Preah Vihear is a northern province of Cambodia. Its capital named Phnom Tbeng Meanchey. It is distance about 315Km from Phnom Penh city, via NR6. The most popular destinations are Preah Vihear temple and Koh Ker, for some adventurers they like climbing the Tbeng mount. However, Preah Vihear has a lot of ancient temples, natural and rich histories to attract the local and foreign tourists.
Preah Vihear temple
We also were attracted by the iconic sceneries of Preah Vihear temple, I and my friend decided to take a trip to there, first plan we wanted to drive our own car but we heard that the authority there did not allow us to drive our own car to the hill, the driver must be skillful and have license.
So, we took the night bus and arrived to Preah Vihear province in early 5am, we had some hot coffee waiting for hotel check in time. We can access the transport there by hire taxi or motorbike with the driver, taxi was 30USD and motorbike was 10USD, for saving cost we decided motorbike renting around city.
The first start of trip we headed to Preah Vihear temple site, the driver took us there, then we had to rent another taxi to the hill with 25USD for the whole car, but if you do not want to spend much, you can share with other people just 2.5USD. Preah Vihear temple has 1722 ft cliff in the Dangrek mountain according to Wiki. The temple was built at the top of Poy Tadi the border between Cambodia-Thailand.
Along the way to the Preah Vihear mount, I could see the high slope I wasn’t dare to stare, that’s why they do not allow us to drive our own transportation. There are a lot of military and army living there, the people there talked to me please helping buy them the coffee and gave to those army, well, it’s what we can share. Up to the hill the weather was pretty nice to me, we did capture and selfie, there will be army or police guys is going to tell you the story of this mountain, some people they brought their own foods and drink, they were enjoying the views and having meal with their family.
Koh Ker temple
Koh Ker is a 10th century temple complex, the main structure Koh Ker temple is a 7-tiered pyramid and Koh Ker is also the ancient capital of Cambodia too. Koh Ker is 35-meter-high and so far, there are 96 temples was found there, it looks like a small hill, because it was covered by forest.
On the way back to Phnom Penh, we stopped by in the middle way and rent motorbike into Koh Ker temple, we could see a lot of foreigner’s tourist than local. We grabbed some green coconuts the weather was so heat at that time, sweating all the body, but anyways it was not so hard to climb the hill, the temple is just 35-meter-high we could make it, if so we will decide to give up no more power.
