Beautiful view at Ta Mok’s Lake in Anlong Veng II

Just over 125km north of Siem Reap, along the N67, Anlong Veng is many things: a frontier town, a crossroads, the last refuge of the Khmer Rouge and stage for the final resting place of its notorious leader, Pol Pot. It’s also pretty quiet.

There is really not a great deal going on in the centre of town, which consists mainly of the roads that were built to take you somewhere else, but there is an incredibly eerie man-made lake, from which the naked remains of dozens of trees poke like fractured bones. It sits aside the road heading north to Choam on the border with Thailand, and makes for interesting photo opportunities.

Just as you pass the lake, you’ll find an old house which used to belong to Ta Mok, a Khmer Rouge general who was otherwise known as ‘The Butcher’. You can go in and walk around the house, where not much remains other than empty rooms. Modern day soldiers are sometimes slung about the place not doing much, and you’ll also find Pol Pot’s old mobile radio station, parked as though abandoned in the middle of a clearing. There is little here to give away the story of the man responsible for some of the Khmer Rouge’s most ‘efficient’ purges.

Following this road further north takes you to Choam, on the border with Thailand. Here you’ll find Pol Pot’s grave just off the right side of the road. There is an unassuming sign, which will direct you to the thoroughly underwhelming site. It’s impossible really to say what the grave of a monster should look like, but few would imagine a small rectangular plot shadowed by a rusted, corrugated tin roof held up by a couple of tired planks of wood. It is kind of freaky to note though that people are clearly still making offerings at the grave site.