MeMock does Khao Phra Viharn

**MeMock** · 12-11-2007, 11:07 AM

I have probebly seen about 3 temples in total during my time in Thailand.

Basically they don't do anything for me and it seems once you have seen one you have seen it all.

However Khao Phra Viharn caught my attention on this website. Khao Phra Viharn

It looked like something a little different and decided to give it a look next time I was in Issan which was 2 months ago.

I had my cousin with me from Australia and just before we set off from my wifes village I mentioned it to my brother in law where we were going and within a few minutes himself another BIL and an uncle where in the car waiting for us!

Anyway, it really was something else and the view at the end was well worth the climb. I will go again but only if I am the tour guide and someone else is paying my entrance fee! 400 baht to get in at the thai end (essentially 400 baht for a car park) and then another 200 baht at the cambodian side to get into the temple. I can understand the 200 baht from the camboidians but effectively the thais are charging 400 baht for a big fat nothing.

Anyway, enough of my waffling, here are the pics.

**MeMock** · 12-11-2007, 11:10 AM

This bloke was playing some kind of wind instrument.

There was hardly anybody there, us five and about two or three other groups of 2 - 3 people each. It was really quiet except for a few beggar kids and of course the shops trying to sell you something. The higher you climbed the less there were except for one right near the end of the climb!

**MeMock** · 12-11-2007, 11:11 AM

**MeMock** · 12-11-2007, 11:13 AM

Here is my cousin getting hit up for 10 baht from a land mine victim.

and then the view from the top looking over Cambodia....awesome!

**ChiangMai noon** · 12-11-2007, 01:23 PM

what camera are you using for these pics memock.
they are very good.

**MeMock** · 12-11-2007, 02:02 PM

Thanks CMN.

They could have been so much better considering how stormy and overcast it was.

It is a Canon Eos 400D

**mikenot** · 20-11-2007, 01:32 PM

This is one place i've always wanted to see, now I have DEFINITELY got to go there !
great pics too.
Mike

**iraq** · 21-11-2007, 04:22 AM

Good photos, looks like a place that I will have to see next time I get in the area.

**friscofrankie** · 21-11-2007, 11:08 AM

Originally Posted by MeMock

Anyway, it really was something else and the view at the end was well worth the climb. I will go again but only if I am the tour guide and someone else is paying my entrance fee! 400 baht to get in at the thai end (essentially 400 baht for a car park) and then another 200 baht at the cambodian side to get into the temple. I can understand the 200 baht from the camboidians but effectively the thais are charging 400 baht for a big fat nothing.

Other than the four Hundred/two hundred Baht were ther any other requirements? Visa? Identification? passports? Or is it just a pay your money and go in type affair?

**MeMock** · 21-11-2007, 03:36 PM

Nothing else needed apart from the $$

**buad hai** · 21-11-2007, 04:54 PM

Nice pics MeMock. I've been down there a couple of times. The first was in 2000 and I was the only one around. Most recent was last year and the place was packed. Plus, we were hounded by innumerable postcard sales-urchins. Is that still going on?

**MeMock** · 23-11-2007, 11:40 AM

Only a few people there this time (I think it was a week day though) and yes the postcard kids are still there.

**shayno** · 01-04-2008, 07:52 PM

South of Sisaket on the Cambodian border, this is a must see historical park if you are passing thru Sisaket. Unfortunately you need a car to see it as it off the farang tourist map and there are no buses to it. It is a ancient Khmer temple / castle larger than Phi mai. It was the object of a border dispute between Thailand Cambodia but the UN World Court found in favour of Cambodia. The only access to it is from Thailand inside a Thai National Park. The road is extremely good to cater from the busloads of Thai and Cambodian tourists visiting it. Food isnt a problem due to a plethora of restaurants there.

Interstingly, to visit the ruins you have to walk thru a rather unoffical border post as the Park is Thai but the grounds of the temple are Cambodia. There is a small fee charged but no visa or passport requirement. The one downside is the the high cost (by Thai strandards). The park entrance fee (400 Baht), Thai army (20 Baht), and Cambodian border (400 Baht). Everyone taking their cut, which is probably the real reason why the site has been so hotly contested !

**dirtydog** · 01-04-2008, 08:14 PM

Thai national parks brought their prices down several months ago, you can also enter it from Cambodia I believe.

**kingwilly** · 01-04-2008, 09:33 PM

great stuff MM, thanks!

**MeMock** · 02-04-2008, 01:33 AM

Originally Posted by dirtydog

Thai national parks brought their prices down several months ago, you can also enter it from Cambodia I believe.

I had heard they were doing that and I hope this has happened as it was the only disappointing thing about the entire day.

**terry57** · 04-04-2008, 04:15 PM

Can one hire a car in Sisiket ? I'd like to see this place.

Nice photos mate.

Cheers.

**smallworld** · 09-04-2008, 01:25 AM

Terry there are drivers in Si Saket willing to take you there, it is an amazing place as MM said and the views are stunning. When I was last there a loudspeaker called you down at about 4.30pm and there was a high army quota dotted around

**Boon Mee** · 09-04-2008, 02:19 AM

Good pics, MeMock. I was there couple years ago and that fee hasn't changed. The farang always gets hosed but...that's the way it is. There's an area on the Thai side of the border which doesn't charge - off to the left as you approach the border. Had to walk a long way as I recall - not a lot of infrastructure other than the postcard kids and sellers of T-shirts/cigarettes on the Cambodian side.

What really impressed me though was the amount of destruction that POS Pol Pot inflicted on the area. After walking all the way to the top and looking down on the savanna of rural Cambodia - was all worth it. They even had one of the 20mm cannons still up there left over from the last skirmish.

**MeMock** · 09-04-2008, 06:21 AM

Do you mean the cannon in my photo that I posted above?

That view is really something special isn't it, especially when yu think about what has gone on 'out there' over the last few decades.

**Mowgli** · 15-04-2008, 11:39 AM

Just don't stray into the fields to the left of the road (221) as you approach the viewpoint before you get to the temple...... they're rumoured to be littered with landmines, which made for a nail biting adrenalin rush for the big race bike rider who tried showing off..... and couldn't take the last right hander and slid 15 meters or so into the field! Us? We just tooled past on our Harleys and enjoyed the view as some frantic border guards/old bill gingerly extracted his sheepish arse and left his sooper dooper Yamaha in the minefield! Kinda hilarious at the same time!!

Si Sa Ket Bike Show, 2004.

**leonaussie** · 06-12-2009, 08:10 AM

Can I visit Khao Phra Viharn at present (December 09) or is it closed because of the problems between Thailand and Cambodia?

**MeMock** · 06-12-2009, 09:15 AM

It is closed.

**sabang** · 06-12-2009, 10:01 AM

You can thank the PAD for that! No wonder they were pelted with rocks by the locals when they tried to do a rally there- they're costing everyone money (like those PAD Chinese Bangkokers care, as long as it's not their own), and depriving many of us of a great tourism opportunity in the process. I'm really looking forward to going there actually.

**Nawty** · 06-12-2009, 11:18 AM

Been here a long time ago...maybe 11 years or so.

One of the nicest temples around to visit.

Did you rub the lucky stone ?? or whatever it is, horny stone....who knows.

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