Kor Muy no more

It's 7am at Kor Muy market - soon to be a thing of the past

Take a look at these recent pictures of early morning tranquility in the village of Kor Muy at the foot of Preah Vihear. Next month the village, the market, the guesthouses and the homes of over 460 families will be relocated to a site 20kms away, near Sraem. It's all part of a plan to establish zones around the World Heritage site and the village of Kor Muy doesn't fit into that plan. So it has to move, lock, stock and barrel. In its place, apparently, will appear a large tourism park including a museum, a parking lot and a traditional market. The families who were part of the market on top of the mountain have already been relocated to the same spot near Sraem. Their homes and stalls went up in smoke last month when the Thai army decided to use the market for target practice. For the families at Kor Muy, they will be given a plot of land measuring 50 by 100 metres, $500 in cash, timber for construction and 50 sheets of corrugated iron for roofing. I can't imagine for one minute that any of the families will be happy about it, but like all relocations that appear in the newspapers on a daily basis at the moment, they have no choice.
On my first visit to Preah Vihear in March 2002, we'd left our moto with one of the shopkeepers, Kouch, and climbed to the top of the mountain for my first, memorable, Preah Vihear experience and one I will always cherish. On our return to the village with its then-newly built houses, we ate with Kouch and her family, played foot shuttlecock with some of the small children and had a lie down in a hammock before departing. Those will remain my abiding memories of Kor Muy.

The meat stall at the Kor Muy market

A look at the main road through Kor Muy as it heads towards Preah Vihear

The rising sun illuminates the rubbish-strewn land at the foot of Preah Vihear mountain

A reminder of March 2002, Kouch stands in front of her shop at Kor Muy