Do I look nervous in this chair-lift at the top of Phnom Theat Srei? Yesterday morning I visited an area about 30 kms northwest of Kompong Cham city called Phnom Theat Pros and Phnom Theat Srei, not to be confused with the two hills of similar names but minus the Theat, that can be found much closer to the city. More of my confused findings in another post but what I did locate was an unusual way to reach the top of the larger hill, Phnom Theat Srei, as you can see in these pictures. A one-seat chair-lift using wire pulleys and a small engine was a great alternative to the 334 steps that is the only other route to the top of the hill. The lift was added in 1998 but on the day of my visit, the lift operator was still on his Chinese New Year holidays and no-one else was prepared to take the chance of getting a barang to the summit of the hill safely. I was up for it, but they weren't, so I had to content myself with a seat in the chair-lift just for the photo. It's certainly a novel way of getting supplies to the hilltop and much quicker than the exhausting climb via the steps. I haven't encountered one of these before on my travels, but if others do exist elsewhere in Cambodia, please let me know.
The chair-lift from the foot of the mountain, Phnom Theat Srei
2 comments:
I think Chez Claude in Sihanoukville has one....powered by a tractor.
Yes Chez does have one, on private property of course, but it looked well and truly knackered when I visited Chez a few months ago. There was no one to ask whether it was still operating or not but you are correct, they have a version, though not as romantic (!) as the one at Phnom Theat Srei.
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