June 10: Kampot

I had a hard time finding any tours with an open slot, so I ended up hiring a car and driver for today, at a higher price than I really cared to pay. However, the only option seemed to be to wait around until Sunday and see if something opened up. I decided that was not really an option after all, so I forked out the cash for a driver.

The old Bokor Hill Station was worth the trip to Kampot. The road in the national park was spectacularly bad, the air was naturally cooled (the first time I've felt that since, what, October?) and the abandoned buildings were amazing.

At an elevation of nearly 1100 meters, the hill station towers over everything nearby, which is primarily sea level forests and fields. The highlight of any trip to Bokor is the Bokor Palace Hotel, built -- along with most of the other buildings -- by the French in the 1920s as a cool retreat from Cambodia's hot, humid lowlands. Abandoned since World War II, crumbling and almost 100 percent accessible, the old hotel is straight out of The Shining, especially when the clouds start to roll in. I've got a great series of photos of the hotel being hidden by the clouds that I will post when I get home. Another traveler's photos are here, if you're curious.

Back in town for the evening, I found the bus station and bought a ticket back to Phnom Penh, found a traditional song and dance school that welcomes foreign visitors (but was, unfortunately, not having any practice sessions) and ended up back at my guest house for dinner, where I met a student who was preparing to become an English teacher next school year. It was fun chatting with him, but some of his questions tended to be of the same variety that stumped me in Japan, on archane bits of grammar that I can answer, but can't explain why it's the answer.

Back to Phnom Penh tomorrow, then on to Ho Chi Minh City on Monday.