Good to see Thailand behaving like a responsible adult at the UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting in Brazil.
At issue is the Preah Vihear temple which sits on land which Thailand agreed belonged to Cambodia in 1904 and was confirmed as being Cambodian at the International Court of Justice in 1962. Now that the temple has been given UNESCO World Heritage, Thailand is getting worked up about it again.
The argument by the government is what you would expect from a four year old. “It’s not fair. Do what we want or we will take our toys and not play here again”. Pathetic. The UNESCO response should be “OK, fuck off; and we’ll remove world heritage status from all sites in Thailand.”
You could visit Preah Vihear and be ripped off by both Thailand and Cambodia, and run the risk of being caught up in some stupid dispute involving the use of bullets. Alternatively, you can visit some very fine Khmer temples in Thailand, in areas that once were not Thailand, such as Prasat Hin Phanom Rung, and Prasat Muang Tam.
Prasat Muang Tam is close to Prasat Hin Phanom Rung, and you can visit them both for an extra 50 baht on your ticket price. Over the long holiday weekend it was reported that up to 5,000 people a day were visiting the two temples. But when we visited Prasat Muang Tam late on Friday afternoon, we were the only visitors. It was special place to have to ourselves.
All shots - Panasonic GF1
Postscript: 1,000 posts on Pattaya Days. Please send a cake.