Subject: burma, thailand<br/>
Date: Jan 25, 2004 @ 06:17<br/>
Author: bwhyte@unimelb.edu.au (bwhyte@...)<br/>
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<div id="ygrps-yiv-1694767264">Greetings,<br/>
I have been offline while overseas in Burma and Thailand.<br/>
<br/>
In Thailand I made daytrip to Laos and Cambodia, and tried to reach their tripoint.<br/>
the N. Cambodian border runs along the edge of the cliff/drainage divide between it and Thailand. Generally the mountains here (hills really) slope gradually down on the Thai side, and drop off abruptly in a cliff on the Cambodian, so the drainage divide is the top of the cliff.... Except at the Pra Vihaar temple, which the ICJ awarded to Cambodia in 1962. The temple sits atop the cliffs, and in 1962 Thailand vacated 24ha of land here. But it has since slowly pushed the boundary southwards, and currently its big sealed road to the temple ends abruptly and one has to walk 100m down a slight slope to a gate near a small gully. Upon crossing through the gate and across the gully one is in Cambodia. Here is a small market ands the beginning of a long lfight of stairs that forms part of the temple, and leads up to the temple on the clifftop (with great views).<br/>
Thailand now claims right up to the bottom of the temple stairs. Cambodia claims the real border is much further north, so there are no boundary pillars here, only a stretch of no mans land, ocupied currently by the Thais. The gully forms a good natural boundary here and appears to be considered the de facto boundary. <br/>
<br/>
Otherwise the cliff face descending into Cambodia is the boundary. Agian I saw no pillars along the cliff face further back from the temple, but it makes an interesting natural boundary, as the cliff often overhangs land below it, making for a non-vertical plane boundary. And as to jurisdiction over rock climbers.. who knows.<br/>
<br/>
Apart from the temple itself, the disputed land around the temple is heavily mined, so there was no question of wandering around off the cleared paths looking for pillars! This also deters the locals fomr corssing away from the lockable gate on one side of the gully!<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
At the Laos-Thai border crossing of Chong Mek, east of Ubon Ratchathani, there appear to be no pillars either. There is a fence made of old gates, wire etc, separating two markets. On the Lao side a large air con duty free shop sells French, Chillean and Australian wine, cigrattes, etc. It is surrounded by thatched huts selling Chinese wines, pirated CDs, textiles, Lao wine and beer, etc. One can freely wander into Lao here to the market (officially there is a 10Baht fee), but a visa is needed to proceed further into Laos.<br/>
From the Lao side crossing into Thailand seems free, and as most westerners get a free 30day permit upon arrival in Thailand, there is no problem. Vehicles cross fairly easily too it seems. It is possible to hire a car in Thailand, in Ubon, and drive it across for the day, even as far as Pakse, with a valid visa (obtainable at the border).<br/>
I asked about pillars, but apart from km posts, and highway land boundary posts, there are none visible. The Lao guard said the pillar next to the road gate was currently away for repair/replacement. The Thai guard had said the pillar was broken, but pointed towards the gate, suggesting it was lying there, but it wasn&#39;t. The boundary seems agreed upon here, but the 250k scale Thai topo of the area is not available for sale from the Thai Survey, due to disputes somewhere nearby (4 other boundary sheets with Myanmar are also restricted due to boundary disputes). I suspect there are pillars along the other land sections of the Thai-Lao boundary, but haven&#39;t seen any.<br/>
Past the market, the fence seems to disappear, but it was gettying late, so we werre unable to wander along the boundary either side of the market.<br/>
<br/>
The Lao/Cambodia/Thai  tripoint appears to be accessible, but by 4WD only. Termed &#39;the emerald triangle&#39;, we were able to follow tourist signs pointing to it along provincial highways, until an army checkpoint at a turnoff. The officers said there was a road up the mountain to the tripoint, and my friend remembered visiting it a few years back with an official governmental party, but the road required a 4WD even in the dry season, so our car was unsuitable to try. <br/>
The army didn&#39;t seem to have objections to our going there if we had had a 4WD, though the issue of landmines/UXO remained to be considered.<br/>
<br/>
Brendan</div>