Daytrip from Siem Reap to Anlong Veng with rented car and driver (7 am - 7 pm, about 280 km good road and 15 km poor road, 100 USD). It took us 2 h 30 min from Siem Reap to Anlong Veng town.
It would be cheaper to get to Anlong Veng by bus or shared taxi, but travel times inconvenient and I would have to stay one or two nights and would have to hire mocy taxi to continue trip.
There is poor mobile network, no signal most of the time and I could navigate only because I had satellite image in my phone's cache from Siem Reap.
Rock shrine in road
In the middle of hwy66 at 14.3376,104.07.
Sangam Resort & Casino
The biggest building around, and due to location on top of mountain can be spotted from 10 km away.
Border crossing Chong Sa Ngam – Chaom
Chaom (Cambodian side) - Chong Sa Ngam (ช่องสะงำ Thai side), a very quiet border crossing; not to be confused with the nearby and slightly busier O'Smach - Chong Chom ช่องจอม border crossing. More at https://chongsangamchaom.blogspot.com/
Pol Pot Cremation Site
Entry 1.50 USD. It says cremation site, but the grave has shape and size of a coffin.
From here on eastward poor road, average speed with car 11 km/h.
Peuy Taruon
Cliff with overhanging rock overlooking Cambodian countryside below. Nearby Anlong Veng Peace Center (an old house with a small exposition about Red Khmer) and ruins of houses of Red Khmer leaders and information boards.
(Temple no English name) វត្តពុទ្ធិសីមាបារមីភ្នំ ដងរែក ហៅវត្តអូរគ្រញូង
Buddha park (my name). According to my calculations, there are going to be 176 small Buddha statues. 18 rows with 8 small statues, and 16 x 2 in between these rows (see two empty spots in front of picture). 11 big Buddha statues in the back.
Buddha statue in front of the cliff at 14.3461, 104.0975, accessible by metal stairway. 14.3461, 104.0974. In rainy season, there will be a waterfall on the cliff behind Buddha statue. Now almost dry.
Another Buddha statue in front of the cliff at 14.3464, 104.0936. Nearby an iron spring (the water contains dissolved bivalent iron, which oxidizes and precipitates as trivalent iron in contact with air, leaving brown deposits of rust). I drank 0.5 L of the water without ill effect.
Weird rock surface
At 14.3625, 104.1133, I spotted a weird rock surface in satellite image, grey background with white stripes. Requires investigation. Walk through cashew ? plantation, then grassland, but nothing special to see. When I get on a termite hill as vantage point and can see only grassland, it dawns on me: slash-and-burn, now overgrown. If my readers have not learnt anything new today, this is what fresh slash-and-burn looks like on satellite image:
Pol Pot House
Ruin of Pol Pot's house and bunker at 14.3538, 104.1213.
Pol Pot's Holiday House
At 14.3684, 104.1213. Unlike all the other places, no signs here.
Waterfall
Originally, I wanted to go to a waterfall (ថ្មដាអូរទឹកខៀវ, no English name, at 14.3555, 104.1838), but we were running out of time and daylight. There is a tree growing over a rock at the waterfall, picture from google maps:
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What peace dividend it is !. When I was in Siem Reap in 2001 and was asking about possibility of going to Anlong Veng and Preah Vihear I was either laughed at or met horror looks.
ReplyDeleteNot much good can be said about Khmer Rouge leaders but judging by what was left of their houses, PolPot's or Ta Mok's personal enrichment was not on their list of priorities. It's still shocking whatever was left is still preserved and admission charged.
I really admire your ability to go where it is hard to travel to. Not a lot of people would bother. Glad you did bother and shared the trip with your readers.
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