Home » Cambodia » Sihanoukville - Kampot - Boker Hill

The 4 of us land down in Sihoukville and get a guesthouse by the beach all the time again being offered woman and weed (its getting very tedious now!!). We check out the beach and a small guy is following us up the beach selling his wares... He tells me why there's soo much wreckage along the way. The Cambodian government up to its old tricks, came along with a big JCB and flattened half of the bars, so they can build big hotels beside the golf course and charge Japenese extorsionate sums to stay there....anyway.

Sihanoukville - Kampot - Boker Hill

Gareth Penpraze
2007-04-20 22:54:35

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The 4 of us land down in Sihoukville and get a guesthouse by the beach all the time again being offered woman and weed (its getting very tedious now!!). We check out the beach and a small guy is following us up the beach selling his wares... He tells me why there's soo much wreckage along the way. The Cambodian government up to its old tricks, came along with a big JCB and flattened half of the bars, so they can build big hotels beside the golf course and charge Japenese extorsionate sums to stay there....anyway. The weather's a bit crap for the beach so me and Phil decide to hire a 125cc scooter and head off to Kampot (100km away) the next morning to go see Boker Hill Station. We're a good 50km in and the nice road turns into what we experienced in O'Smach, mud and potholes for another 40km or so. Alls going well until we get a puncture and there's nothing around. 2 kids wizz by on their bike and we manage to stop them, show them the tire and get the small guy to swap with Phil - Just to take some of his heafty weight off. We stop a half km up the road into someones front porch and manage to get the tyre fixed. If it wasn't for the kids we would have been pushing the bike 20km or so into Kampot!! It seems to be famous for its Pepper and the 2000 monument but nout else - exiting times!!

Off to Boker Hill squeezed in with 10 others on the back of a pickup and get absolutely pissed on, wrecking my camera. There's all sorts of wildlife there like the Lesser Spotted Mouse Deer and Variable Squirrel - I've got visions of a mouse running about with a giant set of antlers and squirrel that can change to whatever the hell it wants to. Basically Boker Hill was built by the French in the 20's on top of a mountain with a casino, hotel, church and post office but its been wrecked twice by cival wars and is meant to be heavily haunted. Its takes about 2 hours getting up the mountain cos the road is just all rocks and rivers which isn't good for the back. We have a tour round and a beer. Its been described as the eariest place in the world, with the wind and clouds whailing through the buildings its easy to understand why! On the way back the beers are going down well but we have to get Paul (Aussie dude) to keep deck for patches of tarmac so we don't loose our teeth drinking. Synchronized swigging the whole way home!! The motorbike has to be back in Sihanoukville by 10 the next morning so we're on the road at 6, foot (wrist actually) down the whole way.. Great road trip!!

Next stop is Vietnam!!

Gareth Penpraze
http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/ASBO-Holidays/