A Day Out in the Mists - Bokor Hill Station and National Park
Bokor Hill Station and National Park are a mysterious and beautiful destination in Cambodia. Come with us as we drive past troupes of monkeys, up a winding mountain road to visit the mist-clad ruins and abandoned church. Our complete guide has all the must know information for visiting Bokor Hill Station and National Park.
Nearby to the backpacker favourite town of Kampot is Bokor Hill Station. A relic of the French colonial era and part of Bokor National Park (the full name is Preah Monivong Bokor National Park), the mysterious and beautiful mist clad ruins lie at the top of Bokor Hill. To get to the ruins you will have to take the winding road up the mountain, passing relics of the past, ruins of the present as well as thick forests and troupes of watching monkeys.
We rented a scooter in Kampot town and set off for a day of riding, what we got was far more than we bargained for in the mists of Bokor...
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Our day at Bokor Hill Station
We were staying at the amazing hostel, Karma Traders. From the hostel roof you could, on clear days, see the towering mountain of Bokor Hill National Park. Containing the ruins of old resorts, an abandoned church, countless monkeys and a restored colonial French hotel, we knew we had to go.
We fueled up on a hearty Cambodian breakfast - sweet grilled pork over rice -and hopped on our bike. We were traveling in the middle of the wet season but had a break in the weather for the day, or so we thought. We didn’t (still don’t) entirely trust weather forecasts, so stashed our wet coats in the bike’s seat. Water bottles, anoraks and snacks stowed, we revved up and left the Karma Traders hostel.
The initial ride to the entrance of the national park takes about fifteen to twenty minutes. We drove through Kampot town, dodging the crazy traffic and questionably driven trucks, before taking the bridge across the river and following the main road south out of town.
After a short drive on the main road we turned off, passing under a large archway welcoming us to the national park. On the side of the road were lines of fruit and snack sellers, we would learn later that these snacks were not just for human consumption! From the archway we crossed a train line, passed an entrance booth (no ticket is required for the national park) and entered the park. From here on out it was up all the way.
You can find the entrance road we took here on Google Maps:
The road started to switchback up and up the side of the mountain. Initially we had long gentle curves arching their way around the hillside but as we climbed higher and higher the hairpin bends got more frequent. On either side of us was thick forest with a short wall on the cliff-side edge of the road. As the forest deepened the wall started to fill up with spectators to our ride.
You know its going to be a fun ride with a sign like that!
Huge troupes of macaques lounged, sprawled and bounced along the road and the wall next to the cliff. They seemed entirely indifferent to the traffic that passed them by, barely looking up at our approach. In some places we saw cars slow and roll a window down. One of the larger monkeys would then approach, hop up on its hind legs (macaques are surprisingly tall on two legs) and be passed some fruit or treats from the car window. The stalls at the entrance, it turned out, were supplying visitors with macaque lunchboxes! We cannot imagine this is the most environmentally friendly way of sustaining the macaques and, judging by the ripped plastic and rubbish in the banks of the road, it also may not be the healthiest of diets.
The macaques were amazing nonetheless. The massive troupes (we saw a few groups each with easily over sixty monkeys apiece) were full of bulky posturing alpha’s, tiny babies clinging to their mothers as well as precocious young monkeys zooming around and screaming at each other. The troupes lounged, picked fleas off of each other or just lolloped along the road.
It was great to see the monkeys in a (semi) natural environment but they did pose a bit of a road hazard. On more than one occasion emergency braking had to be used as a teenage monkey decided to run out in front of our bike!
Bokor National Park is full of amazing wildlife. There are apparently wild populations of bears, gibbons, slow loris, civet, hornbills and even clouded leopards! Unfortunately the recent construction boom - more on this later - has placed a lot of the biodiversity under threat. It is rare to see more than macaques from the road, but we did see some hornbills flying overhead. If you want to see more of the wild life in the national park, consider hiring a trekking guide to take you deeper into the forest (more on this later).
With trees on both sides of the winding road, we didn’t really get a sense of how high up we were until we came to a view point. At these viewpoints the trees would fall away and the landscape unravel in front of us. We hadn’t realised how fast we had climbed or how tall Bokor Hill was. The views under a grey wet season sky were fantastic. You can find one of the viewpoints here but there were quite a few more, just keep an eye for the roadside signs. These viewpoints are usually just a large verge to pull your bike or car over and a small path leading to a gap in the trees overlooking the landscape below.
Our first built up view came from the Lok Yeay Mao monument (location). The monument is huge ; a serene, expressionless white Buddha sits on a tiered blue dais. This huge statue sits at the tip of one of the hills' many crests and can be seen from miles around on a clear day. When we visited, the base of the Buddha was busy with people meditating and leaving offerings. Traditional Cambodian music filled the air from a small band and devotees were praying towards the statue. With the music playing in the background, the view took on an otherworldly air. Looking down across the plains towards the sea, with the clouds forming a low ceiling over the world, it was spectacular.
The worshipers really give a sense of how big this was - you could see Lok Yeay Mao from hilltops all around.
From the Lok Yeay Mao monument we could see the road clinging to the crest of the hill and snaking away. We still had a good way to go so, with the sky getting lower and lower and the clouds threatening us with a soaking, we continued on.
It was around this time that the journey became a little bizarre. We had so far, climbed through forests on quiet roads full of monkeys. Now we entered a concrete wasteland. Huge construction projects stood idle or abandoned. Whole towns worth of housing stood half completed and empty, staircases and rooms exposed like rib-cages. Below we could see what looked like a dam under construction. The only completed building seemed to be a hospital busy with workers and people. It was strange, up there in the clouds, to come out of the peaceful nature and be surrounded by the half finished hulks of mega industry.
As we soon found out, it was not all half finished. We rounded a corner and came face to face with the enormous monstrosity of the Thansur Sokha Hotel and Casino. If the previous landscapes had been bizarre then this was ridiculous. The casino hotel is huge and sat like a beached yellow whale on the crest of the mountain, dwarfing all around it. Ugly outbuildings crowded around its bulk and the car-park could rival a theme park’s in scale.
The casino hotel was apparently built as part of a multi-million dollar tourist redevelopment to attract Chinese visitors. It boggles the mind that someone saw a national park, an area of amazing beauty and biodiversity, and thought “You know what would improve this? A mega casino and the ugliest hotel you can imagine”. The place has (mostly) good reviews on Google but all say the massive building was nearly entirely empty when they visited it. It really seems like a shame. If incongruous ugly developments are your thing you can stay in the hotel, just read the reviews first!
Seriously, who thought this was a good look?
Putting the squatting horror of the yellow hotel behind us, we started to near our original destinations. In a line along the road are: ruined resorts, a famous abandoned catholic church and, what was once, the most famous abandoned French colonial building in the country, the Bokor Hill Station.
We decided that, as our route was not circular and we would have to come back the way we came, we would start with the destination furthest away and work backwards. We scooted on to the end of the road.
From a small car-park next to a holiday rental building (located here), we could see the crumbling concrete remains of the Domnak Preah Bath Monivong. A few walls and pillars are all that remains of the 1920’s retreat of King Monivong. This is the king who’s name the national park takes: Preah Monivong Bokor National Park. The path down to the remains of the old retreat was very treacherous in the wet season so we did not explore closer, just looked on from the road.
Opposite the holiday cottage that we had parked at, was the shell of another building. Brutal grey stones and graffiti covered concrete squatted on the roadside. Across the grey surface of its ruined frontage, an orange fungus or lichen was spreading. Apparently this was another relic of the Bokor Hill Station Resort. It may have been the grey skies and clouds, but it looked very ominous, we cannot imagine it is a great neighbor for the renovated colonial style holiday cottage next door!
If walls could talk … The ruins of Bokor Hill Station have seen a lot, from the Colonial period all through the turbulent times of the Khmer Rouge.
A short way back along the road and we came to, what was once, Cambodia’s most famous colonial ruin. The Bokor Hill Station Resort (location).
Built in the 1920’s to give the French rulers a break from the Cambodian heat, the Bokor Hill Station was a hotel and resort for the colonial rulers alone. It cost 900 lives to build (it was an incredibly remote and inaccessible location back then) and the hill station spanned across several buildings and structures. The most famous building was the central hotel, The Bokor Palace hotel. Completed in 1925 and then abandoned in 1940 during the First Indochina War, the Palace hotel had sat decaying for decades on the misty hilltop. Bokor Hill was inaccessible to most people until the recent past; it had remained a Khmer Rouge stronghold up until the early 1990s.
You can park your scooter in the hotel car park
The ruins of the Bokor Palace Hotel were iconic, we remember seeing pictures of this grand palatial hotel on our first visit to Cambodia ten years ago. So imagine our surprise to learn that it is no longer a ruin. It is, once again a hotel! Now called Le Bokor Palace (everything sounds better in French) the iconic colonial building has been refurbished and is taking customers once again. You can book a room here! It is, like a lot of Bokor, bizarre. The old walls have modern plastic looking white windows and shutters but the stonework is still stained and faded. It wasn’t until we parked up and saw the modern swimming pool out the back that we were sure the hotel was back in business!
We parked our bike in the hotels car park and had a nose about. The grounds behind the hotel have been extensively renovated and would have incredible views on a clear day. The hotel sits just above where a layer of cloud comes to rest, so you could sit outside looking over a sea of clouds below you. On this grey and overcast day it gave off more of a sort of “The Overlook” vibe…
Le Bokor Palace has apparently been fully refurbished on the inside and is now a luxury hotel!
Opposite the hotel's car-park, down a short overgrown path, is one of the original “concrete mushrooms” from the 1920’s. You can see a few of these all over the Bokor Hill Station, dotted on promontories and viewpoints. These concrete mushrooms originally provided shade for the resort's clientele to sit and take in the views. Nowadays they are just another strange wreck of what once was. All over the view you could see a mix of ongoing development, half finished (possibly abandoned) construction and 1920’s concrete ruin. It was, with the mists and clouds rolling in, like something from Fallout or Silent Hill. It was like being in a world after some huge disaster had taken place, with only the shells of buildings left.
This was the view from the concrete ‘mushroom’. It was eerie seeing all the ghosts of buildings in the national park.
The clouds were now seriously threatening, rising on all sides over the crest of the hill. We had a longish drive to get back to town so hurried on to our last stop of the hill station, the abandoned Church of Mount Bokor.
The abandoned Catholic church wasn’t doing anything to dispel the creepy atmosphere.
Set on a rise just before the hotel (location), the Catholic church once was part of the French resort complex. Abandoned with the rest of the hotel in the 1940’s the church has stood empty since. It is now an icon of the area. It is also the second oldest standing Catholic church in Cambodia. Any search for Bokor or Kampot will yield a picture of this church standing forlorn and empty on the edge of the hill.
On a clear day the church commands beautiful views down towards Kampot and the sea. If you climb the small hill behind it, there is another view all the way down the other side of Bokor Hill. We emphatically did not have a clear day, the clouds were now surrounding us heavily pregnant with rain. We sped up our exploration and headed inside.
On the walls of the chapel faithful worshipers have continued to leave flowers, Jesus and Mary statues, pictures and messages. The altar still stands in the middle of the concrete room. It was, like any abandoned church, an eerie but calm space - both at the same time. It was as strange and forlorn as other abandoned buildings but still oddly welcoming. It was odd to think of a building that clearly meant so much to people, being left to the elements.
The inside of the church is clearly still venerated. It was kept spotless and the flowers were fresh.
The church was one of the last bastions of the Khmer Rouge on Bokor hill, they used it as a form of barracks until they were driven out in 1993. The church clearly hadn’t been forgotten about though: in 2017 ownership was officially returned to the Catholic church and, as of 2021 (according to Wikipedia), there are efforts to raise money to restore the church.
We came out of the church and into a swirling cauldron of mist and rain. We had gambled with the weather and lost. Arms above our heads we had to run back to the bike and hastily unpack our wet coats. We now had plastic wet coats on top of soggy, wet clothes, wonderful! The rain got heavier and heavier hammering down and seeping into our coats, until suddenly, it just stopped. As quickly as it had begun, the rain swept away from the crest of the hill and down the sides of the hill below.
The rain had finished but the mist had only just begun. Above us the church, only fifty metres away, disappeared into the swirling white mists.
The mist grew so thick that we couldn’t see more than a couple of metres in front of us, there was no way we were driving through it. We decided to wait it the mists out. We turned all our bikes lights on, hunkered down on the side of the road and hoped the wind would clear the mists away. Every so often a car would crawl past at a few miles an hour, only visible by its headlights.
The whole day had been bizarre and eerie but now we were at the top of a hill next to an abandoned church in the middle of the thickest mist we had ever encountered, eerie had graduated to full on creepy. The mists thickened and thinned but never to more than a few feet of visibility. There was a road sign in front of us the appeared and disappeared through the swirling white mist. It was if the mountain was breathing in and out.
We waited for twenty minutes but the mist did not clear. We didn’t want to drive back in a rainstorm or the dark so we made the decision to, very very slowly, drive back down. We were in the middle of a cloud, so if we could drop down a little we should come out of the worst of the mist. Teeth clenched and hands on the break we inched back down the road.
Within two minutes we felt a little silly. We had, apparently, been sitting in a very small, very localized, soup bowl of mist. Within seconds of setting off the mist, which had been unmoving for twenty minutes, dissipated nearly entirely and we could see perfectly...Well better safe than sorry we suppose!
The National Park is stunning. Even in the wet season!
We revved back up to a more normal speed and retraced our steps down the mountain. We flew past modern and colonial ghosts, through the monkey tribes, out the national park and back towards Kampot and a well deserved hot shower.
It had been a real adventure of a day.
The practical stuff - how to explore Bokor Hill
Getting to Bokor Hill and getting around:
Scooter
We rented a scooter from our hostel (the excellent Karma Traders - more on them later) at $5.00 a day for our adventure around Bokor Hill. It is the least restrictive and cheapest way to get to the sights and around the national park. We wouldn’t recommend renting a scooter unless you are a confident rider, you need to travel along main roads full of lorries and cars to get to the national park and, once there, you will need to navigate winding roads up the mountain. Also, as we found out, you have to be willing and able to deal with sudden monkeys and the weather!
The roads in the national park are actually very good. One of the few upsides of the ugly development on top of Bokor hill is that the roads leading from Kampot are well maintained and smooth for the most part. The hair pin corners are steep but the road is usually wide enough to not make it an issue. Just look out for other cars and suicidal monkeys!
Tour or private driver
If you are not confident riding a scooter, do not worry you can still have an awesome day out amongst the peaks and mist! Every guest-house, hostel and hotel in Kampot will be able to arrange a trip up to the ruins, church and old hotel at the top.
Our hostel, Karma Traders, was fantastic (so fantastic we wrote a whole article about it here), every day groups of newly formed dorm friends would head out to the national park in the back of a tuk tuk or remorque. The reception could book a driver and the price would be for the whole vehicle, so the more of you there is, the cheaper it will be.
You can either hire a private driver at your accommodation, in town or in advance by booking a tour on Get Your Guide. Have a look what is on offer here
Cost of entry and opening times for Bokor National Park.
Cost of Entry: None, nothing, nada, zilch! There is a small booth marking the entrance to the park but we were just waived through. The new development has meant that the road is in constant use outside of those just looking to appreciate the nature so it doesn’t cost anything to explore the park!
Nothing we did that day cost anything, the viewpoints, monuments and ruins were all free and open to the public. There was no parking charges or anyone hustling for cash at any of the places we went that day. All we paid was for the bike hire, petrol, snacks and drinks - it was a perfect backpacker day.
Opening Times: Technically the park never closes. As the normal way to view it is via the road, this doesn’t ever shut. However we would not recommend getting caught after dark there. The road is wide but the drops are very steep. Plan ahead and make sure you give yourself enough time to get back!
Our route around Bokor Hill Station
We did a straight forward back and forth route to Bokor Hill with our start at our hostel and the end / turnaround point being the end of the road after Bokor Palace Hotel. You can see our route on the Google Map below
How long did it take to visit Bokor Hill
We took it slow (at least until the weather turned) and didn’t race about on the bike. We spent all morning and early afternoon exploring the park. The route to and from Bokor Hill would take two hours alone (in a car) according to Google. We think that it would actually take a lot longer. Plan at least four hours to see everything and not be rushed. If you have good weather and want to add in some things we missed (see later) then allow a good deal longer.
When to visit Bokor Hill
This is very subjective. In the dry season you are much more likely to get the full sweeping views the hill can offer. You are also much less likely to be rained off like we were! However, in the dry season you will lose some of the misty vibes and have to share the hill with a lot more people. We cannot say for certain (as we only visited in the wet season) but what we saw, wreathed as it was in mist and looming mysteriously, may just look like ugly concrete in the light of the dry season sun.
It just looks right under iron skies!
We loved visiting in the wet season even with the rain and getting stuck in the mist. It really gave the ruins, both modern and colonial, an eerie yet beautiful feeling. Despite being briefly soaked we are glad we visited when we did. If you go in the dry season, let us know - leave a comment and tell us how you found it!
What else is there to do - What did we miss in Bokor Hill National Park?
Due to the weather and a lack of prior planning we actually missed a load in the national park when we had our little adventure.
There are fantastic waterfalls all dotted around the park. If you don’t mind a detour before you reach the national park check out Veal Pouch Waterfall. Located here. You will need to drive a little way on a dirt road and have a short, thirty minute, hike to reach the falls. We couldn’t do this waterfall as it had been raining heavily for several days and the roads would have been beyond our humble scooter skills. Inside the park and more accessible, is the Popokvil Waterfall. We are annoyed we missed this one as it is meant to be great in the rainy season. You can find it here a short detour off of our posted route. There is a small entrance fee of $0.50 - $1.00 (which includes a bottle of water) and a restaurant on site. Just be aware that both these waterfalls are affected by the season, Veal Pouch can even disappear entirely in the dry season.
Another victim of the weather was Wat Sampov Pram. Hidden behind the hideous yellow casino hotel, this beautiful temple is one of the highest in Cambodia. On rare clear days you can see all the way to Phú Quốc Island off of Vietnam. On most days however, the temple sits in a serene sea of mist. The nearby rock formations give the temple the name of the five ships pagoda due to their shape in the sea of clouds. We would have definitely come here if we hadn’t had to run from the weather, it looks stunning despite the ugliness of the new hotel behind it.
Hiking in Bokor Hill National Park
In less soggy months the park is a haven for nature lovers and hikers with trails and tours crisscrossing the hills and leading to secluded waterfalls and scenic views. Make sure you stick to the trails and take an experienced guide if you do go hiking, the area was a Khmer Rouge stronghold until 1993 so you do not want to know what is buried there!
If you are interested in a hike ask in town and you will easily find a guide. Obviously hiking would be better in the dry season - Leeches are a thing!
Staying in Kampot
If you are looking at exploring Bokor Hill you are almost definitely staying in Kampot. There are loads of choices for accommodation in this laid back town. We cannot recommend the Karma Traders Hostel enough. Comfy rooms, great atmosphere, a pool and a brilliant restaurant. We could go on and on, in fact we did! Check out our article on Karma Traders:
There are lots of other choices for staying in Kampot. For hostels in town there is Onederz Hostel and Monkey Republic. For people looking for pool parties and slides there is the famous Arcadia Waterpark and Backpackers a little drive to the north of Kampot.
If your hostel days are long behind you there are plenty of other choices in Kampot. You can have whatever level of luxury you want; from high end to budget guest house.
Have a look at the map below for all your accommodation options:
Zoom out for more accommodation choices.
Bokor Hill - Our final thoughts
Bokor Hill is an odd and fascinating place. The nature and National Park are gorgeous. Driving through the winding mountain roads, surrounded by trees and monkeys, knowing that somewhere in the greenery are clouded leopards, is simply amazing.
The buildings at the top of the hill are bizarre, it's like you have wandered on to a film set for a post apocalyptic movie, like you have woken up in a dystopian concrete world post disaster. The looming hulks of half finished apartment towns, the derelict building sites with semi-built monuments - it was interesting to say the least! If you share our aesthetic sensibilities it was amazing to see ruins and brutal architecture sitting amongst the clouds and mists.
Who allowed this in a national park?!
The new buildings going up and the massive casino / hotel on the other hand are not interestingly bizarre or amazing, they are just an eyesore. We do not want to meet the person who’s ‘aesthetic’ that yellow monstrosity is. There is something odd about Cambodian history and planning permission. Less than ten minutes down the road from where the French Colonial invaders killed 900 Cambodians building a resort for themselves, Cambodia decides to build a mega casino for China...
The main pull of this trip and the reason we set off on this day’s adventure was still amazing. The ruins of old 1920’s resorts, swathed in mist, the shell of old French buildings being reclaimed by the mountainside and, of course, the incredible abandoned church were worth the trip alone! We love ruins, we make sure we track them down everywhere - we - go, so this was an absolute treat for us. However, even if you are not as into ruins or brutal architecture as us, the ride up Bokor hill is worth your time, the views and vibes are amazing. It is eerie, otherworldly and beautiful.
Thank you for reading,
John & Ellie x
#adventuresofjellie
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Hostels can be a backpacker's best friend or worst enemy. A great hostel is a hub for travellers exploring and making the most of a new place. Karma Traders of Kampot is a perfect example of an amazing hostel. Social and fun whilst being relaxed and unforced, read our article to find out why a four day stay turned into a weeklong love affair!