Prasat Preah Vihear was built by Suryavarman I sometime between 1002 and 1049, the length of his reign. It is located in the Dangrek Mountains on the border with current day Thailand and current day Cambodia. This has not always been the case and now the " peace" is kept by a United Nations flag. The Thais and the Cambodians (Khmers) have been spatting about this place for years, ever since the French left and before! It has been on my to do list for many years now but something has always stopped me in the past. It was either money (the cost of getting there), timing (I needed to be somewhere else) or mines (either the Thais or the Khmers or both). This time everything fit and I had a friendly driver who could speak a little English. Sweet!
The journey there took us past Bantey Seri and Kbal Speen in the Kulen Plateau. Then it was up and over the Kulen and on up the road to Anglong Veng on the Thai border. Then it was right for 100 km until Preah Vihear Province. Anglong Veng used to be a big spot for Khmer Rouge. They aren't there any more but the town seems to have changed very little over the years and it has an old and well lived in atmosphere, not unlike some far outback town in Aus. The trip was long and the country very flat except close to the border where the Dangrek Mountains loom like sentinels over the country. They are quite high and have an imposing escarpment facing Cambodia. The countryside was dry post rice harvest. There were carpets of green where no rice had been grown from the last season. The rest was scrubby bush interspersed with crops of manioc and indeterminate fruit orchards. After a while it all gets hypnotic and I nodded off.
We arrived at the ticket office, I quite rested and refreshed and my driver a little slower. It should really be called a ticket compound rather than office because it took up a large area with quite a number of people ready to "do things". You must make it perfectly clear from this point on that you are not a Thai person, that you do not have anything to do with Thailand, least of which is coming from there! At this point I was told that we needed to hire a car to go up the mountain. Did I tell you the temple (Prasat for Ernies sake) is situated on the top of a very high mountain with a cliff clinging to the back wall of the
Temple/Prasat? Well it is ! Our car could not cope with the grade of the hill, so after an exchange of cash we climbed aboard this 4X4 2 door ute thing and climbed up the mountain. I kept my eyes firmly on the floor not wanting to be assailed by a panic attack for fear of heights. I am sure that the views were spectacular as they certainly were when we got to the top! You can say what you like about "spectacular" and "awesome and all those other adjectives but I am here to tell you that the views were all of those things in SPADES! In one direction you could see hundreds of kilometers into Thailand, in the opposite you could see hundreds of kilometers into Cambodia. On the Thai view side in the middle distance you could see the last outpost of Thailand complete with Flag and pole and a few flashy buildings that have a religious air about them. More of that later.
Let out of the car we had a long, for me, arduous walk up a hill past the UN Flagpole to the front Ghopura or for the anglophile "gate". The Ghopura is in quite a state of disrepair but you can still see the overall structure and some very nice carvings on lintels and roof tops. From the first gate there is a very long avenue of stones to walk up. At least 200 meters quite possibly more. It was "arduous". Up a short set of stairs and you are in gate #2 or should I say the second Ghopura. It is a bit more complicated than the first Ghopura in that it has rooms on either side. There is another very long avenue further up the hill. Fortunately the "way of visit" sign pointed away from the avenue. We followed as requested and got some spectacular views of a tower with a grove of bambooy stuff growing from the roof or what was left of it. It looked like a giant "Gronk" doll, remember those hideous plastic things with a head of funny colored hair sticking out of a hole in the back of the head?
The third gate prooved nearly to be the last. The final sanctuary lay within the walls of a central building which in turn was surrounded by a covered gallery. Walking along inside the gallery was a welcom respite from the blazing sun outside, so cool. Ritual was continuing as it had for centuries. There were 2 monks, a lot of incence and cash dotted everywhere. In the back behind the votive area stood the gods; Bhudda, Vishnu and Shiva. Quite splendid. Humbled at the scene I backed quietly out and went in search of the cliff. This was right behind the back wall of the Prasat. It was very steep, plunging vertically for about 300 feet. Needless to say I kept a safe psychotic distance from that particular thing. Picture for yourself a 63 year old man, portly in stature trying to peer over the cliff from say about 10 meters distance. Talk about an exercise in futility. Well that was it, we walked for about 3km up a hill through an enormous and quite old temple out the back and to the almost cliff edge. Then we (my driver and I, who had now become quite solicitous as to my state of health - cf: the walk up.) turned about and at a relaxed, if not a little tentative pace we walked back down the hill. We passed the temple and various groups of what appeared to be locals and military relatives having picnics. We approached what could only be described as a military observation post complete with a bereted soldier that looked very fit. To my suprise my driver walked on in, had a chat and looked through a very military looking set of binoculars. I gingerly followed and to the second obbo point. When I looked through the binocs I was looking at a Thai soldier in thier observation point looking through his binocs at me! In true Aussie fashion and in solidarity with my Khmer colleagues I gave him the bird. I thouroughly enjoyed my little visit with the military. It all looked so impossibly complicated and stupid. But you can see why they like to keep the view.
All that was needed now was to point the car in the general direction and head for Stung Treng some 250km away. I planned to stay the night and catch the bus to the 4000 Islands the next day. We arrived late in the afternoon, the sun setting on a dusty and dirty river town one stop before the border. It took some finding but eventually we found my hotel. I had a fourth floor room overlooking the Mekong for $20 US and they had a lift! Kaloo Kalay. No dragging my gigantic pack up any stairs for this little black duck. Stung Treng itself is quite a large bustling riverside city. The large market is very close to the hotel and provided me with dinner. A very nice piece of bbqed chook and some fried noodles with other stuff of indeterminate and determinate natures. I have to say tho, that given the chance I would probably avoid this place like the plague. Next stop Don Det, Mike and Tip, Dave, Mini et al
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