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However, according to accounts from local residents, the situation is still far from normal and their lives have been in difficulty since July when nationalist protesters of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) stormed into the 11th century Hindu temple and clashed with villagers in Ban Pum Srol.

Daily life has changed since that incident and the military stand-off in July, not just from the clashes a week ago, a villager said.

The closure of Preah Vihear has damaged tourism-related local business at the World Heritage Site. The ways of the villagers from their homes to plantations and farms were blocked by the military, they said. Paddy fields and rubber plantations had been abandoned for nearly four months. Many were sure their crops would have perished.

Since then, local authorities, on the military's advice, have instructed local residents in Kantharalak district's four tambons to get ready for evacuation in case of an emergency from an attack by Cambodia.

Villagers in the subdistricts of Sao Thong Chai, Roung, Lalai and Phu Pa Mok were building shelters but they had no clear idea the shelters would protect them from what kind of attacks. Many of them guessed they should be artillery shelters, rather than air-raid shelters although many villagers could not imagine how artillery shells could land in their villages.

"We need to build the shelters as some officials wanted to spend government budget for the purpose", Sayan Sidam, village head assistant of Roung subdistrict's Ban Nong Udom said.

Villagers along the border with Cambodia near Preah Vihear, who were armed and trained as defence volunteers, had to arrange security guards and be on patrol around their villages at night to protect their homeland from Cambodian soldiers.

For their own safety from attack and anti-personal mines, they also were told not to go into the jungle and the hills for hunting or collecting forestry items. Just a few days ago, a dog died after stepping over a mine.

Many villagers in the areas rely on fishery and forestry products for their daily consumption. The border tension and military presence in the areas has kept them confined to their homes.

The current situation reminded many villagers of the war-torn times in the 1970s and mid-1980 when Cambodia was wracked by civil war and Thailand was under Communist threat.

The sound of gunfire then sounded like a bird's song, anti-personal mines could be found as easily as mushrooms in the jungle and soldiers were on patrol alongside buffaloes, a villager recalled.

But who turned the clock back, he asked while pouring local spirit down his throat. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen?

"May be", he answered.

"No, it's the PAD," another argued, and added that villagers in the border areas have lived with Cambodian people peacefully since the end of the civil war nearly two decades ago until the protesters came to ignite the conflict.

Villagers knew years ago that Phnom Penh had intentionally moved Cambodian civilians close to the border and planned to develop the area near Preah Vihear as a town, if not a city. Many Cambodians crossed the border to do business with Thais, including some Thai officials, at the attractive site of Preah Vihear and other border checkpoints. The business generated millions of baht of business a year and benefited both sides.

Local people - Thais and Cambodians - don't know and never mind where exactly the boundary line is, leaving the demarcation work to officials of both sides.

Officials worked slowly as the Thai cabinet approved the appointment of Vasin Teeravechyan, former Thai Ambassador to South Korea, as the new chairman of the Thai-Cambodian Joint Commission on Demarcation for Land Boundary (JBC) of the Thai side.

It was also expected that the House of Representatives would consider the negotiating framework on the provisional arrangement between Thailand and Cambodia and the negotiating framework of the JBC next week.

To the villagers, it did not matter if the demarcation was not finished within their lifetime and normal life returned to the border people soon, provided nobody sparked the conflict again.