Kampot: Bokor Hill Station

Another day’s worth of adventure awaited as our 11 person tour group piled into a dilapidated old minivan for a tour of the Bokor Hill Station. Bumpy doesn’t begin to describe the neglected 90 year old road leading up to the equally neglected ghost town. The original tarmac has only survived in a few small portions of the road and the potholes (more like craters) we bounced over were easily twice the size of my head (that’s saying a lot - my head is problematically large). Bokor is only 30 km from the base station but it still takes a couple of hours to get up there.

We paused briefly at the Black Palace, an abandoned Villa briefly used by King Sihanouk in the sixties, to gaze over its stunning view of the Gulf of Thailand and Vietnam’s Phu Quoc Island. It got its name from the ebony inlays that once decorated the building. According to our guide, a murder suicide involving a soured relationship took place in the foyer (where the picture below was taken) a few years ago. One of the Cambodian park rangers who regularly sets up camp in this building claims that the ghost of the victim, a young lady, still haunts the place.

A number of derelict buildings which once served as quarters for the staff and royal concubines lie hidden behind the palace, reclaimed by the mountain foliage over the decades.

The van dropped us off on a small trail just below the Hill station so that we could pass through the town by foot. Within a matter of minutes, an ominous fog enveloped our surroundings, quickly replacing the perfectly blue sky.

The distant watertower:

The walk ended at Bokor Palace, a large hotel resting atop of the hill overlooking town. On the way up, we were told of a number of tragedies that took place in and around the site. In its heyday, the final moments of many a gambler were spent on the cliffside behind the hotel. The nearby casino, also abandoned, had probably claimed their life’s savings. More recently, a jilted lover drove his motorbike off the cliff. A taxi driver was also murdered during New Year celebrations held here last year. On those notes, we were left to wander the hotel’s empty corridors as a steady downpour developed outside.




A suggestion is carved in the window frame at the center of this picture:

I don't think a lot of people would want to anyway:

The town’s church rests on the hill directly across from the Bokor Palace and served as one of the last remaining Khmer Rouge footholds during the Vietnamese occupation in 1979. During this period, a firefight raged on for several months between the Vietnamese who held the Bokor Palace and the Khmer Rouge who held the church. Bullet holes scarring the interior and exterior of the building bear silent testament to the long battle.


The two hour ride back down took us to a small seaside town where we caught a boat back to Kampot via the Prek Kampong Hay River.

A few photos while we waited:

Today’s catch:

Baskets in the water:

I waded out to find them full of crabs (mmm):

On the boat ride back: