The eerie Asian ghost town once a holiday spot for the elite

I peer from the back of a tuk-tuk at the mountain soaring above me. I could never be so brazen as to attempt this road on a scooter, although many do, joyriding the winding bends of Bokor.

I’m travelling through Cambodia’s Preah Monivong Bokor National Park, commonly called Bokor Mountain. It’s 38 kilometres from the southern riverside town of Kampot, renowned for its aromatic (and addictive) black pepper. The distance is short, but when you combine it with travelling at 40 kilometres per hour and ascending 1079 metres, it’s a sluggish trip to the top.

The winding route to the top of Bokor Mountain.Credit: iStock

En route, the scenery is incredible: the Gulf of Thailand comes into view, the big blue flecked with islands. It beautifully contrasts with the rainforests, villages and fields on the slopes below. Waterfalls, naturally carved stone temples and phallic flowers (commonly referred to as “penis plants”) are also found here, but the natural attractions are not what brought me here.

Bokor’s chequered past is on show: abandoned French colonial ruins marked with graffiti, diverse religious landmarks, a former king’s residence, empty townhouses and an austere 19th-century hilltop palace-turned-hotel. This mishmash of historic buildings is peculiar and eerie. Should I even be here, I wonder?

In the 1920s, Bokor Hill Station was established as a resort town for French colonists to escape the heat of the capital, Phnom Penh. The station’s citadel-like hotel, Le Bokor Palace (also known as Bokor Hill Resort & Casino), overlooks the coast. It’s said nearly 1000 people died during the construction of the Palladian concrete landmark, with the lavish haven – as well as a Catholic church, apartments and a post office – abandoned by the ruling elite during the First Indochina War in the 1940s.

The derelict Black Palace.Credit: iStock

Left razed and ransacked, wealthy Khmers gave the retreat a new lease of life in 1962, but Bokor’s resurgence would be brief. Under murderous dictator Pol Pot’s reign, the Khmer Rouge took control in 1972. The station remained one of the communist regime’s last strongholds until the early 1990s. Since then, its forsaken buildings have attracted tourists seeking a look at Cambodia’s dark past.

And yet, this mountain of despair is still striving for prosperity. In 2007, property developer Sok Kong was awarded a 99-year land concession, aiming to turn Bokor into a premier tourist destination with many developments: a casino, condos and large-scale religious landmarks. If only the “build it and they will come” mentality worked – there are few people here.

Every now and then scooters zoom past as my guide cautiously navigates twists, turns and stops on the paved road. Pig-tailed macaques perform gymnastics on roadside barriers, hardly deterred by the sounds of struggling engines. While the monkeys gleefully animate some scenes, the rest of the mountain lacks movement.

Our first stop is Black Palace. Built in 1936, the former royal residence of Norodom Sihanouk stands derelict, a canvas for street art and graffiti, with its doors and windows missing. Its blackwood and brick facade is faded and surrounded by overgrown grass. I wander its gritty interior, walking over still-intact floor tiles. It’s juxtaposed with the pristine 29-metre-tall monument of the Buddhist goddess Lok Yeay Mao across the road.

The monument to Buddhist goddess Lok Yeay Mao is pristine compared with many of the area’s other buildings.Credit: iStock

We pass Thansur Sokha Hotel in its unappealing yellow hue; the 2012-built mega-resort and casino’s carpark is relatively car-free. Does this hotel have any guests? I finally spot some young tourists taking selfies outside the dilapidated century-old Catholic church – an unusual sight in a country of Buddhist temples. Inside, the church remains empty, bar a crucifix surrounded by defaced walls. It’s a little creepy. Not far away, a row of crumbling colonial-style mustard condos seems deserted.

Le Bokor Palace was restored to its former glory and reopened as a luxury hotel in 2018, but still feels unsettling.Credit: iStock

After decades of decay, the station’s grand attraction, Le Bokor Palace, was restored to its former glory and reopened as a luxury hotel in 2018. While glass may fill its windows and doors at entry points, the hotel’s weathered grey appearance and imposing design are unsettling – more spook than swank. I feel uneasy here, an atmosphere only enhanced by the cloudy skies. With thoughts of lingering ghosts, I think it’s time to go back downhill.

The abandoned Catholic church.Credit: iStock

THE DETAILS

Fly
Singapore Airlines flies via Singapore to Phnom Penh from ​​Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Cairns and Darwin. See singaporeair.com

Stay
Rooms at Le Bokor Palace start from $US240 ($384). See lebokorpalace.com.kh

The writer travelled to Cambodia as a guest of Intrepid Travel and to Bokor Mountain at her own expense.