Bokor Hill Station, Cambodia

Cambodia

Having referred to Bokor quite a bit in the previous postings, i guess ill do a proper section on the hill station itself.

This, on the left, is the view of Kampot, a small fishing village on the Cambodian coast that is the base for going up the Bokor Hill Station, which i believe is gazetted Bokor National Park.

Going to Kampot from Phnom Penh, according to theory, and Lonely Planet, takes 4 hours or so. In theory. Assuming the roads are tarmac and paved and the bus doesnt break down (on purpose or otherwise). What life tells us about theories is that they remain theories because they are often wrong.

What i expected to be a short trip from Phnom Penh, starting at 12 noon, to Kampot soon developed into a 8 to 9 hour long voyage, in no small part due to the roads that were scarred and potholed extensively. Another delay was caused by having to change buses (from a small one to a smaller one) midway - the bus just stopped abruptly and we were told to get off, when it was around 7 in the evening. I was either too tired or ignorant to be anxious, but, yes, commission scam alert, (the lesser of two evils - I don't want to think too much of the other one), and we were delivered faithfully into a waiting pack of touts. And picking up random people (and their chickens/bags of rice/veggies) along the way, which seemed an unwritten fact of bus travel in more remote parts of Southeast Asia, while an interesting experience, did nothing to make the journey faster. Bumping around in the bus and trying to peek out of the windows through the drawn curtains (it was hot) reminded me of Eugene O'Neill's Long Days Journey into Night, in the thank-god-i-don't-have-to-read-it-again way (it was one of SIX texts we had to prepare for the A levels).

Since it was late, i was willingly "touted" to a nearby guesthouse, seeing its touts as the lesser of two evils. Well, turns out, after all the "my friend, come my guesthouse" sweet talk, it wasnt half bad. The view was awesome - the photo was taken from my room window - Right smack beside the Kampot River, river breeze, fresh air and all all adding to its ratings. The "restaurant" had decent food at decent prices, and again the view was a big plus. Great music too - music to chill and reminisce to, thinking about life this far away, in some far flung corner of the world, staring at the darkened river, hearing the soft lapping of water against the shore.

Seeing that this place is not listed on any of my guidebooks, ill just do a basic impartial intro on it here.

Kampot Riverview Guesthouse.

They do have a dorm (one main building with TV in the centre of the compound) as well as single/double rooms (chalet style, right smack before the river). I took the single room.

Was about 4 US dollars for a clean, spacious room with attached shower (big plus at 4 dollars - other places u only get a spartan room or a dorm bed for this price). Furnishings incude a helpful rack and a hatstand. Bed was clean too.

Other services provided include transportation (shared taxi, friendly owner has a moto and willingly ferries you around Kampot) and organisation of short trips to nearby Bokor, Kep (for the limestone caves), and some waterfalls. One word though, is that u can get better prices at other places in town - Mealy Chenda GH (guesthouse) offers the best prices for tours.

If u need more info, i seem to have their email and phone number jotted down somewhere. Drop a comment, ill pass them to you.

Kampot, of course, if famous for her pepper. LP proclaims "no self respecting French restaurant would be without Kampot pepper". Having sampled some - it made a world of difference to plain bullseye eggs I can say that Kampot pepper is famous for a reason.

From Sihanoukville/Kompong Som (for the royalists), its a more (very) humane 2 hours plus trip to Kampot by shared taxi, going down smooth, beautiful tarmac all the way. Much like Malaysia's North South Highway, with plantations and trees at both sides. Taxi cost 3-4 dollars (depending on how good u are at bargaining) - for A seat. Cannot stress this enough. You pay for one seat, but as a nice surprise, guess how many seats they have in an old Japan imported Toyota Camry/Corolla? 4 at the back, and 2 in the front passenger seat. Needless to say, its going to be squishy. The trick is, if you are not on such a tight budget, pay for 2 seats, and ask/beg/plead for the front seat. I did this trip (to S'ville) in reverse, going from Kampot, and sharing it with a family, i got the front seat. (yay-ness)

In Jan 2007, they were building a new bridge across the Kampot River. What new transport options will be available, im not sure, but i think it might be the continuation of railway services to Phnom Penh.

I realise i haven't quite covered Bokor, ill leave that to my next post then.