Days 8-9: Northern Cambodia and Visit with Aki Ra

Siem Reap - Thursday 23/12

Ed: This is a long blog, but hope it is worth the read ...

The last two days have comprised a long but rewarding trip up to the very north of Cambodia near the Thai border.

This was a very special opportunity for us as a group, as tensions between Cambodia and Thailand have made the border area unsafe for tourists until very recently. Our tour guide (Mr John) assured us that the area was now safe and would allow us to visit a unique temple called Preah Vihear that is perched on a hill right on the border.

 It was a long bus trip north and we learned a lot about the recent tragic history of Cambodia on the way. We visited the site of the Khmer Rouge headquarters for General Tamok, a general to Pol Pot who ultimately was responsible for Pol Pot's arrest. There are still buildings on the site with paintings of temples on the walls done by Khmer Rouge soldiers. General Tamok became well known for his part in Pol Pot's ultimate downfall and we also visited his tomb nearby.


We also visited the site where Pol Pot himself was created following his death ... Mr John said that Pol Pot was so disrespected that when he finally died without facing any charges for his crimes against Cambodia, his body was cremated using old car tyres.

After a long day we arrived at our guest house for the night - this guest house was so new that only the living area was complete, the building for the kitchen and dining room was still under construction. This was real rural Cambodia - despite being brand new, the door to one room was completely askew and there was a large crack between door and jam ... the beds were rock hard ... there as no shower cubicle, just a hose in the bath room to spray yourself with (no hot water of course) ... when we returned from dinner, there was a cow in the middle of the road outside the guest house, refusing to move for any traffic ... it was just a hoot.

After a night with no sleep (rock hard beds), we rose at 5 am for a quick bite and a hour's ride in a four wheel drive up the mountain to Preah Vihear temple - this temple is sure to be a major tourist attraction in the future and a new road is being built up the mountain - however, we travelled on a partly built new road and the old road near the top and even a four wheel drive struggled to get up the steep bits.

The Prah Vihear teample is just spectacular and worth the visit - the whole temple is about 800 meters long and built up the mountain ridge with four sections connected by a paved road. The top section of the temple is perched right on the top of the ridge with spectacular views out over the valley floor - we just made it right to the top for a spectcaular sunrise, see the photos for the evidence !

From the top of the ridge, you can see the Thai flags on buildings just across the valley - so this is literally on the border.

We were very happy to be walking down the hill through such a large temple (not up), yet again marvelling at the amazing structures that were built so long ago - this was another temple built in the ninth century, yet so much of the structure us still intact. It is fascinating to think that so with much conflict especially on the border, the fighting troops appear to have avoided deliberately damaging the temple.

After a visit to Preah Vihear, we returned to the valley floor for the final part of our time in northern Cambodia. In a previous blog, we mentioned our visit to the Land Mine museum where we learned about Aki Ra, a former Khmer Rouge soldier who has now dedicated his life to clearing Cambodia of land mines and had also established the Land Mine museum and orphanage.

Our guide had said that Aki Ra was working in northern Cambodia and he might be able to arrnage for us to meet him ... we weren't quite sure what this meant but our mini bus pulled in a village in the middle of no where and Mr John announced we were "waiting for Aki".

After a 20 minute wait in this small village, a four wheel drive approached and we were amazed to find that Aki Ra himself jumped out to introduce himself. After another short drive, we were all asked to pile into Aki's "truck" and we bounced a kilometers further off into the bush to find ourselves arriving at the area which is the current land mine clearing project Aki is managing.

Aki now works for a newly established organisation called Cambodia Self Help Demining (CSHD), which is a properly established NGO for demining with all modern safety standards so they can received international funding. This has been a big change for Aki who used to work very much as a "loner" and to some extent was not popular for doing his own thing. However, he now realises the benefits of working as an NGO, as CSHD now employs 20 workers on the current project under Aki's expert direction. He hopes to continue to expand CSHD, as he estimates it will take another 10 - 20 years for Cambodia to become completely land mine free.

We were privileged to have Aki give us a personal explanation of his current project to clear an area that the local province wanted to re-estalish and important road and see a demonstration of how the demining was done.

Aki Ra was nominated this year for the 2010 CNN Hero of the Year - he did not win the award, but is now being recognised world wide for his amazing work and contribution to the future of Cambodia and is now seen as a local hero. As we drove back to our bus, Aki revealed to us that we were the first tourists to ever have ever visited the site of an active land mine clearing project.

As a final note to parents from Chris & Julie - we did enter a land mine area, but we can assure you that it was safe to do so. Our tour guide Mr John is very cautious about where he takes his clients and was with us at all times. This was a unique "once in a lifetime" experience for all of us to actually meet Aki Ra at his current land mine project and certainly a visit that we hope the girls will remember for a long time to come.

So after a long and tiring couple of days, we returned to Siem Reap for our final couple of days before heading to Phnom Penh.