What's New in Ratanakiri

Around Town
The market is now twice as big, with more new building to come.
There is now a bitumen dual carriageway on the main highway right through town, with plants and all! It has cut the dust a fair bit, but accidents are on the rise.

There are now at least 4 places in town with WiFi access, including Gecko, Treetops and the Laos Restaurant on the main north/south street.

New Road
Work has begun on the rebuilding of Highway 78, the road from Stung Treng. The road is in quite good condition all the way, with delays fairly unlikely (certainly until the wet season), but the massive wide new sections are spectacular. Included in the project is a diversion in the Stung Treng part of the road which will go around the proposed new hydro dam on the Sre Pok.

The plan is to have sealed road all the way to Viet Nam, but there was not much obvious progress in the first two years, while the alignment was swept and 7000 pieces of unexploded ordinance removed!

Typhoon Ketsana
Cambodia visas are now available on arrival at the land borders, but NOTE Laos and Vietnam visas are not available at the border!!

Typhoon Ketsana
The floods receded fairly quickly and although many villagers need assistance with replacing crops etc the situation will not affect travellers significantly.


Country for Sale
Cambodia could eventually earn enough from its oil, gas and minerals to become independent of foreign development aid. Country for Sale exposes for the first time how this is being jeopardised by high level corruption and nepotism in the management of these critical public assets. Global Witness, 2009(DevZone)