Top Ten Southeast Asia Off-the-Beaten-Path Adventures

Cambodia's Temples Photo Gallery

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It's hard to get further off the beaten track than Cambodia's northeastern frontier province of Ratanakiri. Aficionados of Apocalypse Now will recognize this as Colonel Kurtz territory, but visitors today will search in vain for renegade American commanders, Khmer Rouge guerrillas, and spear-toting tribesmen. The latter are still there, of course, but nowadays they're more likely to be selling spears as souvenirs. Not that there are many visitors (as yet) to Cambodia's final frontier. Fly into the provincial airstrip at Ban Lung to visit Ratanakiri, home to the Virachay National Park—a huge area of unspoiled tropical rain forest believed to shelter various large mammals, including tigers. Elephant trekking can be arranged at several villages in the vicinity of Ban Lung, and, to make Apocalypse Now come to life, take a boat trip along the remote Srepok River—reputedly the movie's model.