En route to Preah Vihear

A section of the road that defeated us on the way to Preah Khan

I've now reached Preah Vihear in the recollections from my trip to northern Cambodia that took place in late March. We'd arrived in Tbeng Meanchey after the gruelling 11-hour moto ride from Stung Treng. In the Malop Dong restaurant we met up with Vutha and Seyha, who would accompany us on the remainder of our trip to Preah Vihear, Anlong Veng and Banteay Chhmar over the next couple of days. They work with me at Hanuman Tourism and came equipped with a 4WD to make life a little easier for my old bones. Early the next morning, during a thunderous storm, we headed south towards the temple site of Preah Khan for a quick inspection, however the rain of the last few days did us no favours. Preah Khan is hard to reach at the best of times, located a long way from any main roads and reachable on local dirt tracks which get very muddy after rain, and so it proved. Two hours into our trip and with Vutha, our best driver at the helm, we deemed it impossible to continue and get to Preah Vihear in the same day. So, reluctantly, we turned around, sloshed through the water-filled track we'd just navigated and returned to Tbeng Meanchey by 10am.

Our lunch stop at Sraem as Vutha cleans the wheels of our 4WD

The road to Preah Vihear was much easier, though diversions aplenty as they are laying lots of concrete culverts at various points especially the small bridges. At the turn off for Choam Khsan, the recent upsurge in interest in the province has cleared the heavily-forested area into a mini-housing centre with a new large market standing empty, whilst at Sraem, where we stopped for lunch, the small town was awash with military personnel. It took us 2 hours to reach Sraem. Our lunch of chicken and deer was quickly consumed and the final 45 minutes to Kor Muy, the village at the foot of Preah Vihear, was remarkable for the sheer volume of military troops and heavy guns and equipment that is visible from the main road. This area used to be a wilderness with nothing and no-one between the sleepy villages. The change is dramatic. We quickly confirmed our guesthouse booking then took the newly-laid road to the top of the mountain. It took about half an hour as the incline is very steep in places and not for the faint-hearted. At the beginning of the road we spoke to a few soldiers to check the situation which they said was quiet, and as we neared the top of the road we encountered a barrage of machine-gun posts dug in on both sides, with plenty of troops milling around, especially when we reached the summit and the area around the small pagoda. This had been the scene of one of the main disputes with the Thai soldiers in the preceding months. All the soldiers appeared at ease, though each carried their own arsenal of weapons and the gun posts facing Thailand were heavily-manned from what I could see. We had reached Preah Vihear and parked our 4WD next to the 5th Gopura.

Our first sight of the mountain with Preah Vihear on top

The rock formation at the top of the Preah Vihear mountain - I would be standing there a few hours later

The beginning of the newly-laid road to the top, built by the military

The incline is much steeper than it appears in these photos - ask anyone that's been

The only traffic besides us was military traffic - we were the only tourists that day

A rough section of the road that will need to be widened in the future

The village of Kor Muy as seen from the road to the top

The final leg of the mountain road, just around the corner are the machine-gun posts and the summit of Preah Vihear

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