Anlong Veng
For almost a decade this was the ultimate Khmer Rouge stronghold: home to Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan and Ta Mok, among the most notorious leaders of Democratic Kampuchea. Anlong Veng fell to government forces in April 1998 at the same time as Pol Pot died mysteriously nearby. Soon after, Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered that NH67 be bulldozed through the jungle to ensure that the population didn’t have second thoughts about ending the war.

Today Anlong Veng is a poor, dusty town with little going for it except the nearby Choam–Choam Srawngam border crossing, which takes you to a pretty isolated part of Thailand. The average visitor will find little to see or do here, but for those with a keen interest in contemporary Cambodian history its Khmer Rouge sites are an important – if troubling and enigmatic – part of the picture.

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Getting there & around
Anlong Veng is 118km north of Siem Reap (along NH67), 16km south of the Choam border crossing, 80km northeast of Samraong and 90km west of Sa Em.

Both GST (012 531490), whose office and bus stop is across from the Sheang Hai Restaurant, and Kim Hong Transport (012 306862), 70m south of the roundabout, have early morning buses to Siem Reap (15, 000r, four hours). A share taxi to Siem Reap (US$5, 2½ hours) is available a few hundred metres south of the roundabout; a private taxi is US$30.

A moto to/from the Choam border crossing costs 8000r to 10, 000r. At the border there aren’t any taxi touts but officials should be able to summon a taxi for you.

Precious few vehicles, and no public transport, take the passable dirt road southwest to Samraong, though it’s possible to get there by moto (US$20, 1¾ hours) or private taxi (US$40).

If you’re heading east to Sa Em (the turn-off to Prasat Preah Vihear), the transport ­situation is as dire as the state of the dirt road, with through-traffic virtually nonexistent. A bum-bruising moto ride costs US$20 (three hours) in the dry season, more during the rainy season. In the dry season, hiring a private taxi may be an option but expect to pay through the nose.

To get to Ta Mok’s house, locals pay 1000r for a moto but foreigners are charged more. A moto circuit to the border costs US$5 (US$10 including a tour of Pol Pot’s House).

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Place To Visit

Choam-Choam Srawngam border crossing
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.

Cremation site of Pol Pot
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

Khmer Rouge Statues
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.

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.

Pile of Rubble
Most of Anlong Veng's sights are connected with the terrible Khmer Rouge years. An Angkorian temple used to stand in the southeast corner of the yard behind Hun Sen Anlong Veng Primary School - formerly Ta Mok Primary School - but it was turned into a jumble of laterite and sandstone blocks by Ta Mok and his army in their search for ancient statues to sell to the Thais. The school is 600m east of the roundabout

Pol Pot's house
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.

Pol Pot's residence
The swampy lake where Ta Mok's house is sited 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 Ta Mok's house, is a small brick structure - an outhouse, all that remains of Pol Pot's residence in Anlong Veng

Ta Mok's grave
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 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.

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.