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 that prevailed once the government took over. But to most Cambodians, Pol Pot’s military enforcer, responsible for thousands of deaths in successive purges during the terrible years of Democratic Kampuchea, was best known as ‘The Butcher’. Arrested in 1999, he died in July 2006 in a Phnom Penh hospital, awaiting trial for genocide and crimes against humanity.
Ta Mok’s home (admission US$2), 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. The trees around the house have been growing quietly since Khmer Rough times, oblivious to the horrific events swirling around them. The swampy lake was created on Ta Mok’s orders but the water killed all the trees, their skeletons a fitting monument to the devastation he and his movement left behind. In the middle of the lake, due east from the house, is a small brick structure – an outhouses, all that remains of Pol Pot’s residence in Anlong Veng.
To get to Ta Mok’s house, head north from the Dove of Peace Roundabout for about 2km, turn right and continue 200m past the Tourism Information hut, whose posters promote local curiosities such as ‘Ta Mok’s mango field’. The admission price includes a tour with a knowledgeable English-speaking guide.
From the turnoff to Ta Mok’s house, driving a further 7km north takes you to Tumnup Leu, where a right turn and 400m brings you to Ta Mok’s grave. Situated next to a very modest pagoda and the concrete foundations of Ta Mok’s sawmill, it is protected from the elements by a blue roof. The tomb has no name or inscription of any sort but this doesn’t seem to bother the locals who stop by to light incense sticks – and, in a bizarre new local tradition, hope his ghost grants them a winning lottery number.
Along the Thai Frontier
Further north, atop the escarpment of the Dangkrek Mountains, are a number of other key Khmer Rouge sites, each marked with a light blue Ministry of Tourism sigh. For years the world wondered where Pol Pot and his cronies were hiding out – the answer was right here, close enough to Thailand that they could flee across the border if government forces drew nigh.
About 2km before the frontier, where the road splits to go around a house-sized boulder, look out for a group of statues – hewn entirely from the surrounding rock by the Khmer Rouge – depicting a woman carrying bundles of bamboo sticks on her head and two uniformed Khmer Rouge soldiers, since decapitated by government forces. Now a macabre place of popular pilgrimage, local people come here to leave offerings of fruit and incense to honour the souls of dead Khmer Rouge soldiers.
At the pass (a few hundred metres before the frontier), turn right (east) next to a new, cream-coloured, three-storey building and then, after 50m, hang a left. In front of you, under a rusted corrugated iron roof and surrounded by rows of partly buried glass bottles, is the cremation site of Pol Pot, who was hastily burned in 1998 on a pile of old tyres and rubbish – a fitting end, some say, given the suffering he inflicted on millions of Cambodians.
Bizarre as it may sound, Pol Pot is remembered with affection by some locals, and people sometimes stop by to light incense. According to neighbours, every last bone fragment has been snatched from the ashes by visitors in search of good luck charms – Pol Pot, too, is said to give out winning lottery numbers.
In 1997 Pol Pot ordered that former Khmer Rouge defence minister Son Sen – who was trying to reach a settlement with the government – and his family be murdered and their bodies run over by trucks. This incident led to Pol Pot’s overthrow and arrest by Ta Mok, followed by his Khmer Rouge show trial (held near the cremation site) and his mysterious death, ostensibly because of a heart attack.
A few hundred metres north, next to a ramshackle smugglers’ market, is the old Choam-Choam Srawngam border crossing. A bit to the west, right on the nicely paved main road, the Thais have built a spiffy new crossing, but the Cambodians say it’s on Cambodian territory – yet another Thai land grab. So for now, with no end to the dispute in sight, the old facilities will have to do.
From the smuggler’s 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 (Ta Mok’s Cliff), where domestic tourists come to enjoy spectacular views of Cambodia’s northern plains. Some stay at the six-room Khnong Phnom Dankrek Guesthouse (012 444067; r 30,000r), from which a path leads a few hundred metres east, through the Cliffside jungle, to a waterfall (dry except in the west season). In late 2007, this area was being de-mined by the Halo Trust.
From here the road continues northeast past minefields, slash-and-burn homesteads and some army bases where soldiers wearing bits and pieces of uniforms sometimes demand that tourists pay bribes. A half-hour moto ride takes you to Khieu Samphan’s house, buried in the jungle on the bank of a stream, from where it’s a few hundred metres along an overgrown road to Pol Pot’s house. Both are marked by signs. Surrounded by a cinderblock wall, the jungle hideout of Brother Number One was comprehensively looted, though you can still see a low brick building whose courtyard hides an underground bunker. Many of the courtyard’s tiles have been carted off, revealing the frozen-in-cement footprints of the trusted Khmer Rouge cadres who built the place.
Sleeping
Bot Huddon Guesthouse (Bot Uddom; 011 500507; r US$5-15; Owned by the family of the deputy governor, this establishment – 300m east of the roundabout – has 12 spacious, well-kept rooms with massive hardwood beds.
23 Tola Guesthouse (012 975104; r US$6-15) Built alongside the owners’ family residence, this new place sports hallways tiled in Delft blue and 27 rooms with light-yellow walls.
Monorom Guesthouse (012 603339; r US$7-15) Anlong Veng’s finest hostelry, with 20 big, modern rooms; some of the air-con rooms have hot water. Pay when you check in.
Eating
South of the roundabout there’s a row of food stalls, some with pots you can peer into, others with blazing braziers barbecuing chicken, fish and eggs on skewers. There are fruit and veggie stalls (6am-about 6pm) around Sheang Hai Restaurant.
Sheang Hai Restaurant (012 786878; mains 5000-12,000r; 5:30am-9pm or 10pm) Named after the Chinese city of Shanghai (the owner’s nick-name), this all-wood, mess hall-like place serves Chinese and Khmer dishes, including fried rice and tom yam soup.
Monorom Restaurant (mains 8500r; 6am-9pm) Next to the Monorom Guesthouse, this brightly lit place is the town’s fanciest eatery. If you order a beer, you get hot oily peanuts you can try to eat with chop sticks