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Luzi Matzig in TravelAsia
TravelAsia, August 14, 1998
Battle cries rise from the dust and haze of the hot November day in Surin, north-eastern Thailand. A shot rings out and the earth begins to shudder. Rumble turns to thunder as two armies of armour-clad elephants bearing fierce warriors charge across the open plain. This is the opening of Surin’s annual elephant round-up. More than 200 pachyderms thrill ever-larger crowds each year as news of the event spreads further afield. This year’s show will be held on November 14 and 15. Spectators arrive by car, van, coach, rickshaw and even by elephant. Hundreds of local folk dressed in historical and traditional costumes accompany the tusked beasts. As well as the thrilling theatre of war, the elephants star in ordination and harvest ceremony scenes. A tug of war has crowds on either side of the stadium pitting for competing elephant teams. Calves trotting behind their mothers have the audience cooing with delight. "We have to book rooms a year in advance; it’s becoming so popular," says Pitanu Boonyaratvej, general manager of Arlymere Travel. With few rooms in Surin, many agents bundling the elephant round-up into north-eastern tour programmes use rooms in Korat – also called Nakorn Ratchasima – 227 km closer to Bangkok. It’s a good stop off point. Enroute, the tour can take in Thailand’s biggest national park, Khao Yai, followed by one of the largest Angkor-period Khmer shrines in Thailand, the 12th Prasart Hin Phimai. After the round-up, the highlight is Prasart Phanom Rung, around 150 km from Surin in Buriram, where a local airport has daily afternoon flights to Bangkok. The tree-lined avenue to Phanom Rung climbs to reveal the Dangrek mountain range on the horizon, separating Thailand and Cambodia. The shrine itself displays extraordinary stone carvings and friezes. The highlight is a once stolen reclining Vishnu returned in recent years by a US museum. Agents are now hopping with excitement at the prospect of another Khmer temple site opening, Preah Vihear, considered to occupy the most spectacular site of any of its counterparts. "It just creeps up on you," says Luzi Matzig, group manager of Diethelm Travel. "You go up and up and up and when you reach the top, the view across Cambodia just opens up in front of you. It’s spectacular." So, by all accounts, is the temple itself, also known as Khao Pra Viharn. It comprises a series of stone buildings intricately carved with scenes depicting Hindu deities and, unusually, animals from the once rich adjacent forests. Although technically in Cambodia, it can only be reached from Thailand. Entry costs and formalities are being finetuned by Thai and Cambodian officials now that the Khmer Rouge guerrillas who once controlled the adjacent area have disbanded. – Margo Towie
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