After getting back from Kratie spent the night in our hostel, and the next morning boarded a bus to Kampot which is on the south coast (pretty much). Our aim was to get down there early enough to go to the Bokor Hill station (an old French resort – casino etc – all abandoned) but our ‘3’ hour bus ride ended up taking 6 (this is usual) so we ended up chilling out for the afternoon (well I did – had a nice chat and a cuppa coffee with an American x-pat now coffee house owner).
It’s a pretty lazy sleepy kinda town.
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My Americans friends favourite pasttime was watching the river go slowly by (it reverses direction twice each day with the tide! – it’s an inverse tributary of the Mekong (my brother Matt’s words ;) Still, a lovely evening, sent a few mails, caught up on my news.bbc.co.uk and my Irish Times. That evening we went to the Rusty Keyhole restaurant on advice from the Lazy Gecko restaurant in Phenom Penh. For the bbq ribs. I can now recommend this to anyone, it was a yum and extremely filling dinner!, and chatted away (over 7% beer) with Dan and Nell a lovely English couple.
Next morning at 8am it was off to Bokor Hill station. On the left hand side of the truck is Mhairi, Nell and Dan
I stayed in the back of the truck up onto the highlands, but once up there I capitulated and moved into the cab. As my Grandpapa says ‘any fool can be uncomfortable‘, not that it was foolish to go in the back of course, I just preferred the comfortable front! Getting old I must be.
It was nice and cool up there. I think you have to be here in the humidity and heat to really appreciate our colder climates. Honestly, just walking up a hill the other day I was utterly drenched in sweat after about 10 mins. Sorry, just thought I’d share ;) but it makes me appreciate and even long for the freezing house in ChCh where I have to get from bed into down jacket in one quick move!
So yes, Bokor – used to be a posh French resort when they were the colonial powers here. You can see the catholic church in the distance.
Apparently there’s a wicked New Years Eve party in the old abandoned (complete with bullet holes) casino. This building (which I climbed onto the roof of) was in a film called ‘City of Ghosts’. Well, so we’re told at any rate.
Then it was back to town, and as we wanted to get moving again – this time to Vietnam, we caught a taxi (150km for $30) back to Phenom Penh. It was worth it just for the comfort factor too. Tried to get moola out of one of the three ATMs in the country!, but no joy, still, we had enough dollars left to make it to Vietnam. Or so we hoped.
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