Goosebumps Cambodia: Kampot

After a few days by the beach in Sihanoukville (more about this in an upcoming post), we decided to leave town for an excursion to Kampot and Bokor Hill Station. Perhaps the town had once been beautiful, but the buildings were now crumbling and there were bizarre sculptures, like the one above, in all of the traffic circles. From the very beginning it seemed like we'd entered a David Lynch movie, and it was only to become eerier.

In order to get to Bokor Hill Station, an abandoned French resort villa, built in the early 1920s, we needed to go on a bit of a hike. We took a jeep halfway up the mountain in Preah Monivong National Park, and then set off with a guide, a ranger, and a few other intrepid adventurers. We conquered leeches, scrapes and scratches, only to emerge from the trees into a thick cloud of fog. You could barely see ten feet in front of you, but once we reached the main palace and casino, we were greeted by the following sign:
Our guide assured us we would be completely safe, and sent us off to wander around the spooky grounds for two hours. These buildings have been left completely in tact, and a thick orange moss has covered much of their exteriors.
The guide encouraged us to look for a cathedral and post office, so we set off on a path that would past the concrete space mushroom.
We arrived first at a square, squat hotel which was surrounded by tropical flowers (they looked like hibiscus) and wine berries. We pushed through the tall grass and entered...
The upstairs was a maze of rooms, covered in the moss, where many of the walls had collapsed. It was really fun to wander around and hide; can you find Morgan in the picture above?
Most of the front of the building had fallen away, and as the mist momentarily cleared, we were greeted by a large lake.
We left the hotel, continuing our search for the church and post office, but instead came across this building (which we think were apartments)
and this enormous skeleton of shops.
We only had forty-five minutes left, so we set back to our starting point of the main palace/casino. The building is four stories tall and has sweeping staircases in both wings.
The first room you encounter, on the ground floor, is a ballroom with soaring ceilings and beautiful archways. It was easy to imagine ghosts of galas past waltzing across the floor, or gambling their fortunes away.
Throughout the building there were several tiny balconies off the windows that were covered in ivy and moss.
I took this my 9 billionth self-portrait in one of the demolished rooms on the third floor.
This girl, along with tons of graffiti could be found lurking in the stairwells of nearly every building in the complex.
We were waved goodbye by the mess of hand prints above, as we headed out to meet up with our group and hike back down the mountain. If you have the chance to visit, do it quickly! Bokor Hill Station is slated to be torn down over the course of the next few years, as a shmancy resort is being built nearby.