Guide to Cambodia
Must See Cambodia
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One of Cambodia's premier protected areas, Bokor National Park clings to the southern tip of the Elephant Mountains. Besides a refreshingly cool climate, the park possesses secluded waterfalls, commanding ocean views, an abandoned and eerie French hill station (elevation 1080m) and exceedingly elusive animals like tigers and elephants.
At great financial and human expense (many indentured labourers perished in the process), the French forged a road into the area in the first quarter of the 20th century. A small community was created and soon the grand colonial hotel, known as Bokor Palace, was inaugurated in 1925. The hill station was twice abandoned: first in the late 1940s when the Vietnamese and Khmer Issarak (Free Khmer) forces overran it while fighting for independence against the French, and again in the early 1970s when it was left to the invading Khmer Rouge. It now has a genuine ghost-town feel, especially when thick mists envelope the skeletons of the original structures.
Tags
- forest, waterfall, ruin