Thinh Pham

Tag: Cambodia

  • Verdant retreat

    Verdant retreat

    Nature Lodge, a splendid hideaway spreads over 7 hectares of verdant countryside of Sen Monorom, Mondulkiri, offers the best leisure time for your weekend retreat. Let’s take a look!

    Established in 2007 by a lovely couple, the accommodation is a set of eco-friendly bungalows where you may find interesting and relent, aim at nature-loving travelers looking to break away from the hustle and bustle of city life (for a while). It is also an effort to maintain “environmental friendliness, fair employment and ethical practice”, provide “ethical employment, language and vocational tourism training to locals in Sen Monorom”.

    Bungalows

    If you’ve been to the Central Highland of Vietnam, you may find it similar but I bet it just bears resemblance to the exterior features, not interior designs. That’s the case here.

    The rustic cabins are made of reclaimed wood details, from walls to roof, staircase to log table by the balcony, gentle breezes blowing softly on a hammock where guests may love to take a glance at horses below greeting with echoed whinnies through the trees.

    Step inside and don’t let the furnishing amaze you as it did to me. So gorgeous vintage findings, including a fabulous cushioned-wooden bed accompanied by a white mosquito curtains above.

    The bathroom is super cool that you would love it for the first time seeing. Good furnishings with tasteful decoration makes it an unforgettable moment during your staying there. The water is heated by bio-gas so it takes a little time to be ready.

    With plenty of space between cottages, you may get lost for the first time trying to navigate. Admittedly, so did I, especially at night where the light is scarce (true, we used our headlight or smartphone to light up the environment all the time, it is quite interesting). No worries, you would get used to it quickly on day.

    Tree top café

    Another amazing corner when you stay at Nature Lodge. There’s great charm in many of the lodge’s well-thought out details, particularly the bar, as well as the tree top balcony. Chilling out with friends by the pools is the best to kill time. I even borrowed a guitar and we had a wonderful acoustic night. So great!

    I’ve never been to any places like this before, truly live among nature, all wooden parts, the small statue with mysterious smile, cushion lounges, tables and chairs on the high decks overlooking the surrounding canopy of forest and garden views.

    The Nature Lodge tree tops café & kitchen opens daily from 7:00 AM to 9:00 PM, serving a variety of Western, classic Khmer and Thai cuisine. The lounge offers free wifi 24/7 so it’s perfect if your would like to reconnect to the world while looking for relaxation, meals or refreshments.

    Facilities

    Guests tend to come for a couple of days to relax over leisurely dining or merely short-term stop on their around-the-world trip.

    Become a big fan of the lodge or you will be tired out by running around the expansive property for photography or pleasedly strolling for a summer sunset or a fresh dawn. Such a chilled-out vibe.

    Also, the bar is perfect for leisurely relaxation. You can play billiards, guitar with friends or sipping a drink for a peaceful morning, or just swinging on a hammock while recollecting beautiful wanderlust memories.

    It is all wooden, with vintage-styled orange lighting, impressively cute and very unique.

    Although the lodge is officially open, it’s not 100 percent: there’s still quite a lot under construction, like new bungalows. In other words, there’s still a presence of equipment and noise that’s definitely annoying.

    Afterall, it is beautifully preserved natural landscape, amongst thousands of native trees and many fruit trees (avocados, then you see!) that have been planted for years in order to restore deforested areas. Such an immersive green world!

    The premises also provides large grass areas and communal fire places, an open space for group activities. We did campfire there with grilled shrimps, seasoned meat and beer, making so loud that the host gently reminded us to keep quiet (Oh, I was so sorry but, it was so exciting for any first-time experience).

    Service

    Travelers could find the staff is so friendly that it’s hard to be grumpy. Any of the attendants would be happy to offer you a stroll back to the bungalow after dinner, in case you get lost.

    You may note that the room service attendants are not English-proficient so you are advised to contact the bartender for specific help.

    Hardly find a flock of travelers, no, particularly on weekends, means, you will get peaceful corner for yourself, if that’s what you’re after.

    Conclusion

    I love the lodge for the very first time staying. Its nature beats me up with love that we had a wonderful night camping, singing and playing billiards together and Nature Lodge is a gem that you’d love to explore when in Mondulkiri.

    More photos:

  • Mondulkiri Photography tips: The pine hill

    Mondulkiri Photography tips: The pine hill

    Photography is one of the reasons why people love travel.

    It is admittedly that people have to pay a chunk of money to travel to a incredible destination, why don’t they have a stunning album to show off to boast our journeys?

    However, most of us are amateur shooters and photographs are just for beautiful memories, the landscape is picturesque but through our lens, it looks so ordinary, not as subtle as ones captured by professional travel photographers.

    This post won’t turn you into a super photographer overnight, but possibly improve your shooting skill.

    The shooting field location is not included so that you will focus on how to shoot perfectly instead of “Could you please tell me where it is?”, which is not the purpose of the post. 

    Here we go !

    The trunk

    The models are my companions on the trip and we had a wonderful shooting time with every amazing poses. 

    As you can see, we set up by a big old trunk playing as a background. 

    The first tip is to find a contrast background so that it will color the photograph naturally, highlight the models and reduce hard-working effort in post-process stage.

    We chose the trunk due the high contrast compared to the verdant vegetation behind, so people will be easier to recognize the subject. 

    Then, the color of the costume should be (again) make some contrast. Black and white is never old-fashioned but if you’d go for some vibrant color choices, stay contrasted (red-green, yellow-violet, orange-blue,…) and no one could ignore you.

    Also, stock some poses to use at once instead of waiting for posing advices from the photographers (sometimes, our friends or companions, who are not talented at composition and photography in general).

    The grass

    The brownish grass field is good case for playing color contrastly.

    The black fits perfectly for most case while the reddish orange scarf is a good partner featuring the model and also, contributing to the contrast range including green grass background.

    There is a trick to wear sunglasses due to the fact that your eyes look slightly closed to prevent the sunshine. So even the model face the sky, she boasted very air of confidence. 

    The hill

    Another reason why you should bring along a scarf (I suggest 2 contrast colors, blue on for warm-colored background and red/ orange for cool-colored landscape) is to visualize the wind. 

    Yes, we can not see the wind, but with a scarf, wind become our ally: He bring us a sense of freedom in the photograph, which is all travelers look for.

    With scarf, we have more options for posing ideas.

    The view by the hill

    Last but not least, don’t forget to take some unmanned photos. Sometimes we just love to enjoy a clear vista while sipping a cup of tea recollecting a time when we are young and wild. 

  • Bad guys in Cambodia

    Bad guys in Cambodia

    These travel tips originate from odds, especially in third-world countries, when you travel, and one of them is corruption. This is the travel story for my first time experience “travel bribe”. It happened in Cambodia, August, 2015.

    My opinion is that these “bad guys” doesn’t represent all Cambodian people. For me, they are still hospitable, lovely and welcome after all. I tell these stories so that you know what occurring in the country and have plans to deal well with these weird experience and enjoy better moments instead of crying as a victim. No, we should learn to become a professional, experienced traveler after years, not amateur anymore, right?

    You’re ready? Let’s go!

    1. My first story – land border gate

    It was at the check-in counter in the Vietnam-Cambodia land border gate. I had read information suggesting that tourists would be asked for money as if a fee though they have a free visa.

    I still remember the man at the check-in counter, he’s quite black, bald a bit. When I approached him to receive my visa, he whispered somethings like “30.000 vnd” in Vietnamese, not loud but enough to grasp if you know a little the language or basic numbers.

    I couldn’t understand why I gave him that amount of money without any hesitation or suspection. It might be my tense for the first time abroad or I was in a hurry, that I couldn’t deal well with what I was expected to do perfectly. That’s memorable and next time, there’s no excuses.

    Travel tips #1: check your visa requirement before-hand and just give the officer right amount of fee, or you’re likely to lose it.

    2. My second story – Angkor Wat

    The other encounter was at the Angkor Wat. In the morning, we were riding bicycle to the site then stopped by a tourism police. He asked for tickets and we were confusing where to buy them.

    The Angkor is a huge area including Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom. While the local is free to pass, the tourists are required to buy tickets. I thought that there would be booth tickets at every gates to the site. I was wrong. And the police confirmed me.

    And then he pointed me the direction back to the ticket station on the Charles De Gaulle street. I didn’t grasp it, so I showed my smartphone with google map on and asked him where was the station in the map. He couldn’t make it. Then he suggested that (I thought) HE would take us back, and we had to leave our bicycles and got on his police motorbike.

    It sounded great, a police officer offered you a free-ride to buy ticket to the beautiful world wonder – true good to be true. It was not a fairy tale.

    He said that we had to pay 3 usd/ person (that totally paid 6 usd for both if we accepted and he would have a taxi bike ride together to the booth. Oh, it was so surprising that the officer were offering me a out-off-duty deal.

    I believe that there’s no reason why people have to pay anything to traffic police officers but fine. So we gentlely denied, and turned our bicycle back to find the booth.

    Do you believe that I heard the police bargained: “5 usd for 2,… 3 usd for 2,.. ok, 1 for 2….”. And I just “no, thanks” repeatedly. I hadn’t experience anything odd like that before, a police was doing his own business without any shame for what he was doing.

    Travel tips #2: You can have police help, with a price. How much? Ask them ! *LOL*

    3. My third story – next day in Angkor Wat

    When we found the booth, It was noon, so we decided to buy ticket for the next day. And in the morning, we departed from our hostel, on a tuk tuk small tour with a young rider.

    It was usually when we visited the Angkor Wat, but when we moved to other areas, we witnessed some polices stopping our tuk tuk. At not far distance, we used our camera to track what happening and it turned out that the rider was bribing the police with some money.

    I had no idea how much but our tour was around 12 usd for a half-day ride, it’s not much to being taken. But it seemed that bribe has become a street custom in Cambodia that people do it fluently. It’s so sad.

    Travel tips #3: if you tend to ride a motorbike in Cambodia, make sure you have right license or you will have big trouble on road.

    Troubles make you experienced, so expect them, don’t be a victim