So, I made it all the way up to Prasat Preah Vihar. The transportation involved much pain, and the temple itself ended up being just OK, but the trip was a fantastic experience.
I left early Thursday morning and caught a pickup to Kompong Thom. The pickup was one of the deluxe ones that has benches and a roof in the back. However the trip ended up being 5 hours instead of the 2 1/2 to 3 I was expecting from the guidebook. There was a pickup just about ready to leave for Tbeng Meanchey so I had just enough time to grab a bite to eat (a fish in broth with rice) before setting out. The trip to Tbeng Meanchey (on the back of a regular pickup) wasn't as long but the road was in pretty miserable condition for the last half.
I spent the first night in a guesthouse in Tbeng Meanchey. The mattress was probably the hardest I've had in Cambodia but strangely enough was covered in silk sheets. Go figure.
In the morning I steeled myself for another rough trip and grabbed another pickup up to Choam Ksant. The LP describes this stretch as a "cruel imitation of a road" and they're not kidding. Luckily it was dry which, while still bumpy, is considerably less trouble than when it's muddy. I ended up sitting up front in the cab which isolated me from a lot of it. The trip took only 4 hours and ended up being easier than I'd expected.
Choam Ksant is a tiny little village near the Thailand Border. The guesthouse ended being very pleasant and eating was a fun experience. There was one food stall with nothing even close to a menu. I ate rice with whatever they'd happened to cook. The first night was a green beans and mystery meat (probably pork) and wasn't too bad. However, the second night they served fish and Chinese cabbage with a black bean and garlic sauce. Hands down the best meal I've had in Cambodia :). During the day I walked around the village and took a couple pictures. This first one is one of my favorite pictures from this trip:
On day 3 I hired a moto and driver to take me to Prasat Preah Vihar. The ride was much easier than the trip described in the guide book. There is a new road in great condition right to the base of the mountain instead of the oxcart paths described in the book. The hike up the mountain was something else - it was a hard 2 hour climb up a steep road. As I mentioned the temple itself wasn't anything great though. Here's a picture anyway:
Preah Vihar was the final Khmer Rouge stronghold and the whole province is basically one big minefield. This ended up being one of the most interesting aspects of the trip for me. Starting about half-way between Kompong Thom and Tbeng Meanchey on Thursday you start seeing signs with maps showing safe areas that have been cleared around villages. Then later that day there is the orange or red skull-and-crossbone signs along side the road marking a known and un-cleared field.
The area between Choam Ksant and Prasat Preah Vihar are absolutely choked with live mine fields. Some are marked with the orange signs and others with rows of posts along side the roads. Others are unmarked but after a while you can kind of tell that an area is probably mined. In some places there are small communities (too small to even be considered villages) literally in the middle of the minefields.
The final 1/2 kilometer of the hike up to the temple you pass through an area that is actively being de-mined. The road is lined with small white sticks, each of which marks the current location of a mine. Some of the sticks are less than 2 feet from the side of the road, and they are everywhere - even inside the temple grounds. The second picture in this next group shows one of these fields being cleared.
The last 2 days of the trip were pretty much working my way back to Phnom Penh although I stayed overnight in Kompong Thom instead of Tbeng Meanchey. This gave me time to visit the pre-Angkor era ruins at Sambor Prei Kuk before heading home yesterday afternoon. Made for a long day all the way from Choam Ksant though. Here are a couple pictures of the temples:
I ended up making the final leg of the trip by minibus instead of by pickup. This was much faster, but surprisingly ended up being the most uncomfortable leg of the journey. I did enjoy watching the young lady next to me snack on some fried spiders (big fried spiders) that she picked up when we stopped for refreshments in Skuon.
I'm not sure what I'm going to do next. I'd like to head down south to see the semi-abandoned towns at Bokor and Kep but that means I'll definitely have to get a new Lao visa before I leave since the one I picked up in Bangkok needs to be used by the 28'th.
I left early Thursday morning and caught a pickup to Kompong Thom. The pickup was one of the deluxe ones that has benches and a roof in the back. However the trip ended up being 5 hours instead of the 2 1/2 to 3 I was expecting from the guidebook. There was a pickup just about ready to leave for Tbeng Meanchey so I had just enough time to grab a bite to eat (a fish in broth with rice) before setting out. The trip to Tbeng Meanchey (on the back of a regular pickup) wasn't as long but the road was in pretty miserable condition for the last half.
I spent the first night in a guesthouse in Tbeng Meanchey. The mattress was probably the hardest I've had in Cambodia but strangely enough was covered in silk sheets. Go figure.
In the morning I steeled myself for another rough trip and grabbed another pickup up to Choam Ksant. The LP describes this stretch as a "cruel imitation of a road" and they're not kidding. Luckily it was dry which, while still bumpy, is considerably less trouble than when it's muddy. I ended up sitting up front in the cab which isolated me from a lot of it. The trip took only 4 hours and ended up being easier than I'd expected.
Choam Ksant is a tiny little village near the Thailand Border. The guesthouse ended being very pleasant and eating was a fun experience. There was one food stall with nothing even close to a menu. I ate rice with whatever they'd happened to cook. The first night was a green beans and mystery meat (probably pork) and wasn't too bad. However, the second night they served fish and Chinese cabbage with a black bean and garlic sauce. Hands down the best meal I've had in Cambodia :). During the day I walked around the village and took a couple pictures. This first one is one of my favorite pictures from this trip:
On day 3 I hired a moto and driver to take me to Prasat Preah Vihar. The ride was much easier than the trip described in the guide book. There is a new road in great condition right to the base of the mountain instead of the oxcart paths described in the book. The hike up the mountain was something else - it was a hard 2 hour climb up a steep road. As I mentioned the temple itself wasn't anything great though. Here's a picture anyway:
Preah Vihar was the final Khmer Rouge stronghold and the whole province is basically one big minefield. This ended up being one of the most interesting aspects of the trip for me. Starting about half-way between Kompong Thom and Tbeng Meanchey on Thursday you start seeing signs with maps showing safe areas that have been cleared around villages. Then later that day there is the orange or red skull-and-crossbone signs along side the road marking a known and un-cleared field.
The area between Choam Ksant and Prasat Preah Vihar are absolutely choked with live mine fields. Some are marked with the orange signs and others with rows of posts along side the roads. Others are unmarked but after a while you can kind of tell that an area is probably mined. In some places there are small communities (too small to even be considered villages) literally in the middle of the minefields.
The final 1/2 kilometer of the hike up to the temple you pass through an area that is actively being de-mined. The road is lined with small white sticks, each of which marks the current location of a mine. Some of the sticks are less than 2 feet from the side of the road, and they are everywhere - even inside the temple grounds. The second picture in this next group shows one of these fields being cleared.
The last 2 days of the trip were pretty much working my way back to Phnom Penh although I stayed overnight in Kompong Thom instead of Tbeng Meanchey. This gave me time to visit the pre-Angkor era ruins at Sambor Prei Kuk before heading home yesterday afternoon. Made for a long day all the way from Choam Ksant though. Here are a couple pictures of the temples:
I ended up making the final leg of the trip by minibus instead of by pickup. This was much faster, but surprisingly ended up being the most uncomfortable leg of the journey. I did enjoy watching the young lady next to me snack on some fried spiders (big fried spiders) that she picked up when we stopped for refreshments in Skuon.
I'm not sure what I'm going to do next. I'd like to head down south to see the semi-abandoned towns at Bokor and Kep but that means I'll definitely have to get a new Lao visa before I leave since the one I picked up in Bangkok needs to be used by the 28'th.
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