Subject: Thai-Cambodia<br/>
Date: Jul 13, 2005 @ 00:48<br/>
Author: Brendan Whyte (Brendan Whyte &lt;bwhyte@...&gt;)<br/>
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<div id="ygrps-yiv-2013596399"><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.cambodiacic.org/map/USAF%20Bombing/Otdar-Mean-Chey-3.jpg">http://www.cambodiacic.org/map/USAF%20Bombing/Otdar-Mean-Chey-3.jpg</a><br/>
The temple is on the small Thai salient immediately NW of the three red <br/>
squares at the top of this image.<br/>
You&#39;d have to be a masochist to try to get there from Phnom Penh given <br/>
current road conditions. Even the main road from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap <br/>
and on to Thailand is horribly rough with many bridges down (everyone gets <br/>
out of the bus, it rumbles through the rice fields around the bridge, and <br/>
you get back on again).<br/>
<br/>
There is a nice sealed road through national parks etc on the Thai side up <br/>
to 300m or so from the border. You then pay a &#39;park entry fee&#39; (higher for <br/>
white-skins), and walk from the end of the road over rough rocks to the <br/>
border gate. On the Cambodian side you pay another fee, walk through the <br/>
small collec5ion of stall selling crafts, food and cheap Chinese plastic <br/>
junk, up the steps of the temple. On either side the fields are full of <br/>
&quot;warning : mines&quot; signs.<br/>
The border itself is obvious, but it&#39;s hard to see if it follows any <br/>
particular features, it seems to swing around the temple, and otherwise <br/>
lies along the rim of the cliff tops which run along the entire northern <br/>
Cambodia-Thai border. The land slopes gently up from the plains on the Thai <br/>
side, and drops off precipitously on the Cambodian side to plain far below. <br/>
Great views if not too hazy from the humidity.<br/>
Next to the far end of the temple (which is several hundred metres long) is <br/>
an old Khmer rouge artillery piece. They had dug themselves into the temple <br/>
foundations in places. There was gunfire, small arms and artillery, while I <br/>
was there.<br/>
No large scale mapping is available. The best is these 1:250,000 maps <br/>
Jesper found online.<br/>
The border was lined with large balls of thorns/brambles, and barbed wire. <br/>
A gate was placed over a small creek, presumably the one the Thais were <br/>
complaining of, that ran along the backside of the small market. A metal <br/>
set of steps was built from the gate down to the Cambodian side. Then the <br/>
creek (only 2m wide) soon ran into Thailand and the border ran off into <br/>
mined areas. I wasn&#39;t going exploring there!<br/>
<br/>
I have some photos I can dig up, but I thought I may have posted them already?<br/>
<br/>
Brendan</div>