The Angkor Wat alternative: exploring Cambodia’s forgotten ruins

CEOCambodiaNews · Post by **CEOCambodiaNews** » Mon Mar 27, 2017 11:59 am

Guardian travel article, 24 March 2017

I did a double take at the temple’s empty guestbook as it was handed to me from the small, wooden ticket booth. Nope, no visitors yesterday. And just two the day before that: one German, one Thai.

What a difference a two-hour drive can make. I had spent the previous day at one of the world’s greatest tourist sites, the largest religious temple in the world, Angkor Wat. There, I’d had to use my guide’s local intel to get the best views before the crowds descended. And yet here we were on day two, just 160km up the road, with another temple all to ourselves...

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2017 ... eay-chhmar

hanno · Post by **hanno** » Mon Mar 27, 2017 12:07 pm

Beautiful and nary a soul. Used to be a pretty hard trip to get there (took me 8 hours the first time I went) but it is all easy now.

phuketrichard · Post by **phuketrichard** » Mon Mar 27, 2017 1:22 pm

BC ? Wouldn't exactly call it forgotten

have been twice, once when entered from Thailand at Omach and it was a dirt road
once after it was paved
both times we had the place to ouselves

as far as Preah vihhear,, not even close to forgotten. word of advice, dont EVER try and take a thai there ( took my daughter and it was a really terrible experience)

rozzieoz · Post by **rozzieoz** » Mon Mar 27, 2017 7:04 pm

phuketrichard wrote:
as far as Preah vihhear,, not even close to forgotten. word of advice, dont EVER try and take a thai there ( took my daughter and it was a really terrible experience)

Why?

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phuketrichard · Post by **phuketrichard** » Mon Mar 27, 2017 7:14 pm

rozzieoz wrote: ↑Mon Mar 27, 2017 7:04 pm
phuketrichard wrote:
as far as Preah vihhear,, not even close to forgotten. word of advice, dont EVER try and take a thai there ( took my daughter and it was a really terrible experience)
Why?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

ahh why indeed, Khmers hate Thais up there
What took place ....2008

at the bottom they ask u tor register, we did using our US passports, BUT when we got off the motorcycles they pulled my daughter aside an asked her if she was thai and thinking nothing wrong with being thai, she said yes ( she was 14 and holds dual nationality) so 30 minutes waiting with phone calls to, i have no idea to who, we were allowed to proceed up to the temples BUT with 2 plain clothes undercover cops and 2 armed military who kept a close watch on my daughter while trying to separate us all the time , questioning her in thai and she was almost in tears.

SOOOO dont try an take a Thai with ya

John Bingham · Post by **John Bingham** » Mon Mar 27, 2017 8:03 pm

Interesting story. I guess it's considered a sensitive border area and the newest Thai-Cambodian border dispute started in 2008.

For anyone who doesn't remember it, it got pretty heavy with plenty of incursions, artillery/rocket fire exchanges and clashes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodian ... er_dispute

Anchor Moy · Post by **Anchor Moy** » Mon Mar 27, 2017 8:58 pm

PR's visit in 2008 was almost 10 years ago, and, as JB says, the situation on the border at the time was politically sensitive. Things should have changed by now ?
Hopefully they are more welcoming to Thai tourists these days. Weren't they talking about opening up a border crossing for easy access to Preah Vihear from Thailand ?

John Bingham · Post by **John Bingham** » Mon Mar 27, 2017 9:12 pm

Anchor Moy wrote: ↑Mon Mar 27, 2017 8:58 pm Weren't they talking about opening up a border crossing for easy access to Preah Vihear from Thailand ?

It was open from the Thai side for years before the dispute, but only for visits to the temples, it has never been an official border crossing. During the 90s there were times when it was outside government control and you could only get there from the Thai side. Besides the security aspect the roads in Cambodia leading to it were in terrible condition. Once you got to the border gate Khmer Rouge soldiers would escort you around the temple. I wasn't there at the time, I thought Phuket Richard might have mentioned going up there at that time or maybe I'm confusing him with someone else.
The actual escarpment is always going to be hard to get up from the Cambodian side, but the roads leading to it are in very good condition now.

hanno · Post by **hanno** » Tue Mar 28, 2017 3:46 am

The border crossing may not be open but there is very active trade going on between Khmer and Thai soldiers. I went up there with my daughter and we were invited for tea in the canteen with both Thai and Khmer soldiers enjoying some down time.

phuketrichard · Post by **phuketrichard** » Tue Mar 28, 2017 7:36 am

Sorry;
i went back thru my photos and it was July 2012 ( less than 5 years ago) that i was there with my daughter

i tried to drive up in 2005 from the thai side and was stopped about 2 kms from the temple area at the check point

Asked to respond to an article in the Bangkok Post that said Banh had acknowledged preparations were under way to reopen passage from Thailand’s Sisaket province – which was closed in 2009 amid military skirmishes around the contested 11th-century temple – Defence Ministry spokesman Chhum Socheat maintained the report was inaccurate.

“I would like to confirm that the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Tea Banh did not talk at all about the Preah Vihear temple issue during the meeting in Thailand, even during the press conference. The report by the media was not true,” Socheat said.

“Both Cambodia and Thailand discussed the upgrading of international border-crossing checkpoints in some other areas, but not Preah Vihear.”

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/m ... ear-temple

The Angkor Wat alternative: exploring Cambodia’s forgotten ruins

The Angkor Wat alternative: exploring Cambodia’s forgotten ruins

Re: The Angkor Wat alternative: exploring Cambodia’s forgotten ruins

Re: The Angkor Wat alternative: exploring Cambodia’s forgotten ruins

Re: The Angkor Wat alternative: exploring Cambodia’s forgotten ruins

Re: The Angkor Wat alternative: exploring Cambodia’s forgotten ruins

Re: The Angkor Wat alternative: exploring Cambodia’s forgotten ruins

Re: The Angkor Wat alternative: exploring Cambodia’s forgotten ruins

Re: The Angkor Wat alternative: exploring Cambodia’s forgotten ruins

Re: The Angkor Wat alternative: exploring Cambodia’s forgotten ruins

Re: The Angkor Wat alternative: exploring Cambodia’s forgotten ruins

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