View from the top of the world

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Preah Vihear - I had never heard of this area. It's the site of a magnificent temple that the Thai and Cambodians have been fighting over for a very long time. We bought tickets for a 4WD trip up the mountain. This was about $20 for us all to pile in the back of a HiLux, or the like and travel up this road. Sreyda had previously bought items such as noodles, cigarettes and water. We were wondering what these were for. As we travelled up the road, we distributed the food etc to the soldiers that were on the frontline. Army is not well paid in Cambodia, and these soldiers were very grateful for the food that we took with us. It was a little confronting (again) to witness this.

At the top of the mountain we were on the Thai border. There were plenty of signs telling us not to stray from the paths because of landmines and the chance that we might be shot by the border patrol. - No problem following those simple rules!

We wandered through the temple complex and spent some time admiring the view into Thailand, Laos and Vietnam on one side of the mountain, and Cambodia from another viewpoint.

After we had experienced this, we had some lunch in the small 'restaurant' at the top of the mountian. This was, effectively, a wooden structure with a tarped off roof. The little stands selling food and other supplies were dotted across the village.

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