Architectural, Cultural sights in Cambodia
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Ta Mok's House
Ta Mok's house, on a peaceful lakeside site, is a Spartan structure with a bunker in the basement, five childish wall murals downstairs and three more murals upstairs, including a map and an idyllic wildlife scene. About the only furnishings that weren't looted are the floor tiles - on these very bits of ceramic, the men who killed 1.7 million Cambodians planned offensives, passed death sentences and joked with friends.
To his former supporters, many of whom still reside around Anlong Veng, Ta Mok (Uncle Mok, AKA Brother Number Five) was harsh but fair, a benevolent builder of orphanages and schools, and a leader who kept order in stark contrast to the anarchic atmosphere…
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Ta Mok's House
Takeo Province's most notorious native son, Ta Mok - AKA 'The Butcher' - served as the Khmer Rouge's chief-of-staff in the 1960s and was later commander of the Southwestern Zone, where he presided over horrific atrocities. Paranoid about his personal security, he had an elaborate house built in the middle of the lake and, it is said, had the architects and builders executed upon completion of each floor, which included hidden rooms and escape passages.
Today, Ta Mok's House - about 1km north of town at the end of a causeway - is occupied by a police training facility but can be viewed from the outside. Ta Mok, who had two more residences near Anlong Veng, died in prison…
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mid-20th-century villas
From Kep's northern roundabout, NH33A heads north past the mildewed shells of handsome mid-20th-century villas that speak of happier, carefree times - and of the truly terribly Khmer Rouge years. Built according to the precepts of the modernist style, with clean lines, lots of horizontals and little adornment, they once played host to glittering jet-set parties and may do so again someday, though for the time being many shelter squatters (and, some say, ghosts).
Don't even think of buying one - they were all snapped up for a song in the mid-1990s by speculators well-connected in Cambodia's murky corridors of military and civilian power.
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Governor's Residence
The two-storey Governor's Residence, with its balconies and wooden shutters, is another handsome legacy of very early 1900s. The interior is closed but it should be possible to stroll the grounds. Except for the neo-Khmer laterite gate, the intersection out front looks much as it did in the 1930s - check out the French-only distance marker, the neat lawns and the New Iron Bridge, now reserved for pedestrians and motorbikes.
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Peuy Ta Mok
From the smugglers' market, a dirt road heads east between minefields, parallel to the escarpment. After about 4km you come to the overgrown brick walls and cement floor of another Ta Mok residence, shaded by mango, jackfruit and tamarind trees. Nearby is the cement shell of the Khmer Rouge's radio station and Peuy Ta Mok, where domestic tourists come to enjoy spectacular views of Cambodia's northern plains.
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dharmasala
It is a further 400m southwest from Prasat Preah Stung to the walls of Preah Khan itself, which are surrounded by a moat similar to the one around the walled city of Angkor Thom. Entering through the eastern gopura (entrance pavilion), there is a dharmasala. Much of this central area is overgrown by forest, giving it an abandoned feel, though local authorities are undertaking a clearing programme.
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Pol Pot's Residence
A small brick structure - an outhouse, east from Ta Mok's house, is all that remains of Pol Pot's residence.
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