Place
Sen Monorom
សែនមនោរម្យ
Sen Monorom (សែនមនោរម្យ) is the provincial town of Mondulkiri,[1] in northeastern Cambodia.[2] It is the province's only municipality (krong) and the seat of its administration.[3] IntoCambodia.org calls it the province's largest town and its economic center.[2]
History
Mondulkiri was created as a province by royal decree on December 30, 1961, from land that had belonged to Kratie province.[3] Later in 1962, Sen Monorom became the province's municipality.[3][2]
For years the town was hard to reach. Regular commercial flights stopped in 1998; the last service was one flight a week. In 2002 the road from Phnom Penh took about seven hours in good conditions and up to 12 hours in the rainy season, when drivers wrapped chains around their tires.[4] The town's airstrip has a laterite runway 1,817 meters long and no scheduled flights. A new provincial airport is planned about 20 kilometers south of the town.[2]
Geography
Sen Monorom lies in the southeastern part of the province, 382 kilometers from Phnom Penh by National Roads 7, 8, and 76.[2] The province sits on a plateau in the southeast of the country.[5] The Prek Te river forms the boundary between the municipality and Ou Reang district.[3] The border with Vietnam is less than 30 kilometers away.[4]
The municipality had 14,252 people in 2019, by the provincial commune database. It is the most densely populated part of Mondulkiri, the least densely populated province in Cambodia.[3]
Town life
The Bunong people live in and around the town; they are the largest Indigenous group in Mondulkiri, about 44 percent of the province's people in 2019.[1][3] Farming around the town mixes patches of forest and crops, mostly vegetables.[3]
The town holds the provincial offices, a referral hospital, banks, a post office, hotels and guesthouses. It is the transport hub between National Road 76 and the other districts, and the place where rubber, cassava and other crops are traded with Ratanakiri and the provinces of Vietnam across the border.[3] Many goods sold in its markets come from Vietnam.[4][5] Land prices rose fast in the 2000s as people from other parts of the country moved to the town.[1][5]
Nearby
Sen Monorom is the usual base for visitors to the province.[5][3]
- Phnom Doh Kramom, a hill close to the town, is a cultural site and a place of worship.[2]
- Phnom Sang Sne (ភ្នំសាងស្នេហ៍), a hill of about 900 meters in Spean Mean Chey commune of the municipality, is often foggy and cold and is used for stargazing.[2]
- Monorom Waterfall, also called Dam Nak Sdach, falls in three stages and runs strongest in the rainy season.[2]
- Bou Sra waterfall (ទឹកជ្រោះប៊ូស្រា), in Pech Chreada district, is one of the best-known waterfalls in Cambodia.[2] The Cambodia Daily described it as a double waterfall with cliffs 65 meters high.[4]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Wikipedia, Senmonorom (undated)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 IntoCambodia.org, Mondulkiri Province (undated)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 Provincial Committee for Land Management and Urban Planning of Mondul Kiri, Technical Report of the Mondul Kiri Provincial Spatial Plan (March 2021)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 The Cambodia Daily, Tourists starting to trickle into Mondolkiri (August 2, 2002)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Tourism Cambodia, Mondulkiri Province travel guide (undated)