Prasat Preah Vihear Getting there & around

Getting there & away

The easy way to get to Prasat Preah Vihear – known as Khao Phra Wiharn (Sacred Monastery) to the Thais – is from Thailand, as there are paved roads right up to the Cambodian border market and the adjacent monumental stairway. Anyone coming this way will no doubt be armed with a copy of Lonely Planet Thailand, which supplies all the details on getting here via the town of Kantharalak.

Note that Prasat Preah Vihear is not an international border crossing – visitors enter Cambodia without a visa and must return to Thailand by 5pm the same day. Tourist visas for onward travel into Cambodia are not available here. It costs US$10 to visit from the Thai side – US$5 goes to the Thais for visiting the ‘national park’ and US$5/200B goes to the Khmers as the temple fee.

Since the border-crossing agreement is reciprocal, tourists coming from the Cambodian side can go a few hundred metres into Thailand to shop at the border market. Cambodian authorities charge 10B to cross.

Getting to Prasat Preah Vihear from the Cambodian side is a unique and challenging adventure. It can generally be done only between mid-November and May because in the wet season many of the roads in this part of the country are impassable. When you finally reach the temple, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that you’ve completed a modern-day pilgrimage almost the equal of any undertaken at the height of the Angkorian empire. On the downside, you’ll have to deal with the disheartening sight of hundreds of Thai-side tourists who have zipped up to the temple in air-conditioned coaches along a sealed superhighway – they’ll never know what you’ve been through.

From Tbeng Meanchey, 110km to the south, you can either take a share taxi (US$10, 4½ hours) or hire a private taxi (US$90 one-way or return). Often share taxis and pickups only go as far as Sa Em (Sra Em), 27km south of Prasat Preah Vihear, from which it’s a 30-minute moto ride (3000r) along a remarkably good dirt road to Kor Muy (Koh Muy) at the base of the escarpment. From there you have two options: hire a moto (US$5 return) for a hair-raising, 20-minute ride up gradients of up to 35%; or take a 5km, two-hour walk up the same steep road (bring plenty of water).

For onward transport, you can try to score a ride at Kor Muy, but you’ll probably have better luck in the junction village of Sa Em. Arriving at the roundabout from the temple, the road to the right goes west to Anlong Veng while the road to the left goes southeast to Choam Ksant and Tbeng Meanchey. Only to Tbeng Meanchey is there anything resembling regular traffic, including the occasional share taxi. Virtually no vehicles head west to Anlong Veng – from which there’s transport south to Siem Reap – so your only option may be to hire a moto (US$20).

To get a bird’s-eye view of the temple – and arrive in style – take a helicopter from Siem Reap.