Up The Mountain

The base of the mountain is very pleasant. Cambodians would visit, as might some tourists, even if Topaz had not been discovered.

A fresh water stream tumbles down the mountain-side, slipping around and over the large boulders strewn across the landscape.

A small dam has created a swimming hole and children bicycle out every afternoon to cool off after school. An easy path leads up and away from the base of the mountain, across a small metal bridge.

Locals say that most of the miners come from four or five surrounding villages and they are organized into 'platoons' (my word, can be as great as fifty men) once someone has identified a likely sight in the heights above. Most do not stay on the mountain but gather in the early morning hours and walk up; they come back down before dark.

Finding a mining site requires a local guide. There are lots of paths on the mountain. Mining dig sites are farther and farther from the start point, and active sites are difficult to find. I paid a guide $10 to take me up. After climbing for an hour and a half, and going about 5 kilometers (guide's estimate, I am abysmally poor at estimating distance), I thought that the price was more than fair.

It turned out that he was a wedding photographer, had good suggestions for photos, and since he knew the miners, could sweet talk them into letting me take pictures!

(Though the government has taken little notice of their efforts for the ten years that they have been at it, they continually worry that some day it might. By Cambodian law all mountain tops are state property. "Out of sight, out of mind" is probably their watchword.)