Andy Brouwer's Cambodia Tales

Ray Zepp in Northwest Cambodia - September 2001

Ray Zepp, a teacher who has travelled to the far corners of the globe, published the first edition of his Cambodia Less Traveled guidebook in 1996. The book gives the reader an insight into the 'other' Cambodia, not usually found in the glossy guidebooks and is a treasure trove of anecdotes and experiences in many off the beaten track locations throughout Cambodia. Zepp, now back in Cambodia after a spell living in Micronesia, has also published the fascinating A Field Guide to Cambodian Pagodas and earlier last year, A Field Guide to the Pagodas of Siem Reap. Ray has also recently published a new book, Around Battambang, and it's only on sale in Cambodia's second city.

Ray undertook another series of expeditions around Northwest Cambodia in September 2001 and his latest travels are detailed below. My thanks to Ray for permission to post these stories:-

SEARCHING FOR TEMPLES AROUND SWAY CHEK

Sway Chek (also known as Svay Chek) is a typical market town located 30 minutes north of Sisophon on Highway 69. As such, there is not much of interest to see there. At present there is no guesthouse for staying overnight, probably there is not much reason for anyone to stop there. I was drawn to Sway Chek by the 1901 book Khmer Heritage in the Old Siamese Provinces of Cambodia, by Etienne Aymonier. This old book describes in detail most of the old temples in northwestern Cambodia, and lists six ruins around Sway Chek. I had never heard of any of these, and so I decided to see for myself whether they were still there. I knew it would not be an easy task. In Thmar Puok we found moto drivers who seemed pretty knowledgeable and eager to go hunting for the temples around Sway Chek. So away we went.

Our first quest was Prasat Loboek Ta Ei, located not far south of Thmar Puok. The name Loboek, meaning 'tower' suggested that we might find the remains of a tower off to the left (east) of the highway. Some people had heard of the place, but suggested that it was too far in the bush for us to reach by moto, and besides, there was nothing there to see anyway. So we gave that one a miss.

Only a few kilometers north of Sway Chek, my moto driver said there was a pair of temples off to the the right, called Prasat Broh and Prasat Srey (Man's Temple and Woman's Temple). So we took a fairly good road to the southeast for about 4 kilometers before turning right into the village of Cheng. The villagers directed us to the temples, but all that remained were two small hillocks about 200 meters apart. There were not even any stones left. Some of the village houses, however, had old carved stones from the temples decorating their yards. There were signs that the villagers had been digging down into the hillocks in search of other artifacts, but anything of value had long ago been sold off. So we had failed to find any temples of note, even though we had discovered a site not registered by Aymonier.

We returned through the large village of Prai along a road that rejoined the main highway just north of Sway Chek, where we headed for the nearest cafe for a drink and a rest. We discussed other temples with the locals in the cafe. Aymonier's names were familiar to several people. Things looked promising, so we headed westwards through the wat gate towards the village of Slang, about five km outside of town. There, the villagers told us to turn right and head into the bush.

Banteay Preau

Aymonier says that Banteay Preau is the most important temple in the region, and that it is located two miles west northwest of Sway Chek. The locals pronounced it more like 'Priou' than 'Preau'. This was not the first time we had observed Aymonier's distorted sense of distance. Whatever he calls two miles is more like 5 miles or 8 kilometers. We followed the very muddy and flooded road for at least two miles to the north of Slang and ended up in the middle of nowhere. Luckily we found a woodcutter who volunteered to take us to the ruins. This involved a walk of a couple of kilometers in the hot sun. But we could see that we were walking along the embankment of what had undoubtedly been a large reservoir or baray. We knew we were close to something.

The baray and moat surrounding the temple proved most frustrating. We kept running into dead-ends, having to backtrack and wade through knee-deep water. But the local farmer kept assuring us that we were headed to the ruins. On the island in the middle of the baray, the bush was very dense. But we were able to spot a few laterite stones from the ruined temple walls. Then we found a large lotus lying in the bushes. Finally, we came to a 30-meter segment of wall in rather good condition, but engulfed in bushes. That was the most we could see. There was nothing more of interest. We were disappointed because Aymonier had described towers, courtyards, monumental doors, and lengthy inscriptions indicating a date of 1002. All this has disappeared since 1901. All that remains is a few stones, a carved lotus, and a couple of 30-meter stretches of wall in the jungle, surrounded by what remains of moats and barays. On our return, we consulted the 1-50,000 topographical map and found the roads we had taken, Slang village, and an indication of ruins, so we were sure we had visited the right spot.

The next temple mentioned by Aymonier is Prasat Samrong. Aymonier states that this temple is located to the east of Sway Chek, but people we spoke with said that Samrong was to the west, in fact, very near Banteay Preau. But they said there were no ruins there. Actually, Samrong is a common village name. Most villages in Cambodia are named for plants or trees, and the Samrong is an important tree that produces nuts that, when boiled down, can be added to soup to enhance the taste. Unfortunately, the Samrong tree is also good for timber, and so there are very few samrong trees left. Indeed, even in the large town of Samrong, capital of Oddar Meanchey Province, we asked to see a samrong tree but were told that there were none left.

It turned out that Aymonier was right after all. The Samrong in question is located to the east, but villagers told us there was nothing there to see. So we skipped both Samrongs, east and west. Also to the west is the temple of Daun Dom, noted by Aymonier without description. Again, the local people had heard of the place but said that there was nothing there anymore.

Our next quest was Prasat Andoek, the 'Turtle Temple'. Aymonier states, "The sandstone lintel of its door show the classic scene of the churning of the sea of milk...perhaps the tower derives its name from the turtle that supports Mount Mandara?" We were excited at the prospect of seeing the churning scene and perhaps even a carved turtle. From the southern end of Sway Chek we headed out a good road leading east across from Sway Chek secondary school. After only three kilometers we asked a woman about the temple, and she pointed across a field into the scrub. So we started walking through the scrub in search of Prasat Andoek, but could not see anything resembling a temple. We finally found a local farmer who guided us into the bushes. We hacked our way through the dense underbrush until we came upon a small section of a temple wall, perhaps only 5 meters long. It was two rows of laterite stones high for half its length, and only one row high for the other half. There were a few laterite stones scattered throughout the bushes. Otherwise there was no sea of milk, no turtle, nothing. All looted and sold to Thailand.

Discouraged at not having found anything resembling a temple all day, we decided to try one more, since the last site was reputedly located just off the main highway south of town. Although people were not sure of the name, this may have been what Aymonier calls Loboek Chat, another possible tower. We traveled south for about 5 km. From the road we could see no sign of any tower or ruined temple. But the first person we asked pointed into the bushes only about 100 meters from the road. We tramped through the entangling vines to a small rise where we indeed found the ruins of the temple hiding in the bushes. There was not much to see, but at least this time we could see the outlines of a square edifice. The corners were still intact, although overgrown with dense bushes. This was the closest thing to a temple we had seen all day. But that is just testimony to the sad state of the others.

So in summary, there are no temples worth visiting around Sway Chek. Maybe our trip will serve the purpose of informing future temple-hunters that their efforts will end in frustration. Two thoughts stand out in my mind. The first is that the temples lasted for 900 years until 1901, but it took only one century to destroy them all. What does that say about the 20th century? Secondly, it was clear that some of these sites have not been visited in years. And yet most of the people in the area seem to know where the sites are. Thus, the tradition and the folklore remain in the common knowledge, even though the people have no direct experience with visiting the sites.

Hunting for temples is fun, and one experiences a thrill at finding even a few old stones hiding in the bushes. But the state of the ruins is disappointing, and it makes the sites difficult to locate. As my colleague described the visit, "it's rather difficult to find temples that aren't there".

THMAR PUOK

Thmar Puok is the jumping-off point for Banteay Chhmar and for Samrong to the north of Banteay Meanchey Province. It is located only 50 minutes by motorcycle and even less by car from Sisophon, and the road is good and smooth, although very dusty. There is a guest house in Thmar Puok. That makes the town worth an overnight visit. This way, you can get up early to visit the magnificent jungle temple at Banteay Chhmar in the quiet of the early morning. The town is quite spread out; there is no real town center, and the guest house is a five or ten minute walk from anything useful, such as food stalls, markets, temples, hospitals, etc.

You can walk down to the market for a drink or a meal, but there is not much to see there. It is a new market built outside of town. We had a nice chat with some friendly market ladies there while we had a drink in the afternoon. In the center of town are the ruins of an old temple called Prasat Kaa Sen. The wall and moat are still there, but there are no signs of any edifice in the center. Curiously, Aymonier does mention this temple in his list of area temples, compiled in 1901. He does, however, mention that the name Thmar Puok, meaning "guild stone", refers to a large stela brought to the town from the village of Arak Choo about 10 km away. We tried to go to Arak Choo, but were told that it is in the bush, away from any roads, and that there is nothing to see there anyway. The stone mentioned by Aymonier has long since vanished. Too bad, because it was reputed to contain good carvings. "Its sides are covered with figures; gods and goddesses with four arms and worshippers kneeling in small ogival niches." There are a few scattered stones still standing, but it is clear from the smooth surfaces that any carvings or inscriptions have been hacked off. People who have lived in the area say that the destruction was done by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. What remains, however, is a pleasant setting with a few randomly scattered stones surrounded by a large moat.

Staying at the guesthouse was a memorable experience. At first we could find no one on the premises except a few buffalos milling around. Finally we found the guard, who was out back in his hammock beside a small pond. This hammock proved to be a comfortable place for us to while away the heat of the afternoon. At night, they had problems with the electricity during a fierce electrical storm, and only much later in the night did they manage to restore all the power. The guesthouse is quite barren of furniture, but the beds are comfortable enough. The manager, his wife, and his five children were very nice to us. Just meeting them was worth the $5 we paid for the downstairs room with two beds.

A Magic Black Buddha

The manager was a goldmine of information about the area surrounding Thmar Puok, having once spent an entire month exploring the countryside. He pointed to a hill far off to the east, named Phnom Andong Baa, and told us that there was gold there. He made hand signs to indicate necklaces and earrings, but he may have meant only that gold was mined there. He also pointed to a far-off hill to the southeast, called Phnom Prakoam, and said there were ruins there. But the most interesting and mysterious piece of information involved something with a wheel and spokes on its back, and he kept repeating the name Luk Euy Thom, which we interpreted as a place name. We could not understand what he was talking about, but he repeated the gesture many times. Finally he called a motodoup to take us the three kilometers southeast of town to a wat in the village of Leum Chrey We thought at first that this might be the temple of Loboek Ta Ei mentioned in Aymonier's book, but later learned that Loboek Ta Ei is much further out in the bush.

From the guesthouse we proceeded north and then east to the main Thmar Puok wat, then southeast for a few kilometers until we came to Leum Chrey village and its pleasant rural wat. We were looking for an old temple but could not see one. We made the sign of the wheel on our backs, and the monks pointed inside the wat. Even then, everything looked pretty normal for a rural wat with its Buddha paintings and statues. What we were expected to see was the big black Buddha statue, given the name Luk Euy Thom. They took us around behind the statue to see the wheel on the back of the statue. It was a rather ordinary Buddha in some ways, but somehow it possessed a serene beauty that surpassed most Buddhas that I have seen. It portrays the Buddha sitting under the familiar seven-headed naga named Mucalinda, who in Buddhist mythology protected the newly-enlightened Buddha from the rain. We asked whether the statue was old, and they said it had been there for 70 years, hardly an ancient treasure. The monks led me up the steps and had me place my hands on the Buddha's knees. They told me to feel how cool it was. Perhaps this was part of the magic of the statue, but we were left rather in the dark about what was happening. So we returned to the guesthouse, not sure of what we had seen or why it was so special.

The manager explained that the black statue was in fact ancient and very special, and that it had been dug up at Prasat Banteay Torp 70 years ago. During the 1980s, the Vietnamese had shelled the village, and miraculously the shells landed around the wat but did not explode. The statue, already known for its magic powers, thus acquired an even greater aura of protective magic because of this miracle. The manager also told us that near the site of the black Buddha excavation, villagers had also unearthed a beautiful stone canoe with flowers carved on its sides. He could say for sure what happened to the canoe, but speculated that it had been sold in Thailand. But he left open the possibility that the villages had re-buried the canoe for its magic powers. When describing the length of the canoe and other objects, the manager used the cubit unit of measurement, that is, the distance from the elbow to the fingertips. Thus, he described the stone canoe as measuring 20 cubits.

Prasat Banteay Torp

Other than the black Buddha, the only real tourist attraction around Thmar Puok is the temple of Prasat Banteay Torp, located about halfway between Thmar Puok and Banteay Chhmar. There is a well-marked turnoff to the right of highway 69, with a large brown and gold sign saying Banteay Torp. Aymonier describes it in detail under the name of Banteay Teap, and other people we met called it Teap instead of Torp. About three kilometers down that road, there is another clear sign pointing to the temple on the right. The sign says 'Banteay Torp 5500 m' but the temple is in sight. Do they mean 550 m? Banteay Torp has three remaining towers of impressive (and precarious) height. There are no carvings. Apparently there never were any carvings, according to Aymonier. Unlike the jungle setting of Banteay Chhmar, Banteay Torp stands out it the open rice paddies. That makes it a nice place to visit at sunset. Unfortunately, we visited Banteay Torp on Pchum Ben, when hundreds of picnickers were climbing all over the towers, playing loud music, and trying to sell us drinks and trinkets. We figured that a quiet sunset without all these revelers would have made a huge difference in the atmosphere of the place. Trees with twisted roots grow out of the ruins, one with roots high up on the central tower. But these have recently been cut down so that only the roots remain. They may, however, eventually grow back and add a touch of shade and greenery to the barren stones. The reddish sandstone towers are held up by wooden beams or perhaps remnants of ceilings, apparently the original wood from 1000 years ago. Our manager also explained something about people from Banteay Torp painting themselves with red clay from the site, but we could not decipher the meaning of this ritual.

Possible Explorations

The guesthouse manager invited us to return some day so that he could show us all the ruins and sites of interest surrounding Thmar Puok. If they exist, they are not mentioned by Aymonier, with the exception of Prasat Ta Siou, located perhaps 20 km east southeast of Thmar Puok in unpopulated and inaccessible bush. But for the casual visitor, the gold mine at Phnom Andong Baa might be a good place to start. Another possibility for a visit is the border town of Boeung Trakoeun, about 30 km to the west, accessible by the road that turns left at the big USAID signboard just north of Thmar Puok. This region was heavily landmined but was mostly cleared in 1996-97, when I visited the area. It was a pretty sad site. Peasants were supposedly to be given the demined land, but unfortunately the military leaders got there first and grabbed the land from the returned refugees. Those few who managed to get a parcel of land found only barren, waterless plots unsuitable for farming. So many of the returnees started occupying the land before it was demined, stating that was the only way they could get their assigned land. Of course this resulted in a lot of landmine injuries, but they figured that was the risk they had to take. Word has it that there is an interesting old temple out Boeung Trakoeun way, one with some carved elephants. Could this be the Prasat Teap Siem mentioned by Aymonier? From all of the above, you can see that there are enough sites of tourist interest to merit a stay in Thmar Puok for at least a day. We found the people very friendly and willing to help us in our search for temples and other sites in and around the town.

BANTEAY CHHMAR

Now that Highway 69 north of Sisophon has been improved, the great temple at Banteay Chhmar is now much more accessible than it was a year ago, and many more tourists are taking advantage of the improved situation. I tried to visit Banteay Chhmar in November 1997, but made it only as far as Thmar Puok. Right at the large signboard where the road turns off to Boeung Trakoeun the road north was blocked and there were two large tanks warning that the Banteay Chhmar area was currently a battleground. Indeed, Banteay Chhmar has been in the center of a war zone for the past 20 years and has suffered accordingly. There is a small book by former guerilla leader Son Sann that describes his elation at recapturing Banteay Chhmar from the Vietnamese back in the 80's. You could see how important this large piece of Khmer culture was to the Cambodians. In fact, back in 1901 Etienne Aymonier, in his recently translated book, Khmer Heritage in the Old Siamese Provinces of Cambodia, declared Banteay Chhmar to be among the top three temples in Cambodia, right up there with Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom.

I spoke with several former Site II residents (i.e. the 1980s border refugee camp not far from Banteay Chhmar), and they told me that the devastation of Banteay Chhmar in the past 20 years has been horrible. An article in the National Geographic Magazine a couple of years ago painted a picture of rampant looting of the statues and carvings, and this description was backed up for me by personal accounts of witnessing stone carvings blatantly labeled Banteay Chhmar in the Bangkok art shops. A colleague who had visited the temple only a year or so ago told me to look for the Brahma carving with many arms, but we both agreed that it would probably have been looted by now.

Low Expectations

So I did not have very high expectations of finding anything left. I was pleasantly surprised. Almost all the wall friezes described by Aymonier are still there. As we climbed over the rubble to the far side (actually the front gate, as HIndu temples face west), I kept hearing the children accompanying us saying "samsup pii, samsup pii" or "thirty-two, thirty-two" . When we emerged from the main gate, I saw that they were referring to the 32 arms of the Brahma frieze, still intact and in good condition. There was at least one other Brahma carving, this one with fewer arms. But Aymonier had described 'a god with 32 arms; another with six arms; a third with six arms; a fourth with eight arms; a fifth with eight arms; a sixth with four arms, and a seventh with sixteen arms.' We were unable to find most of these, and so we assume they have been looted and sold. Beyond the main western entrance is a large area that used to be the huge Baray, or reservoir, similar to the one at the Angkor complex. There used to be a temple in the middle of the baray, but it is now in ruins and hardly worth the visit. Besides, the now empty baray is outside the shady area and can be very hot. If you want shade for a relaxing drink, you can sit in front of the eastern entry point and drink a coconut under the big trees by the village market, while gazing at the large stone guardians of the gate. Only on the west wall of the temple are there depictions of gods; the other three sides have only scenes of royalty, or of processions of soldiers, or of ferocious battles. One shows an oxcart being swallowed by a monster. Others show war elephants, gong players, war canoes, and the ark of the sacred fire. On the whole, these friezes on the other walls appear to be in good condition. They are really worth the price of admission --still free of charge. In fact, Aymonier considers these carvings to be better than those at Angkor Wat: " ..the women in its low reliefs less insipid and better drawn than the nymphs of Angkor Wat." I was particularly impressed with the hunting scenes with bow-and-arrow on the east wall to the left of your first entry point.

A Little History

I do not wish to dwell on the history and description of the temple. All that can be found in great detail in Aymonier's book. To whet your appetite, here are a few facts culled from Aymonier and from Moura, another early French explorer. Aymonier believes the temple to be slightly older than Angkor Wat. Its large Bayon towers, similar to those of Angkor Thom, suggest that the two were roughly contemporary, but the fact that this is primarily a Hindu temple, while Angkor Thom was a Buddhist temple dedicated to the Hindu god Brahma, indicates that Banteay Chhmar is the earlier of the two. Despite the large Bayon towers of the four-faced Brahma, Moura thinks that Banteay Chhmar was a Vishnu temple. His main evidence for this conclusion was the existence of many statues of garudas, the magic bird symbolic of Vishnu. Many-armed gods such as those shown on the western wall could represent any number of gods, but in Cambodia, many-armed gods are likely to be Vishnu, known as Preah Nireay. Aymonier entertains the possibility that Banteay Chhmar, like Angkor Thom, was a syncretic mixture of Hinduism and Buddhism. Finally, Aymonier, obsessed as ever with inscriptions, sees in the square style of the letters a clear resemblance to the writing on the Bayon in Siem Reap, and he concludes, "The square letters, with well-detached curls, clearly indicate the twelfth century." But the inscriptions tell stories of the reign of Yasovarman. As a result, Aymonier believes that although the inscriptions were added in the twelfth century, some parts of the temple must have existed as early as the ninth century.

But you can find histories and theories in many books, and so I need not dwell on such topics. What I do wish to describe is the atmosphere of the place. The vast temple complex is situated in a forest of very tall trees. These trees are of the same species and nature as those seen at Ta Prom temple in the Angkor complex, and provide the same romantic atmosphere as Ta Prom of the roots and trees of the jungle overcoming the ancient temples. Indeed, without the hordes of tourists, the jungle setting may be even more romantic than that of Ta Prom. The tall trees form an acoustic canopy that echoes the birdcalls back to the listener. For this reason, I recommend going to see the temple as early as possible in the morning to catch that magic jungle stillness of the sleeping temples.

Recommendations for Visiting Banteay Chhmar

So I recommend staying overnight in Thmar Puok at the Ly Hour Guesthouse, perhaps going out to the Banteay Torp temple a few kilometers away for sunset, and then the next morning arriving by sunrise at Banteay Chhmar only 15 kilometers away. You can do the trip in a day from Sisophon, only an hour or so away, or even from Battambang, about three hours away. But why rush and spend so much of the day on the hot, dusty road? It is better to relax in the quiet town of Thmar Puok, visit another minor temple or two at sunset, and be fresh for viewing Banteay Chhmar in the beauty of the early morning. It may be that the improvement of Highway 69 will save Banteay Chhmar. With many more visitors and outside recognition, looters will find it more difficult to raid the place, at least in broad daylight. I can only hope that the local people, seeing the temple as a boon to their development in terms of souvenirs, snacks, and perhaps future guesthouses, will understand that the temple is worth more to them as it stands, rather than dismantled and sold in pieces to Thailand.

On the other hand, the large numbers of tourists and picnickers may just destroy the place if they continue to climb over the walls and deface the carvings. My Khmer colleagues were outraged to see adult Cambodians writing their names on the 32-armed god and on other wall carvings. I would suggest that someone make a comprehension collection of rubbings of the bas reliefs in order to preserve them for posterity. Such rubbings could be a source of tourist souvenir income and could help to convince the local people that these ruins are worth preserving. In summary, to be fair, Banteay Chhmar cannot really compare with Angkor Wat. It is in quite poor condition. Most of its walls and towers have been reduced to piles of rubble. But on the remaining towers you can still pick out the huge Bayon faces, and the outer walls still have most of the scenes described by Aymonier. The best feature of Banteay Chhmar is its jungle atmosphere. If you liked Ta Prohm in Siem Reap, you will love Banteay Chhmar and its romantic forest setting.

SAMRONG

Samrong District has for a long time been one of the most inaccessible places in Cambodia. Not only is it located in the extreme northwest corner of the country on terrible roads, it has been the scene of fighting for the past three decades. Even as recently as 1998 it saw heavy fighting between government CPP troops and rebel Funcipec troops who fled to O'Smach, forty kilometers north of Samrong, after the coup of July 1997. I tried to go there in 2000, but the road north of Sisophon, terrible in even the best of times, had been cut completely when the floods washed out several bridges. For most of 2000 the only route was via Kralanh on Highway 6 and reportedly took 10 hours. Workers for United Nations High Commission for Refugees working in Samrong told me to forget it.

In 2001, however, all that has changed. The 110 kilometers of a very fine Highway 69 from Sisophon to Samrong can be covered in a little over two hours, or a little over three hours by motorcycle. Alternatively, highway 68 via Kralanh is also much improved and takes you to Siem Reap in an estimated four hours. All this is no doubt part of the government's plan to bring Samrong into the orbit of Cambodian life, or perhaps more cynically, part of the CPP plan to bring Samrong into the CPP orbit.

Frontier Town

The road north of Banteay Chhmar is in excellent condition (September, 2001), but it goes through a lot of unpopulated territory. There is hardly any traffic going this way. In fact, we had difficulty finding transport from Sisophon. Pickups were going to Thmar Puok, the District seat about 60 kilometers north of Sisophon, and a few even turn left after to Thmar Poul to go to newly resettled Boeung Trakoeun on the Thai border. Only if there are enough passengers do the pickups go on Samrong, and they tried to charge us $10, an exorbitant amount. So we found moto drivers who agreed to take us to Samrong for 250 baht each.

Traveling through miles and miles of bush scrub, we saw many birds, including two trees full of rare openbill storks, and a couple of eagles. About the only structures we saw along the way were several Halo Trust demining camps. There are still a lot of minefields in the area, clearly marked with the familiar red and white skull and crossbones. There is a town of sorts called Sung Village, about halfway between Banteay Chhmar and Samrong. We saw a few government buildings there, so it may even be the headquarters of Banteay Ampil, one of the five districts of the recently created Oddar Meanchey Province (of which Samrong is the capital). Traveling this desolate stretch of road leads to the impression of Samrong as a lost town out in the middle of nowhere.

One's first impression of Samrong is that of a frontier town. There is a lot of construction but it still retains that sleepy look of a town at the end of the universe. Pigs root through the garbage around the shanty-town market, a few bicycles move slowly down the street, and nothing seems to happen here. There are three guesthouses within 100 meters of one another, right near the market and taxi stand. We chose the one on the left, the Stang Toek (or Water Depot), which had clean single rooms with fan and bathroom for $5. We chose it for its pleasant gazebo out front, where they served tea while we watched what little activity there was on the main street. They also have shrubbery cut in the shape of Angkor Wat. The other two guesthouses, across the street and right next to each other, are the Meanchey and the Prachea Prey. They have a much more upscale look. Of course, all three cater mostly to government and NGO visitors rather than tourists. Foreigners rarely come to Samrong. It is hard to imagine that this sleepy town is actually the capital of an entire province, Oddar Meanchey, which can be spelled in dozens of ways such as Odtar, Odar, Oddor, or Odour.

With our lodging taken care of, we turned our attention to our stomachs. There is a bakery across the street from the Stang Toek, with a curious sign reading, 'For good test in Oddar Meanchey.' Besides the usual market stalls, there are a couple of restaurants, including the Samaphiep just down from the Guesthouses, and the Reaksmey Angkor Meanchey, located back at the bend in the road. We liked the looks of this one because of its position in a balcony high overlooking the market area and its sign saying, 'Bon Repas, Best Food'. Another wacky sign is the 'Pose de la Police'. We wanted to find a policeman to strike a goofy pose in front of the sign for us to photograph, but we couldn't find a likely candidate.

We were intercepted in our quest by a Khmer man with glasses who spoke excellent English. He gave us his business card, identifying him as Mr. Mark Sareth. He had come from Siem Reap to set up a language school to train translators for guiding tourists in Siem Reap. His school, located right next to the Stang Toek Guesthouse, was called the Central International Center for Foreign Languages and Language and Literacy Center. We puzzled over this duplication of the word 'Language' and triplication of 'Center', but finally figured that there are two names, the ICFL and the LLC. Another sign on the school reads, 'Washington DC 9314000 km, London 243500 km.' Those distances can't possibly be correct, but how do they relate to the real numbers?

Mark Sareth was quite proud of his school and took us on a tour out to a village. to see another small school. We motorcycled along a very large swamp on the north edge of town. People living on the other side are reluctant to cross the swamp for fear of snakes and crocodiles, we were told. Upon further inquiry, we decided that there probably were no crocodiles but lots of snakes. The trip ended at a small village school that Mark had set up. Lacking furniture, the schoolchildren had cut down trees and made their own rough desks. They were all very proud to show off their handiwork. We asked him about the fact that the maps show an airport in Samrong. He replied that there used to be an airstrip, but that it has not been used for a long time. We did, however, see a helicopter landing circle out by the new school at the entry to the town.

Back in town again, we had a fruit shake while watching the Pchum Ben action in the streets. The local custom is to parade from your villages surrounding Samrong into the Wat, playing local musical instruments and drums, and drinking local rice wine on the way. My colleague called it a Pub Crawl in which you carry the Pub with you. Indeed, by the time the various groups arrived at the wat, they were very happy indeed, dancing and singing through the streets, many so drunk they could hardly stand up.

Later, we went over to the Reaksmey Angkor Meanchey Restaurant to have supper on the balcony. The bad news was that the restaurant was closed for the Pchum Ben holiday. The good news was that the owner invited us to his house to eat and drink with his buddies. This proved to be a memorable evening. The restaurant owner was an old character who could speak French. He regaled us with stories of his life and of the history of Samrong, while we ate a delicious curry and drank beer with four government officials, including the Vice Governor of the Province. They told us of big changes coming to Samrong.

New Road

Samrong will not remain a sleepy backwater for long. The government is going to build a major road from O Smach to Siem Reap, to be constructed by Thai soldiers. It will be a tar road and will not follow any of the existing roadbeds. The government is very tight-lipped about its actual location, no doubt because they want their own friends and contacts to have first crack at the land rights in the area. The general direction of the road will be through Samrong and then through Chang Kral District to Siem Reap, passing to the east of Highway 68 to Kralanh, but well to the west of Anlong Veng.

Already O'Smach is opening up. Back in 1997-98 it was the fortress for the rebel troops and was considered too remote and impregnable for government troops to take. Now, in 2001, it has a casino and the border is open on Saturdays and Sundays for Thais to visit the casino (but not yet for Westerners). With the new tar road to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat, however, the border will almost certainly open up to everyone, and will become the main tourist route to Angkor Wat. That will make Samrong a bustling road town. Already, old military trucks are being used to transport imports from O'Smach. Watch for karaoke, brothels, AIDS, dust, mud, noise, and all the other aspects of Cambodian road towns. But for now, take advantage of the present situation to visit this sleepy frontier town on the road to nowhere.

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