On a cliff on the border between Thailand and Cambodia sits an ancient temple called Preah Vihear. It has been extremely dangerous to visit as Thailand and Cambodia have fought over who it belongs to; however, a few years ago it was declared safe after it was declared part of Cambodia.

We were in the area, so we just had to visit.

By “in the area” I mean a few hours away by car. A few fist-clenching, toe-curling, jaw-dropping hours away by car.

Let me explain:

Preah Vihear is not on the well-trodden tourist path; there are no buses, trains, taxis, etc. to take you there. (There used to be a bus, but it was discontinued because nobody took it.) The only way to get there is to pay a driver to take you for the day. So we did. And that was the real adventure.

Our driver did not speak English, of course, so we put our trust in the two-minute long conversation that took place between our hotel concierge and him and prayed that we were going to the right place. It’s always an adventure when you don’t speak the native language.

Cambodia is a country stricken with poverty, still healing from a genocide that left millions dead and the rest homeless. That means that across the country there are only small dirt roads filled with potholes. The condition of these roads did not matter one bit to our driver. He took off full speed ahead and never slowed down.

I’ve been on a lot of scary car rides throughout Asia, but this put them all to shame. He was going 60+ miles an hour while people on bicycles, children, cows, and stray dogs cleared a path for him. Every time he came up behind a person on a bike, I had to close my eyes. He honked to let them know he was there and never touched the break, trusting they knew he was coming at lightning speed. I held my breath as we came centimeters away from people leisurely riding their bikes. I knew it was only a matter of time before we hit someone or something.

I was right.

Two gnarly stray dogs were lying in the middle of the road in front of us. As we got closer, our driver began to honk. One of the dogs looked up and ran away. The other dog, however, did not have the same intuition. Our driver continued to honk, but the dog didn’t budge.  Jarek and I stared ahead in fear at what was about to happen. Our driver hesitated a second, his foot grazing over the brake peddle, but he was still going over 60 mph and it was too late to slow down.

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

Silence. My hands were over my mouth and I was too afraid to look behind us to see the damage. Jarek looked back and saw the dog hobble off to the side of the road. We looked at each other in disbelief. After a few long seconds of silence, our driver burst into laughter. We joined him in laughter – partially out of awe and partially to calm our nerves.

If you are horrified, remember the state of these dogs. These are stray dogs in a very poor country. That means they are starving, covered in oozing sores, and usually not very friendly. These dogs are not your best friend.

Now do you understand the driving? Good.

After three hours of this, we came to a stop at a large open shack in the middle of nowhere. Our driver bought us a couple of mystery meals and a few bottles of water, and we prayed that the food wouldn’t leave us terribly ill. The man who owned the shop directed us across the way to some guys in trucks who wanted us to get in so they could take us to the top of the mountain where the temple was. I expected this, but since we love hiking we told them we wanted to walk. They did not understand. Once we finally got the message across that we wanted to walk, they pointed us in the right direction (we hoped).

We started walking down the road, wondering if we would ever make it to the temple because it was so far from where we were and we had no idea where to go. Luckily, our driver came after us, very confused. He motioned for us to go back and get in the trucks. We pantomimed that we wanted to walk. After minutes of trying to understand each other, he finally got what we wanted and told us to get in his car so he could take us to a different spot where we could start hiking. Thank goodness because it was still a long drive to that spot. We never would have made it by sundown.

Our driver met up with a man at the bottom of the mountain and they both gave us big thumbs up for wanting to climb the mountain instead of drive. We began our trek and hoped our driver would still be there when we returned.

Cambodia is lush jungle, so the hike up was amazing. Steep and exhausting, but amazing.

When we reached the top, we passed bunkers and men in uniforms with large guns. The side we were on had a Cambodian flag and across the mountain we could see the flag of Thailand and more bunkers and men in uniform.

We finally found the temple and it was awesome. It sits right on the edge of the cliff which looks over all of Cambodia. There weren’t many people so we felt like we had the place to ourselves.

***If you plan to go here, go before you visit Angkor Wat. The recent history (and trek to get out there) is what makes Preah Vihear really cool to visit.

It looked like it was going to rain so we quickly made our way back down. Right as we reached the bottom, it started raining. Lucky, because the stairs down the mountain were deadly when wet!

Our driver was still there waiting for us (phew!) and we began the journey back to Phnom Penh. Our driver didn’t anticipate us hiking the mountain so he was starving and took us to a little village to get more mystery food. It was pretty good!

I’m writing this today which means we made it back safe and sound. It was quite the adventure and I highly recommend it to anyone who finds joy in the unknown and excitement in the face of fear. We loved it.

Oh, and on the way back we did pass the dog we hit… he was not so lucky. Natural selection wins again.