the unusual pra vihaar or preah vihear situation on khth near
khlath reported in the attached message 12902 evidently has a
similarly dramatic but less famous counterpart on lath as well
at a place called phu chi fa near lammth
pursuant to the same series of franco siamese treaties
http://tinyurl.com/58u5r
the relevant ibs numbers both mention the icj judgment at length
http://www.law.fsu.edu/library/collection/LimitsinSeas/IBS020.pdf
http://www.law.fsu.edu/library/collection/LimitsinSeas/IBS040.pdf
--- In BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com, bwhyte@u... wrote:
> Greetings,
> I have been offline while overseas in Burma and Thailand.
>
> In Thailand I made daytrip to Laos and Cambodia, and tried to
reach their tripoint.
> 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).
> 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.
>
> 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.
>
> 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!
>
>
>
> 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.
> 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).
> 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'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't seen any.
> 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.
>
> The Lao/Cambodia/Thai tripoint appears to be accessible, but
by 4WD only. Termed 'the emerald triangle', 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.
> The army didn'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.
>
> Brendan