Travel is all about surprises and every now and again you get thrown a curveball, today we were given the Sopheakmit Waterfall. This is the waterfall between the border of Cambodia and Laos.
Where is the Sophaekmit Waterfall
On the road from Siem Reap to Stung Treng about 30 minutes before you hit the town you take a right down a dirt road for 40 minutes and then you are slap bang on the Mekong River rapids.
It costs $2 for non-Khmer to enter, or 8000 Rial each.
You can read more about Stung Treng here.
You can read more about the weird world of Cambodian money here.
What is there to see at Sophaekmit Waterfall?
If you are looking for a cool relaxing place to wash your hair like an advert for a Bounty Bar then this is not the place. Ironically though they do sell swimmers – whilst telling you not to swim under any circumstances.
Some truly amazing rapids are here, great photo shots and a whole heap of fabulous street food!
Street food at Sophaekmit Waterfall
Theres tons of hawkers selling shit gifts, but also a lot of people selling great food. Fish is obviously a thing here being on a river and we went for fresh lake fish, Cambodian sausages, and Khmer BBQ pork. There was also a weird cured fish that smelt a lot like a kipper, but alas time and price got in the way.
The Cambodian sausage was one of the nicest I have had in Cambodia and once again it proved its worth as a great beer snack, the BBQ pork was also extremely good. The fish though was king, slightly burned on the outside, easy to remove the bone and a clean white fish ready to eat. The Khmer pepper just extended how great it was.
Now a great beer snack needs great beer, so I was enormously happy to be able to drink Beer Lao! Beer lao still reminds me a lot of my time in Yangshuo, but I had forgotten how genuinely good it was.
You can read much more about Beer Lao here.
The last point of interest was the Sovvan Entertainment Resort where we paid $3 to swim. Rather bizarre, but I have decided to give that a blog in its own right!
Next stop Bunlung…