Kulen Mountain: Trek, Ride and Village Overnight

Every part can be changed to suit your group.

1. Day 1 Cycling to Kulen and Village Night

   We leave Siem Reap by bike in the morning and ride on dirt and country roads past rice fields, ponds and wooden houses. After lunch in a village we switch to the support vehicle for the last stretch to the base of Kulen. In the afternoon we walk to a small temple ruin in the forest. Dinner and overnight are at a simple guesthouse run by a local family. The guesthouse is basic but clean, with mattresses, mosquito nets and shared bathrooms, and the family cooks a simple Khmer dinner with rice, fish, vegetables and soup. In the evening you can sit with them and learn a few words of Khmer, or watch the stars far from the lights of the town.

   
2. Day 2 Temples, Carvings and the Waterfall

   We trek up the mountain on forest paths to the River of a Thousand Lingas, where Hindu symbols were carved into the riverbed almost a thousand years ago. We visit the giant reclining Buddha at Preah Ang Thom, then cool off with a swim under the Kulen waterfall. After a picnic lunch we drive back to Siem Reap, arriving in the late afternoon. Kulen is considered the most sacred mountain in Cambodia, and in 802 the king Jayavarman II declared the birth of the Khmer Empire here. Many Cambodians come to pray at the reclining Buddha and bathe in the river, believing its water brings good luck. The descent is easier, and the support vehicle waits at the end of the trail.