Kampot and Bokor Hill Station

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It took us a long time but we finally made it to Kampot. For whatever insane reason we decided not to stay in Phnom Penh just yet and head straight out of the city for the coast. So after an 11 hour flight to Bangkok, a night sleeping at the airport (great transit lounge, nice chairs to spread right out flat on, but why buff the floor at 4am when we are sleeping?!?!), a short hop to PP, a taxi ride to the bus station, we had a few hours waiting for the bus. Hot, tired, but mercifully not bothered by the people selling things as we expected, and have experienced elsewhere. Sure, kids came up a few times trying to sell us a paper, dvd, bread...but once we said no thanks, they wandered off.

The bus ride wasnt the worst we have had, but we have had better. I'm not particularly tall, but my legs didnt fit in behind the seat in front. And we had 4 hours of bumpy roads to endure. Oh yeah - the air con wasnt working either, and we were on the sunny side of the bus.

But enough of that. The scenery was great, much of it was exactly how we expected rural Cambodia to look like. Rice paddys, people on motos and push bikes, cows everywhere... The towns / villages were close together outside PP but got much further apart as we got further away. The road was, umm, trying to find a polite word here...but basically bad. It did get better the further away from PP we got, but was still rough and narrow. The buses are second in the pecking order, big trucks come first. Cars, motos, pushbikes, people are all lesser beings and must move out of our way (its cheaper to hit and kill someone than just injure them). The driver almost sat on his horn the whole way down, letting people know he was coming. Most got out of the way, but if the didnt he'd slam on the brakes and swerve round. We didnt get close to hitting anyone, despite the absolute chaos on the roads. (looking back, the drivers to and from Kampot were nothing compared to the arrogant, aggressive idiot driving the bus to Battambang, but thats another story!)

A hostel tout got on the bus at Kep, the town before Kampot, and wandered round passing out flyers to all the backpackers. He claimed he was on his way home from school (bit old for school!) but apparently he does that every day trying to get business. We actually checked out one of the other hostels first, one that was recommended to us, but it was deserted. So we went back to this other one, the Mealy Chenda. Its just moved into a new building, so the rooms are nice, but there is no lounge or other meeting area set up yet. US$5 for a double with fan and bathroom (cold water only) is about normal in Cambodia so far.

The next day we went on a tour to Bokor Hill Station with four other people from the hostel. It started well, but got worse and worse as the day went on. Our first "Only in Asia" story! Although stuff like this happens everywhere.

There were six of us in a pick-up. Two girls rode inside (wooses!) while the rest of us sat on the back. There were rough bench seats along the sides with thin padding, and bars to hold on to. About what we'd expected. The road out to the park was the best we'd been on, wide and smooth. Once we hit the park road though...again, exactly what we'd been expecting, but it was still hard work. Once upon a time it had been tar-sealed, now it is a rough mix of seal, mud, rubble, sand...the poor ute...4WD but we still bottomed out a few times and struggled though. And got overtaken by a couple of people on a moped.

We finally stopped after about 2 hours, and hobbled off the back, sore arms from holding on, sore butts from bumping around (forgot to add earlier that there was little foot space in the back due to spare tyres, tools, lunch...). First stop was the "Black Palace", now range with lichen. All the buildings here are shells now. The guide was telling us that the Khmer Rouge took care of them, tried to protect them, but once they left it was the local villagers that came up and tore them apart for things to sell or build their own houses from. All that was left was the block and concrete walls and some of the floor tiles.

The Black Palace was basically a luxury lodge with an awesome view off the hill towards the coast. It was used by the royal family, french diplomats / governors and their friends. Close by was another building that had been the kitchen, dining area, with a couple more bedroom, and another house that the guide called the Kings House. This is tucked away in the bush with no view, poor king.

We were taken another 20 minutes or so along the road to a Buddhist shrine. This is where things started going funny. We were dropped off with our lunch, and the driver took off back down the hill. We had a lovely, but very early, lunch, then started "trekking". Not what we would call trekking, but never mind. We walked along the road towards the hill station, being passed by other tour groups, cars (how did they get up that road?!?!) and motorbikes. Onwards and upwards in the heat...past the old police station (same condition as all the buildings there) to the ranger station. Did we want to stop and buy a cold drink? Tea? Coffee? No thanks. Despite walking along the "road" for an hour, we were so close we just wanted to keep going, maybe we'd meet our ute and driver! Next up was the remains of the Hotel Kiri, the first hotel built up here. Apparently when they finished they realised they'd built the hotel in the wrong spot - no view as on the wrong side of the hill! - so they built the Bokor Palace / Casino. This hotel is obviosuly still being used for target practice as it was full of recently shot AK 47 ammunition, with a few blanks still live.

Just over the hill was the reason we'd "trekked" for so long (how come the other tour groups got to ride to the top??) The Palace / Casino. Desolate, but with awesome views. Bit hazy, but we could see for miles up and down the coast. The building wasnt as spooky as we'd read, but I imagine it would be after dark. We wandered around the rooms, kitchens, bedrooms, a huge ballroom, balconies and terraces...all stripped bare and bullet hole ridden. You can imagine that it would have been an impressive place in its time. Luckily all those poor tourists that had to ride all the way up were having lunch while we wandered around so it was quiet. There had to be a good side to eatng early and walking up!

A couple more buildings on the way down - the old bank and a church. Then things started going even worse! We walked up to a Buddhist temple, the guide just aid we'd have a look. Yup, interesting. Lots of people as a festival was beginning that evening. Then he told us we would meet our driver there. Four hours later...fed up, bored, too much sun, getting colder and colder as the wind picked up...no driver. He'd sensed an opportunity to make some extra cash and had driven back to Kampot to pick up a load of passengers to take them to the temple for this festival. The guide was obviously getting concerned too, he told us a few too many times that the driver would be here soon. Then he hit the hooch. By the time the driver did turn up, the guide was wasted, sitting on a rocky outcrop refusing to come down. Then he fell off. Good job he was so drunk, he fell about 4 metres and got wedged between rocks, landing on some scrub. All he did was cut his head open, but his precious binoculars were ok. He'd held on to those tighter and tighter as he got more and more drunk, they were the only thing that meant anything to him. He lost his shoes, ripped his trousers, had his shirt tied round his head to stop the bleeding, but his binos were safe! We managed to get him into the back of the ute with Colin and Xavier trying their best to hold him in, and all four of us girls rode inside. The driver drove extra fast down the mountain as we were late, and his mate was drunk and bleeding. I'm sure the seats inside were even worse than the back of the pick up. No padding left, all you could feel was springs and bars, and I swear we went over one rut / hole / lump and when we came back down the seat had buckled. Still wasnt any more comfortable! Poor Colin and Xave, the guide kept trying to get out, or stand up Titanic style, they had to pull him down every time there was a low branch (often) and stop him trying to climb out everytime we slowed down on a particularly bumpy patch. But we did finally get back. Not that the hostel guy cared that our trip was messed up. He claimed we didnt stop at the waterfall earlier as we'd told the driver we didnt want to. Um..no..we didnt stop cos the driver wasnt there, and when he did arrive it was nearly dark and we had a drunk and bleeding guide to get back to town. Typical, and completely expected reaction. But a great story though! No ordinary trips for us, we have to do something a bit different. And we have some nice photos of the guide hanging out a tree (holding on very tight to those binoculars!)

So that was Kampot. A nice enough town, very rural, hot and sweaty. We found a great, unnamed, restaurant around the corner from the hostel for dinner. Full of locals not tourists, staff didnt speak any English and our Cambodian still isnt up to much. One of the other "diners" spoke enough English to tell us all that was available was beef, vegetable and noodle soup. So we ordered vegetable and noodle soup, and beer on ice. No refrigeration, so no cold beers. Beer on ice in interesting though (and the ice is made from purified water). Bit warm to start with, and a bit diluted towards the end as the ice melts, but... And the soup was great too. and cheap. Our whole meal including drinks was less than one dish in the hostel restaurants. cheapskates eh!!

Anyway, we are about to try and post some pictures. If it doesnt work here check back later as the connection is a bit slow. We will add photos at some point!

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Photos

"Road" up to Bokor Hill Station
Hard to take a picture of this road as we were bumping our way along it - to say it was rough is a bit of an understatement!

Front porch of Bokor Palace / Casino
Bit run down now, but wouldnt it have been awesome in its day?!

Comments

[Ginger nuts]

Yey!!!
Good to see you two on the road! Love your story :))) Keep writing!