<figcaption>Car­damom Moun­tains (left side)</figcaption>

Phnom Samkor are gran­ite for­ma­tions which cov­er a large por­tion of south­west­ern Cam­bo­dia, cre­at­ing a nat­ur­al bar­ri­er that iso­lates the hin­ter­land from the sea. They are part of the Krâ­vanh Moun­tains, lit­er­al­ly the Car­damom Moun­tains, dom­i­nat­ed by Mount Aur­al, at 1,813 meters in the east. It is cov­ered with impen­e­tra­ble equa­to­r­i­al forests, which com­pris­es of two or three lay­ers of for­est cov­er­ing most­ly the watery hillsides.

The sum­mit, Mount Samkok (1717m), is the sec­ond high­est point of the coun­try. Its north face is a set of steep ridges and peaks while the south­ern part con­sists of long lines of for­est ridges stretch­ing towards the Gulf of Siam. Between these ridges flow the two impor­tant branch­es, the Stueng Touch and the Stueng Rues­sel Chrum. The area is one of the largest wilder­ness in main­land South­east Asia and home to a remark­able num­ber of endan­gered species, includ­ing rare ele­phants, tigers and Malaysian bears in its deep­est parts.

Trek across this untouched wildlife sanc­tu­ary, which remained inac­ces­si­ble dur­ing years of con­flict in Cam­bo­dia and became one of the last strong­holds of the Khmer Rouge after they lost pow­er in 1979. Fol­low trails that snake through the rugged ter­rain cov­ered with dense equa­to­r­i­al rain­for­est and upper mon­tane for­est. Final­ly, walk along high ele­va­tion marsh­es and streams bor­dered by ancient majes­tic trees on the way to your pris­tine island escape in the Gulf of Siam.

<figcaption>Road to Car­damom Mountains</figcaption>