The Chinese New Year came and it was time to have another long weekend.
For this one, unlike the last one where I went to Siem Reap, I was invited to go to Preah Vihear Province with some of the staff from CWF. I travelled the 400km to the Northern part of Cambodia by bus with Soriya, Seanglay, Jo and Eleanor. The bus journey took us about 8 hours, it wasn’t too bad when you are kept entertained with horrendous karaoke videos and movies with Khmer voice overs.
Preah Vihear province shares its border with Thailand, which has caused a lot of unrest, annoyance and UK Embassy is advising tourists to not visit this area. Because of the UK Embassy issuing this out, during my trip my insurance was not valid. It was a risk I was willing to take. Not just that in the recent past there had been fighting between the two countries; the land in this province is one of the most heavily mined provinces in Cambodia.
The political-ness of the situation was that when Vietnam came in Cambodia in 1979, they pushed the Khmer Rouge into the North where they went into hiding. To protect themselves the Khmer Rouge set up lots of mines around the areas they were staying, so when they eventually were found and removed, the Thai people saw an opportunity to slowly creep onto Cambodia’s land and claim it as their own. So there was recent fighting over this temple area in 2008 and it was called off in 2011, however when visiting the temple area the army trenches still exist and are still ready to be used if Thailand tries to pull a fast one.
The temple area itself is quite incredible, with the same design Angkorian design which is most popular at Angkor Wat, Siem Reap. The temples are positioned on top of the Dangkrek Mountains, the views are breath-taking when you are stood at the top, looking over the cliff hanging and seeing all the Lowland of Cambodia. Most of Cambodia is flat and you can see for as far as your eyes will let you when you’re up there. The temples aren’t crowded with foreigners and there weren’t so many children beggars, the problem seemed to be that the soldiers were begging the Khmer people for money. I wasn’t at all how the UK embassy had made it out to be. I think they should lift the restriction from Preah Vihear.
The challenge itself at Prasat Preah Vihear was getting up there; it is a 30-40 minute moto ride from the closest town with a guesthouse, which is flat and perfectly fine. But you reach the bottom of the mountain, you get your entry ticket and they put you on a different moto, a stronger moto, one that can conquer the steep mountain. I had a small fear of riding a moto back then, when I wasn’t wearing a helmet, had to hold onto a stranger and trying to hold onto a bike that with one bounce or bump I could go flying off the back. I was thinking, for sure people have fallen off these things going up here. It was just intense, I mean it was much harder holding on during the journey up, that when I got up there I didn’t even think about how bad it was going to on the journey down.
All in all, I had a wonderful time with wonderful people. I would recommend if you are planning on staying in Cambodia that this is a must trip, however do struggle through the bus journey from Phnom Penh, go from Siem Reap as it’s half the distance.
Heaps of Peace – Jay
