Chiang Mai (Northern Thailand) Tourist Guide


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Khao Phra Viharn
from the Cambodian side

Text & Images: Reinhard Hohler

Watch your step!

[Khao Phra Viharn, centre of a long-standing border dispute between Cambodia and Thailand, is a crumbling Buddhist temple of 11th century Angkorean vintage and Hindu architectural inspiration. It is but one of many such structures to be found in northwest Cambodia and northeast Thailand. Their histories and civilization stretch back as far as the 9th century - a little before Europe began moving from its Dark Ages to Middle Ages. During the civil war which ensued after the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia on Christmas Day 1978, Preah Vihar, as it is known to Cambodians, served as a remarkably well-placed communications centre for the tripartite guerrilla coalition battling the army of Prime Minister Hun Sen in Phnom Penh. In the late 1990s, Khmer Rouge forces furiously fought off Hun Sen troops at the foot of the cliff. Only relatively recently has the area been cleared of mines and made safe for tourism. The temple's location is one of fifteen or so contentious sites along the modern border between Thailand and Cambodia. Much of the confusion dates back to maps drawn up in the early 1900s by French colonial officials. In 1962, the International Court of Justice in Den Haag ruled that the temple belonged to Cambodia - even though it was, and remains, almost impossible to reach (but see below) through modern Thailand.]

In 1962, the International Court of Justice in Den Haag/Holland ruled that the temple of Khao Phra Viharn at the edge of the Khorat plateau belonged to Cambodia - even though it was almost impossible to reach without passing through Sisaket Province in modern Thailand.

Supported by John Watson, CEO of Diethelm Travel in Bangkok, I decided to accept the challenge and ascend Preah Vihear (as the Cambodians call it) from the Cambodian side, just at the time when UNESCO was in the process of accepting and listing the temple as a World Heritage Site. So on June 29, I boarded an overland bus from Chiang Mai and made the journey through the Northeast of Thailand to the Thai-Cambodian border, crossing the frontier from Chong Chom to O'Smach.

That's where the adventurous part of the trip started.

By then it was the morning of the second day, and after breakfasting in O'Smach market I hired a motor-cycle courier for $US10 to take me to Anlong Veng, formerly a Khmer Rouge stronghold. Some ride! Three hours on a dusty road over the Dangrek mountain range. After an overnight at one of the $US5 guest-houses there, I boarded a local bus and travelled some three hours further to Siem Reap, where I decided to stay a while to refresh my memory of the magnificent temples of the Angkor complex.

Churning the Sea of Milk

It was clear by this time that reaching Preah Vihear would take careful organisation. The road to the great Khmer temple is still under construction, and a great deal of it is in poor condition, so I was glad to have the opportunity to stay at the majestic City Angkor Hotel, popular with Thai tourists, not leaving till July 10th, which turned out to just after the successful listing of Preah Vihear as a new UNESCO World Heritage Site.

For this part of the journey I was lucky enough to travel under the guidance of Choup Lorn, Manager of Diehelm Travel's Siem Reap Office and in a Pajero

four-wheel vehicle, heading along National Road 6 towards the village of Damdek. From there, a new but not-yet-surfaced dirt road goes north to reach the temple sites of Beng Mealea as well as Koh Ker and finally the provincial town of Tbeng Meanchey. After a break at the entrance of Prasat Beng Mealea, a kind of prototype of Angkor Wat and overgrown by jungle, we continued straight to the old temple complex of Koh Ker, which we reached at 10.30.

Koh Ker was the capital of the Khmer Empire from 928 - 944 AD under King Jayavarman IV and located some 100km away from Angkor. After a picnic in the shade of the ruins we left at 13.30 for the 200 km drive to Tbeng Meanchey, the capital of Preah Vihear Province. We were happy to call it a day at that point, and after a visit to the Carol Cassidy Silk Weaving Centre where a community of determined land-mine survivors is creating a sustainable income through traditional weaving, we checked in at the Heng Heng Guesthouse (rooms at $US 10).

Precipice below

We proved to have arrived at a good time, since there was a firework display that evening to celebrate the accession of Preah Vihear temple as Cambodia's newest world heritage site.

Next morning we left at 8 a.m. to cover the final 120 km to our destination, the road in very poor condition. Approaching the escarpment on the lip of which Preah Vihear is lodged, we passed a footpath leading right through the forested area to the top of the cliff. Here we saw signboards warning against mines, and that people should stay on the well-used tracks, away from the overgrown areas. This footpath ends at the eastern side of the first "gopura" or entrance gate of Preah Vihear temple.

However, we drove on to the small market place at the foot of the escarpment, where foreign tourists can get an entry pass for 10,000 riel (roughly $2.5) and a valid pass for one day only. From the market place, motorbike drivers (moto) can take tourists up the steep 8km of meandering mountain road for $5 - a service which the Pajero made unnecessary in our case. Instead, with one of the best drivers in Cambodia, we tried our luck by taking the partly-surfaced road, at midday reaching the western side of the first "gopura" of Preah Vihear.

As the border gate with Thailand at the foot of the temple site and not far from the beginning of the lion staircase was closed, we met only a few Cambodians who had come from the same side as we had. We had a picnic first before climbing up the mountain cliff. Towards the north, we saw the actual Thai border and approach street, empty and deserted. There were only a few guards around, mainly stationed down at the disputed border market.

Wayside tot

As the temple itself belongs to Cambodia legally, it is hard to imagine how much land around the temple will belong to Thailand and where the demarcation line of the border will run. Because of the on-going political dispute, there is no longer a win-win situation as before. If there is no compromise to make the temple an island of peace through tourism, both countries will lose instead.

Nevertheless, having reached the temple the hard way (as it is and will be until the road construction on the Cambodian side is completed) I felt very satisfied with our effort, and able to enjoy the magnificent view all round, as well as the feeling of being at the very heart of this ancient historic foundation, Preah Vihear.