Last month during our team visit to Prey Veng we spent a morning at Toul Baray Andet just outside of Prey Veng town. The last time we visited was in 2021 with that year’s YAMEN class. ‘Toul’ is a river delta word, it means ‘an elevated patch of land that is an island in the rainy season and a hill in the dry season’. Baray Andet is home to a pagoda today and an archeological site dating back to Funan, the earliest Khmer Kingdom.

It also home to a large troop of monkeys and, so, foreigners often call the site ‘Monkey Island’.

Baray Andet also has two small reservoirs that are stocked with fish and beautiful water lilies.

Aside from a few signs, there’s not really anything that makes it evident that Baray Andet is an archeological site. There are no active excavations or ancient structures. I read that they recovered a statue and some other artifacts from here several years ago. So the reason to visit Baray Andet isn’t for it’s historical significance – though that’s an aspect that certainly could be developed – but more for the cool breeze coming in off the rice fields, the abundant nature surrounding it, the old growth trees towering over it, and – of course – the monkeys.