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Published: January 2nd 2009
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I've already discussed this place on my Swedish blog but there were no pretty pictures accompanying the story so here's a brief recap in English.
Phnom Sampeau is one of my absolute favorite spots on this trip so far and it had a little bit of everything: beautiful nature with scenic views and caves, temples, war history, quiet and stillness and not too many obnoxious vendors or general assholes disturbing the experience. Awesome!
After a long motorbike ride from Hell on a horrendous dirt road full of bumps and holes, the driver dropped me off at the foot of the hill that is Phnom Sampeau. I waived off some dude offering me (trying to SELL me) a motorbike ride up and walked up to the first goal: the giant Buddha. I ended up on some temple ground were I made a small donation to an old guy pointing me in the direction of the cave were the Khmer Rouge had slaughtered a bunch of people. "OK, I'll see that one before the Buddha then", I thought and went down the stone stairs to a small hole in the mountain wall. A bit hesitant I crawled inside the small hole
Steps down to "the" cave...
Wrong turn. Fortunately not as bad as the movie... only to find myself in complete darkness. I tried to get a look of the place with the pathetic light from my cell phone display and through my cheap camcorders "nightshot" but all I could see was that I was in a really tiny space without any apparent other way out than the opening I'd sqeezed myself in through. This was a bit confusing as I'd read that it would be a huge cave were people were thrown down from the top to be smashed against the cave floor. I crawled around in the dark trying to find another way out, while trying not to think about how many spiders and other creatures could be in there, but to no avail. Finally I gave up and squeezed myself out of there, the way I came in.
I continued up the hill a bit and found the big golden Buddha. I asked a kid who was guiding a couple about the cave but he couldn't shed any light on the situation. I wonder how much English info that couple got from this kid guiding them. Leaving the Buddha place I suddenly saw a painting of the KR pushing people over
Big ass golden Buddha!
Showered in golden light by the big dude! Wait a minute... Did I say "shower" and "golden" in the same sentence...? a mountain edge. Hmm, this sure was an indicator of some sort... And a couple of meters further down there was a staircase leading down to a large cave featuring a chillin' Buddha and a stupa with human remains - Aha! I felt a bit stupid for having crawled around in some mountain hole earlier, but that was the way the old guy had pointed me so what the hell do I know? The REAL cave was quite impressive and after walking down the stairs to the "Buddha/stupa plateau" there was another staircase leading down into the darkness. I carefully climbed down the old stone steps until I came to the last one. A steep dirt slope followed into the unknown and I elected to stop there as I saw no way of getting back up again if I tried to be too adventurous. Turned out to be a good choice as another guide with a couple showed up and he told me that people had gotten hurt trying to climb down there.
My next goal was to try to find some old guns, left by the Vietnamese, further up the hill. I had a map that my driver
Painting is a clue...
Wait a minute... This looks about right... had quickly scribbled for me, but it was really crappy so I ended up in a place were there was another big Buddha that looked quite newly made. OK... I backtracked and took the less obvious way up the hill and came to the top were the old (and new) Wat* Sampeua is. As I was climbing up the steps I suddenly spotted the first gun to my right in the bushes. "There you are!" I went over took some photos and spotted the other gun aswell.
I then continued up to Wat Sampeau and took some more pictures. There were some monks doing their praying business in the main(?) temple and I snuck around trying not to disturb them. Now I had to find my way down the hill and it was supposed to be another way down. so I took the first staircase down I could find and ended up in some sort of outdoor place of worship (???) I don't know what it was but in this semi-cave there were some statues and something that reminded me of a stage with a loooong staircase up behind it. So I climbed up and found myself back at
Staircase down to the actual cave.
OK, let's go down to the actual slaughter ground... the Wat... I was pointed down another staircase and was finally on the right path, but I didn't really mind ending up in that semi-cave that no one had told me about. It felt quite "explorer-like" ending up there and check the picture for a freudian twist!
On my way down the hill I could enjoy some last looks at the spectacular view and energized by this experience the motorbike ride back wasn't as bad as coming to the place. I'm glad to say it was worth every penny I paid my driver! The price also included the trip to the Samrong Killing Fields where he told me about his personal experiences as boy during the KR regime. I can't quite remember what I paid the guy but I think it was in the neighborhood of 10$. My cheap ass even threw in some tip for the dude. Hurry and see the place before they build a new road (not likely in the near future...) and the place crawls with tourists.
*"Wat" means temple folks.
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