10$/adult + 5$/kid; 2hrs) or by a moto (7$; 35 min). So time-money wise, our selection was clear. 2x moto was enough to get us there.

There is a variety of accomodations to chose from. For us it was some 8-12-20$ selection which we have chosen the 8$ place as it was just some 50m from the community centre, restaurant, bike rental and everything we needed.

It would be quite easy to complain about our "Vanna Guesthouse" accomodation. But from a couple of days distance it was some 50:50. It was really hot there. So we had to ask for a second fan and since that moment it was ok. The best were really hard and their size was so-so. So hard to speak about having really a good sleep there. The place is owned by a local teacher. Which was actually great as kids were usually not far. And Tadeas appreciated the opportunity to play and fight (using plastic bottles) with them. And he was even able to attend one of the English lessons (0.25$ parrents pay for it) .

We also rented bikes there (4$/day) to enjoy nearby waterfalls. Great place as almost no one there and rather warm water. Kids loved it there. Unfortunately on our ride back Oliv putted her feet into the wheel which resulted in some bruises, scratches, crying and our huge uncertainty whether it's just that or even something much more serious that would demand hospital visit. So Lukas already alerted and informed our insurance company. Very luckily it was not so serious, so we just had to leave Olive rest for a day or two to be running around again. But, yes, uff...

The day before our leaving Lukas and Tadeas rented a community kayak (10$/half day) to have a late afternoon voyage on the river. Really nice, quiet and actually very clean one.

The rest of our time there we were just lying around and having a rest as we felt already tired and also as it was truly hot there during the afternoons.

Anyway Chi Phat it's definitely a place to visit and to do some more activities. Especially trekking might be realy nice there as there is a stunning nature and possibly still lot to see. (Not suitable for kids thought). For more info: http://www.chi-phat.org

*And for those interested in exploring new places they have just launched a new community project in the Stung Arung village. Relatively close to the Koh Rong and Thailand border.