Bokor Hill Station: a ghost town in the clouds

A long, smooth climb from the coast to a plateau of mist, where a French hotel, a lonely church and a Buddhist pagoda stand at the edge of a thousand-metre drop.

Area

Bokor & the river

Start from

Kampot

Distance

about 40 km each way

Time needed

1 day

Best season

November – April for views; the fog is part of the charm all year

Difficulty

Moderate

Transport

Scooter, car with driver or a tour

Tickets & rules

Possible small road fee at the park gate; check current rules

Why go

Bokor is the mountain you see from every street in Kampot, and going up it is the single best day trip from town. A modern road climbs in long curves through the forest of Preah Monivong Bokor National Park, and in under an hour you rise from the steamy coast to a plateau at roughly a thousand metres, where the air is cool enough for a jacket.

At the top are the remains of a French hill station from the 1920s: the grand old Bokor Palace hotel, a small stone Catholic church, a former post office and scattered villas. Clouds blow through them in minutes, so one moment you see the whole coast down to Kep and the islands, and the next you cannot see the end of the road.

It is eerie, beautiful and slightly surreal, because next to the ruins stand a huge modern casino resort and new housing developments. Bokor is a place where several eras of Cambodian history sit side by side.

The story

The French built Bokor in the early 1920s as a retreat from the heat of the lowlands, in the same spirit as Dalat in Vietnam or the hill stations of British India. The road up was cut through the jungle by forced labour, and the commonly repeated figure is that around 900 workers died building it. The Bokor Palace hotel opened in the mid-1920s, with a casino, a ballroom and terraces looking out over the gulf.

The station was abandoned in the late 1940s, during the struggle for independence, then revived briefly in the 1960s as a fashionable weekend escape for Phnom Penh’s elite. Then came war. The Khmer Rouge took the mountain in the early 1970s, and in 1979 fighting between Khmer Rouge and Vietnamese forces centred on the plateau. Remnant Khmer Rouge units held out in the area for years afterwards.

For decades the buildings stood empty, roofs gone, walls stained orange and green with lichen. Photographs of the Palace in the fog became famous among travellers, and the church, with its small altar and broken windows, appeared in films.

Since the 2010s the plateau has been transformed by a large private development, with a casino hotel, villas and a new road. The Palace itself has been restored, losing some of its haunted air, but the scale of the mountain and the views from its edge have not changed.

Getting there

The turn-off for Bokor is about 10 km west of Kampot on the road to Sihanoukville, and the summit plateau is around 30 km further up. The road is paved and well graded, but it is steep and often wet and foggy, so only ride a scooter if you are confident. Many people hire a car with driver or join a shared tour, which often adds Wat Sampov Pram and the Popokvil waterfall.

There is little shade and few shops on the plateau outside the resort area, so bring water and snacks.

A suggested plan

1. 8:00 amLeave Kampot early, before cloud builds on the mountain.
2. 9:00 amStop at a viewpoint on the way up to look back over the coast.
3. 9:45 amThe old Catholic church, then the Bokor Palace and its cliff-edge terraces.
4. 11:00 amWat Sampov Pram, the ‘Five Boats’ pagoda, at the plateau’s edge.
5. 12:30 pmLunch near the resort, then the Popokvil waterfall if there is water.
6. 3:00 pmDescend slowly; the light over the coast is beautiful in the afternoon.

Where to stay

Base yourself in Kampot, which is close enough for an easy day trip. There are now hotel rooms on the plateau itself, an option if you want to watch sunset and sunrise from the mountain, but they are part of the large modern resort.

Good to know

• Bring a fleece or rain jacket; it can be 10 °C cooler than Kampot.
• Go on a weekday to avoid crowds of domestic tourists.
• Fuel up in Kampot; there are few stations on the mountain.
• If the summit is in cloud, wait an hour; it often clears briefly in the late morning.