Wednesday, 30 December 2020

Standing stones near Siem Reap

Standing stones near Siem Reap

40 km North of Siem Reap (but much longer by road, and due to poor road surface a two-hour trip each way) is a field with weird stones of the name Peung
Tanon ពើងតានន់.

(Most of my travels is inspired by either boys or rocks/mountain/stones, I could name my blog "boys and boulders".)




Some top-heavy stones:




This stone looks like a penis to me (and cows grazing, and following picture farming):



A small stream flows through the field:

Religious paintings on some rocks (and some religious buildings as well, not in picture):




How to get there

Getting there was not easy. Both my friend and driver heard of this place but have not been here. From researching on google maps, I saw that it is marked at the correct (judging by satellite image) and at a wrong location. I thought I saw on our driver's navigation that he has the correct location, but it was the wrong as I should find out later and which would cost us one hour detour on very 
poor roads.

Looking at
google maps, the best way to go there would be the road North of Angkor Wat (would you need a ticket to pass?), but the driver said it's poor surface, confirmed by a look at google street view. We took a detour (but better road) via Angkor Chum.

The driver was a recommendation by my local friend, and I can forward this recommendation to my readers (speaks good English and interesting conversation, non-smoker, no speeding):


I had poor mobile phone reception and no GPS most of the trip, so I can only reconstruct our trip from guesswork and memory.

turn NE at this junction (there is a Tela gas station S of the junction):
13°43'12.4"N 103°47'24.0"E = 13.720110, 103.790005



turn NE at this gate (Peung Tanon, Welcome to (name) restaurant)
13°43'54.3"N 103°47'52.6"E =13.731762, 103.797952

Parking, entry to resort/temple and some food stalls is here: 
13°43'15.3"N 103°50'22.9"E = 13.720906, 103.839699
From there it's
about 500 m uphill through a forest to the center of the field with stones.

Further reading
https://www.siemreap.net/visit/attractions/sightseeing/peung-tanon/
https://www.cantravelwilltravel.com/peung-tanon-standing-stones-cambodia/ and identical text here:

https://www.tripoto.com/siem-reap/trips/peung-tanon-standing-stones-off-the-beaten-track-cambodia-can-travel-will-travel-5c7c3a7819f25
https://yoshinobunakamura.hatenablog.com/entry/2019/10/11/073956 (In Japanese, he came same way)
https://navuturesorts.com/blog/peung-tanorn-cambodias-iconic-natural-wonder-beyond-angkor-wat/
(there are more hits on google, but no new information)

Copyright 2020 ChristianPFC

2 comments:

  1. another interesting discovery by Christian PFC, thank you

    ReplyDelete

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