River wild... motorbike is the key transport in Ratanakiri region.
 River wild... motorbike is the key transport in Ratanakiri region. Photo: Getty Images
Gemima Harvey explores the villages of Cambodia's remote northern Ratanakiri region.
A cool haze is layered on the horizon in Ratanakiri province, giving it the aura of a land that time forgot. A thick quilt of trees is freckled with patches of red, the volcanic earth a rich base for the endless vegetation. "Prey cher chirran," my guide says. Many forests.
Mob Krot sits in his house near the entrance to Kachagn Waterfall. The 60-year-old is from the Toum Poun ethnic minority, one of eight hill tribes living in the far-flung Ratanakiri region. Ethnic minorities once made up 80 per cent of the province's population and are generically referred to as Khmer Leou, meaning "highlander".