Bokor Hill Station

Below are photos from Bokor Mountain, inside Bokor National Park. In the 1920s the French elite built a resort here complete with a large hotel, casino, church, shops, etc. The resort was abandoned during the civil war in the early 1970s--now remain only the senescent (gotta love the thesaurus) skeletons of the structures. However, Bokor Hill Station, home to the rangers who monitor the park, has bunkrooms and a kitchen for visitors to the park who wish to stay overnight.







After three hours in the back of a truck, we arrived at the top of Bokor in a downpour, and the mountain completely clouded over. Visibility couldn't have been more than about 5 meters. We explored a few of the eerie buildings--my first thought was that the place seemed like a setting for a horror film. Later a Korean man told me there was indeed a Korean horror film, R-Point, made on site in 2002.





In the late afternoon, the clouds finally began to clear, revealing a splendid view of the coast and Gulf of Thailand below. From the top of the once-grand Palace Hotel & Casino and the precipice of Bokor's sheer ocean-side face, we were treated to a rather stunning sunset...