Why We Travel

COOLING OFF AT THE CHAA ONG WATERFALL IN BAN LUNG, CAMBODIA, DEC. 21, 2009 Richard Pearshouse, 35, a public health researcher living in Phnom Penh. “Cambodia has a very clearly defined tourist path that involves some time in Phnom Penh, and then the Angkor Wat temples. But because I’m living there it was possible to try and see a different facet of Cambodia, to explore some unusual and unique places that are a little bit off the beaten path. This photo was taken in the province of Ratanakiri, in the northeast corner of Cambodia. It’s quite remote; it takes two days or a little bit longer to get up there by a series of local buses. There are still some forested areas left in that part of Cambodia: it hasn’t all yet been logged and converted over to plantations or rice paddies. But there’s a lot of development. To get to the waterfall I had been cycling through kilometer after kilometer of plantations with rubber trees planted all in rows. I was thinking about the way in which development is happening and the landscape is changing and just how special that waterfall is, how important it is. It was sort of a small oasis. I guess I shouldn’t use the word ‘oasis’ to describe a waterfall. But it was an oasis.”

As told to Seth Kugel

Photo: Arantxa Cedillo