A Khmer Rouge Bike Ride

[David Martin]

This was one of my strangest journeys ever.

As a serial SE Asia traveler in the early 80’s I was very interested in news from that part of the world, especially Laos and Cambodia — the latter because I very much wanted to see Angkor Wat and for years was looking for a way to get there, though the civil was was still ongoing. I finally made it to Angkor in ’91, an unforgettable experience, and have been back twice since then. I came from Laos by boat in ’05, and last week I flew in for 7 days to revisit Angkor and see a few more places.

In the early 80's there were rumors and vague reports that the Khmer Rouge leadership was based near the town of Anlong Veng, near the Thai border. Over the next decade confirmed reports appeared and as they lost their grip on Cambodia in the 90's the stories were more about the top echelon making a last stand there and either dying or going to trial for war crimes. They chose that spot because of its proximity to Thailand. Enemies would never come from the north and in a pinch they might slip over the ridge of the Dangrek Range into Thailand to find sanctuary and maybe safe passage to China, which (shockingly) was still generally supportive of the KR. This was an insulated, isolated area. Any foreigner trying to get there would be turned back, if they were lucky. More likely they'd never be heard from again.

But I’d read that the area was accessible and safe now and wanted to have a look, so I hired a minivan and drivers for the day and brought my rented bike.

These days Along Veng has been integrated into the country, but most of the population are still former KR or their descendants. Probably anyone over 40 there was a soldier or involved with the KR in some way. I expected the place to be very strange, and it was. Compared to the rest of Cambodia it didn’t feel particularly friendly, though it didn’t feel hostile either. The best word I can use to describe people’s reaction to me is “wary”. Kids smiled and waved hello, but older people just gave me blank looks and turned away.

There are a handful of KR “sites” that can be visited just north of Anlong Veng, off the highway that leads up into the hills. At the summit, just before the Thai border station there's a large casino, mostly patronized by Thais who cross the border for the day. The town itself is simple, poor, and dusty. A sign near the center of town lists the sites. I took a photo of it so that over lunch I could work out a plan for visiting them. We stopped at a small restaurant in town, ordered grilled chicken with rice, and worked out a rough schedule while we waited. The drivers didn’t speak much English, but enough to get the main ideas across. When the food arrived all three of us winced. The bird was pretty scrawny and tough -- the kind of chicken that, when you try to tear a bite off, refuses to give way and snaps back like a bungee cord, slapping you in the face. With much effort I ate about half my portion and left the rest. The drivers, no more impressed than I was, did the same. I asked them if they were uncomfortable, being around all those ex KR. In Cambodia nearly everyone of age had tragic stories too tell, and probably they had lost some older family members to the genocide. But they didn’t seem particularly troubled, maybe because they were too young. If anything their problems with the place were just it’s poverty and remoteness. As members of the upwardly mobile new generation, I’d guess they felt that being in such a place was simply beneath them.

After lunch our first stop was the gravesite of Son Sen, the KR “Defense Minister”. Among other things he’s considered to be responsible for the more than 10,000 people who were killed and tortured at the notorious Tuol Sleng detention center in Phnom Penh. It was a simple site, next to someone’s home. I wondered who lived there, and what their connection might be to that spot.

Then we drove to the former home of Ta Mok, leader of the Khmer Rouge army. It's now a small museum with old photographs, murals, and some explanatory displays about events leading up to the “peasant revolution”, the beginnings of the KR, and the war. The information and displays gave a mixed message. There were pictures of victims and piles of skulls that showed the horror of what was done, but some of the displays seemed prideful and reverent. There were about 20 other visitors, all Cambodian, of different ages and social status. I was able to chat with a few of them that spoke Thai, but it was hard to read their reactions to the place which is large, atop a small hill. There were makeshift “cells” that were more like cages, and what was left of Pol Pot’s mobile radio station.

(Side note: traveling in SE Asia in the 80’s and 90’s I always carried a shortwave radio, and actively scanned the airwaves many nights. One of the strangest stations was Cambodian, and it played these long propaganda songs that reminded of the "talking blues” songs that Bob Dylan sang on his early albums. At one point I realized that this was a Khmer Rouge station. In L.A. on one winter night I drove to the top of the Sepulveda Pass, strung a longwire antenna between two trees aimed west, and was able to hear the same station from near Getty Center. Very weird!)

The last KR place I visited was the strangest and most disturbing — Pol Pot’s cremation site. I paid 50 cents to an old caretaker and walked up a short trail to see it. There was a sort of burial mound that might have contained his ashes, encircled by barbed wire and covered with a simple corrugated metal roof. People had left incense, plastic flowers, and various knick knacks as offerings. I took some pleasure in spitting on the mound and stealing what looked like an old Tiger Balm jar. The old caretaker was laying on a hammock in the distance, playing with his phone. I wonder what he would have done if he’d seen me. Maybe not much. The whole town seemed to be in slow motion; the locals very lethargic.

I was curious to see the casino and the Thai border crossing so we drove up the hill. The Dangrek Range is very scenic, and a few miles east there’s an incredible ancient “Sky Temple” called Preah Vihear that I drove to from the Thai side many years ago, when that was possible for a brief time. The views are amazing from around there, but the area is heavily land mined so it’s not a place to go wandering around. If you need to pee, you better do it from the shoulder of the road. I got some strange looks at the casino but they let me go inside and wander around. Inside, it looked like any other casino. It was probably financed by a wealthy Thai or Chinese person. I bought a nice bottle of California wine at the duty free shop and then walked the rest of the way to the frontier. The Cambodian guard let me walk into the no man’s land area at the actual border but I was stopped at the Thai side, which I expected.

The summit seemed like a good place to unload my bike for a ride so I did that, telling the drivers I’d meet them back at the chicken restaurant in an hour. I had a nice ride down the hill. As before the kids waved and smiled, but the adults just gave me odd looks. I don’t suppose too many Western visitors go for bike rides around there.

Back in town I parked my bike at the traffic circle and took a seat at the restaurant. The car and drivers were nowhere in sight but I was a little early so I hung out and people-watched for a while. Half an hour later they still hadn’t shown, and I got a little concerned. After an hour of waiting, still nothing, and I started to think I might have a problem. I had their phone number and tried to call, but got error messages. My phone had a Thai SIM and I could call my wife back in Bangkok to say hello and let her know what was going on, but I couldn’t reach the driver or the tour agency I had used. I also tried messaging and emailing them, with no response. It was looking like I’d have to find another car to take me back to town, or find some hotel. I walked around hoping to get help from a sympathetic local at the bank or cell phone shop but no one, and I mean no one, spoke any English or Thai. Looking at Google maps on my phone I saw there was hospital nearby and figured that would be a good bet. In Asian towns there’s always at least one doctor or nurse that speaks English — but not in Anlong Veng, I learned. Well, at least I had the bike. I circled around, asking tuk tuk (motorized trishaw) drivers for help finding a car to Siem Reap, but got nowhere. It was starting to get dark so I figured I’d better jump on the bike, check the 2 or 3 hotels in town, hope one of them had a decent room, and worry about getting back to Siem Reap the next day. While making the rounds the two drivers finally showed up. It’s not good to display anger in Asia and I always try to keep cool in problem situations, but they could see I was pissed. Their explanation was simply that it was too hot at the restaurant, so they waited down the block and hadn’t seen me. Clearly they hadn’t tried very hard. I’ve done car/driver hires like this one or two hundred times in Asia and never had any sort of problem before. It’ll probably never happen again. I think they were just too young, and used bad judgement. I finally got back to my hotel at about 7. If I’d been stuck in Anlong Veng overnight it would have been a huge hassle, but not dangerous.

It was an extremely interesting day, though very sad. I’m back in Thailand now, but thinking of going back to Cambodia after New Years. There’s a lot to see there, and it’s much easier to get around than ever before. The main attractions are the ancient temples and abandoned cities, which are just fabulous. Angkor Wat is mind boggling. Maybe I’ll post a happier TR on this forum soon about one of those places.

[David Martin]

More photos.

[HikeUp]

Wow.

[David R]

Hard pass on that tour, that's seriously effed up and why they shouldn't have these places known publicly, they become shrines for weirdos and other nuts who look at these murderers as heroes.

[David Martin]

(Edited/expanded after thinking about this some more.)

We're all different. My father was a holocaust survivor and for him it was important to take my brother and me to the camp in the Czech Republic where some of our relatives had died, to better understand the history. The Cambodian genocide was probably the worst event to take place in my lifetime and I have no affection or sympathy for the Khmer Rouge but I'm extremely interested in SE Asian history and this was a place and a group that I'd wanted to observe first hand.

Cambodia has been getting a lot of visitors for the last 15 years or so (the covid period notwithstanding). Nearly everybody goes to see the incredible temples at Angkor Wat but most also visit Phnom Penh, and nearly everybody who goes to PP visits the Tuol Sleng detention center and so called "killing fields" area. They are major government operated sites, though places of extreme sadness. The displays are graphic and to me much more disturbing than anything I saw at Anlong Veng. The locals in A. V. are ex-KR and don't seem remorseful, but I believe that all or nearly all the visitors I saw that day were normal Cambodians, who like me came to learn a little more about the country's history and what became of their former enemies.

I totally understand your reaction though. The history of that place is utterly tragic, and I'm sure that many people might never want to set foot there.

[Gene]

Lest we never forget just how depraved mankind can be.

[David Martin]

Give me a couple days; I'm going to do a TR about my Angkor Wat bike ride so you can see another (very different) side of Cambodia.

[Sean]

Thanks for sharing your visit. No pretty ladies in that town?

[Uncle Rico]

Super interesting David. Good on ya for spitting on that bastard's cremation mound. Fuck that guy.