Adventure bound: Preah Vihear temple [to fulfill a lifelong dream]

By C T U

A trip to Prasat Preah Vihear or Preah Vihear Temple had always been on my to-do list, and I finally arranged to meet my cousin in Cambodia to begin our trip from Battambang. With our driver and his vehicle, we set off very early on the morning of 25^th July 2011, and our plan was to head north towards Sisophon, before turning east along Highway 6 to Siem Reap then on to Preah Vihear.

About 2.5 hours into the trip, we entered Siem Reap Province and stopped for breakfast at Kralanh. From Kralanh, we could continue to Siem Reap as initially planned. Alternatively, we could head north from Kralanh to Oddor Meanchey via an unsealed road before continuing to Anlong Veng then to Preah Vihear.

With a decision to make, we found ourselves discussing the pros and cons of each road. Our driver preferred the sealed road and suggested that we go via Siem Reap. His car was his livelihood, and he found it difficult to entertain the possibility that it could be damaged due to poor road conditions. The other view was that none of us had travelled the road to Oddor Meanchey before, so it would be worth exploring. If a vote had been taken the result would have been 2-1 in favour of Siem Reap, but we weren’t operating under a democracy, so the discussion continued . . .

The Phnom Dangrek Range, not far from the road

As we were leaving the restaurant, my cousin spotted a government’s Toyota Landcruiser with Oddor Meanchey registration reversing out of the parking lot. A perfect opportunity to enquire about road conditions from a local! The well dressed man who appeared to be a high ranking official told him that except for a short section of road currently under construction, the road was now sealed almost all the way to Oddor Meanchey and all would be well if we chose to take that route. A decision was made, and we said we would tail his Landcruiser if that was OK with him.

There are windrows of pavement material on any road construction site, and this section of road being constructed on the way to Oddor Meanchey was no exception. This proved to be quite a challenge to our LPG converted vehicle. As we slowed down, the Landcruiser was soon out of sight, and we all agreed that our official had lost patience with our slow pace. We were wondering about his position and responsibilities in Oddor Meanchey and why he had travelled all this way just to have breakfast. These are the sort of useless things we ponder when we don’t have much to keep our mind occupied.

As we approached the roundabout which was a major intersection at the outskirt of Samrong (Oddor Meanchey’s capital), we saw our official standing beside his vehicle on the side of the road. He must have been there for a long time waiting for us to catch up. We pulled up behind him and exchanged pleasantries, he then pointed out the direction we should take to Anlong Veng before we parted company. We never learned much about him, but we were pleased to have crossed paths.

There weren’t adequate road signs in Oddor Meanchey, and we had problem finding the turn off from the main road to Anglong Veng. A girl at a roadside stall said a dirt road on our left heading east would take us to our destination, so we took that road without asking if there was an alternate route. Our Toyota sedan was the only vehicle on the road and we were gradually approaching a mountain range which we believed to be the Phnom Dangrek Range. Before long, we were running parallel to and not far from it.

Isolated huts along the road

Our driver was worried that we were too close to the border, and thought about the firing range capability of the artillery pieces which were presumably positioned on the other side of the border. Given the damage these stuff could cause as evidenced by the recent clashes between Cambodia and Thailand, and not knowing when and where the next confrontations were going be, his concern was justified. We hoped we were far enough from the border and that we wouldn’t become a collateral damage statistics should anything happen. We thought the 60mm and 81mm mortars only had very short range, and surely the Thai military wouldn’t have the long range communist made BM21. But what about the capitalist 105mm and 155mm?

I consulted my bushwalking GPS and it confirmed that we were still heading east and were on the south side of the mountain range. That was the right side to be, as long as we keep heading east and be on the south side we would eventually reach Anlong Veng.

There were some military posts along the road but that didn’t give us much comfort given our conversation a few minutes ago. After what seemed like a very long time we met locals who said Anlong Veng was just ahead of us. “You’re almost there”, a man said, “just turn south at the next intersection”.

Country people in Cambodia always give cardinal directions rather than saying turn left or right, and this is a challenge to us “out-of-towners” who are unfamiliar with the geography.

But never mind that. What a relief! It wasn’t fun being the only car on the dirt road running that close to the border!

Village life in Anlong Veng

We had lunch in Anlong Veng, and then headed to the gas station (or rather, a house with gas cylinders in it) to fill up. But there was a power outage, so the filling up process was a bit more involved than usual. The proprietor had to start up his diesel generator. Then there was a problem with the hose as gas didn’t seem to flow. There was a bit of fiddling around to get it to work. Once that was sorted out, the gas cylinder was weighed before and after filling up to determine the weight of gas taken up by our tank. All that took a lot of time and, honestly, I was frustrated and didn’t think we would ever get gas pumped into our tank, but I was proved wrong. In the meantime, my cousin had another opportunity to chat and find out a bit more about Anlong Veng. Some people know just how to make use of every single minute of the day! To read the whole article and see more beautiful pictures, click Cambodia Watch.