Preah Vihear
on So Now It's Cambodia (Cambodia), 07/Feb/2011 09:15, 34 days ago
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12378987I interrupt the holiday memoirs to give you an update on the tension between Cambodia and Thailand! You may have seen something on the news.Preah Vihear is an 11th. century temple up in the north west of Cambodia. It has enormous potential for a booming tourist trade and is consequently craved by both Cambodia and Thailand. Most of it is situated in Cambodia but an entrance and nearby section are claimed to be in Thailand.It is situated about 3 hours (by dirt roads) north of here, near the village of Anlong Veng. This is very near the Thai border and there is a VSO volunteer working there called Wendy who we know quite well. We have been somewhere near there before when we went to Samroang which is another hour beyond Thmar Pouk. However, I don’t think there is a proper road going north east between Samroang and Anlong Veng so it means we would have to go to Siem Reap and take the dirt road up from there.In a recent visit to Thmar Pouk we went up to see the temples at Banteay Chhmar. They are smaller and in a worse state than the ones at Angkor Wat but they are peaceful to wonder round and very interesting. It's currently being rebuilt.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banteay_Chhmarclick on the link below to see some of the photos from our visit:https://picasaweb.google.com/pvilleneuve6/SET77THMARPOUKANDBANTEYCHARTEMPLEJANUARY2011#(please excuse typing error - Char should be Chhmar)We also visited another small temple recently, near Battambang, called Ek Phnom. This was an even smaller site but again it is a peaceful and interesting place to wonder around.http://www.lonelyplanet.com/cambodia/northwestern-cambodia/wat-ek-phnomclick on the link below to see some of the photos from our visit:https://picasaweb.google.com/pvilleneuve6/SET89NATAYARESOORTNEARKAMPOTAndBATTAMBANGWITHEKPHNOM#So we were looking forward to seeing Preah Vihear which is supposed to be similarly beautiful and peaceful.We were going to be going there yesterday as there is a Northwest Volunteer Network Meeting today. We had planned to go to Siem Reap on Friday then on to Anlong Veng on Saturday. We had then planned to spend the Sunday seeing the temples at Preah Vihear then stay over for the meeting today. The last we had heard was that the tensions had calmed down and troops had been withdrawn and it was perfectly safe to go.However, when we told the hotel staff in Siem Reap about our plans they were horrified and told us there was fighting there. We were confused and thought maybe they were out of date! However, news soon started to trickle through and eventually VSO rearranged the meeting to be held in Mongkul Borei today and advised us not to go to the temples!! The government travel website also advises against going.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anlong_Veng_DistrictIt has since become a prime feature on a number of Cambodian TV channels to which the Khmers are glued! The situation doesn’t sound good and it may have been triggered by Cambodia taking some prisoners or by putting up their flag at the temple. We have also heard that they took down the Thai flag as well but we’re sure if that is true!The Thais are desperate for the tourist potential of Preah Vihear having seen the Angkor Wat effect where the number of visitors increases every year. It may just be a border dispute which has run for many years. It’s a common complaint from Khmers that their land has been stolen by both Thailand and Vietnam. In fact, our VSO language teacher told us they had lost 21 provinces to Vietnam as a result of the war.We know of a Khmer who has been studying in Thailand. He was fine when on the campus but suffered abuse from Thais if he went out and about. We also had a warning e mail from VSO last week about lots of rallies in Bangkok this weekend and to stay away from the trouble spots. Such as shame - apart from the fact they seem to be lovely people, we really like our trips to Bangkok!So the struggles go on and we watch and hope the violence doesn’t escalate any further…..