Preah Vihear Temple Clash Continues
Preah Vihear Temple (From Wikipedia)
The face-off between Thailand and Cambodia over the disputed ‘ownership’ of Preah Vihear continued over the weekend and at least 2 soldiers were reportedly killed.
The Preah Vihear temple is a UNESCO World Heritage site from the Khmer period. Its relative inaccessibility means that at the moment it is not on the main tourist trail as this snippet from Wikipedia explains:
“From Cambodia, the temple can be approached via Tbeng Meanchey in Preah Vihear province or from Siem Reap in Siem Reap province via Anlong Veng. Although the highway is bitumen when it leaves Siem Reap, both roads are (occasionally) graded gravel once they begin to approach the Dangrek escarpment.
From Thailand it can be approached from the Kantharalak district (amphoe) of the Sisaket province. Cambodia allows day-trip access to the temple on a visa-free basis from Thailand. Cambodia imposes an entrance fee of US$5 or 200 baht for foreigners (as of 2006, reduced to 50 baht for nationals of Thailand), plus a fee of 5 baht for processing a copy of the passport. In addition, Thailand imposes an access fee of 400 baht for entering the National Park.”
Naturally no one is going to visit the temple as this dispute continues but no doubt each side see it as a ‘cash cow’ for the future.
Phimai Temple (From Wikipedia)
In the meantime visitors to Cambodia can of course visit the heart of the Khmer Empire at the Angkor Archaeological Park. Visitors to Thailand interested in seeing Khmer architecture can visit Phimai Historical Park in Thailand’s north-east.
I see from the report in the Straits Times that representatives from the governments of Thailand and Cambodia will be meeting in Phnom Penh on Monday and Tuesday which will hopefully put an end to this loss of life which, to me, makes no sense.
