Embedded Travel Guide Cambodia: Elephants in Mondulkiri

JAUNTED
9/03/2008

Jack Highwood loves elephants. The 26-year-old Englishman is no softy around people, but put him next to one of his beloved elephants and Jack will go all misty-eyed, clucking and cooing like a proud grandmother.

Getting your photo taken on top of an elephant in Cambodia is a piece of cake. Just go to Wat Phnom in Phnom Penh or catch a ride on one of the elephants that carries tourists around the temples of Angkor.

But if you really want to commune with the beasts, you need to brave the 10-hour bus-ride to Mondulkiri--and you need to get in touch with Jack Highwood.

East to Mondulkiri:

Mondulkiri is one of Cambodia's frontier provinces, a vast area of upland forest on the border with Vietnam. Getting to Mondulkiri from Phnom Penh isn't easy, but the first half of the trip is on good pavement, and the jungle scenery on the second half almost makes up for the brutal potholes.

The capital of Mondulkiri is a dusty town called Sen Monorom, where you'll find a smattering of decent guesthouses and exactly one bar. The bar is called The Middle of Somewhere and was started by none other than Jack Highwood, who realized soon after moving to Mondulkiri that if he wanted a gin and tonic, he'd have to make it himself.

These days Mondulkiri is seeing something of an economic boom. Gold mining has always been a cottage industry in the hills, but now multinational mining companies are drooling over the prospects of untapped veins, and the Cambodian government is bulldozing new roads through the once-virgin forest.

Hill Tribes and Elephants:

Mondulkiri is home to many of Cambodia's ethnic minorities, semi-nomadic peoples who traditionally scratched a living from the hills by farming and logging. The hill tribesmen domesticated elephants to serve as beasts of burden, but now modern machinery has made the elephants obsolete. Many of the animals are now out of a job, and their owners don't have the incentive or the resources to properly care for them.

So if the domesticated elephants of Mondulkiri are going to survive, they need to pay for their own keep. Tourism is one solution; for a few years now locals have organized elephant treks for travelers passing through.

The tours are a good way to get income to the hill-tribe communities, but not all elephants are able to haul tourists around, and there isn't enough money to go around.

Enter the Elephant Sanctuary:

Jack Highwood's mission is to create a sanctuary for retired elephants where they can live out their days in dignity and peace. The sanctuary will be coupled with an eco-tourism project, providing travelers with the unique opportunity to stay alongside elephants.

Elephants are already moving into the sanctuary, and Jack hopes to welcome the first guests to the eco-lodge in November 2008. Visit his website for details, and tell him Tim sent you.