Kampot countryside

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We decided we needed a break from the big city so we made our way to Kampot a small town on the southern coast of Cambodia. It was nice to get away from the craziness of the capital for a while.

Kampot is a small town and there wasnt a lot to do there so we booked ourselves on a tour of Bokor Hill. Bokor is a national park located in the Elephant Mountains near the Cambodia Vietnam border and is one of Cambodia’s largest protected natural areas. Located there is also a famous resort Bokor Hill Station that had been abandoned twice in its history - once when the Vietnamese overran the place in the late 1940's while fighting for independence against the French and again in 1972 when it was overran by the Khmer Rouge.

We decided we needed a break from the big city

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Bokor Hill station was a French Colonial retreat built high in the mountains to enable the French elite to relax. It had a hotel and casino, a church and many other buildings. It feel in to disuse then disrepair after the French left Indochina in the 1950's and was the scene of fierce fighting between the Khmer Rouge and the Vietnamese. The buildings now remain as a eery reminder of a long gone era, although our guide told us that certain tycoons within Cambodia want to reopen the area again as a tourist resort.

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The road to Bokor Hill has certainly seen better days and is pretty much a 4wd only track with almost no tarmac remaining. They would really need to repair it if they want more tourists to come. It was a very bumpy 2 hour ride to the top and we all had sore bums after the day! Our 4wd was in pretty good shape but we met another group who had nearly crashed over the hill when their wheel went flat, pretty scary for them! It was worth the bumpy journey tho, Ronan said it was one of his favourite days on our trip so far. There were 2 other couples and 2 nice danish girls on the trip. Our guide was a funny guy and he tried to keep us entertained on the journey with some jokes. They were pretty lame but we appreciated his efforts! He told us some sad stories aabout the Khmer Rouge days and how his dad had been a soldier then and was really lucky to still be alive. To finish the tour we went on a sunset cruise on the river. We spent only 2 nights in Kampot and then made our way back to Phnom Penh to get a bus to Vietnam.