| So come stay with us at the Bokor Palace Hotel. Luxury from a bygone era. Posted Wednesday, 18 October 2006 | ||
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| Back story: Bokor Hill Station lies high up in the mountains above Kampot. A former military installation for the French because of its commanding view over the Gulf of Thailand. As time progressed it became a windy, hilltop Monte Carlo. A small 1920's Las Vegas built just for the French elite. Here you could find a post office, church, fort, a tax office, two casinos and the grand Bokor Palace Hotel. In its heyday the Bokor Palace rang to the sounds of roulette wheels turning, crystal clinking and fortunes being one or lost. This exclusive complex was originally just the preserve of the Colonialists but as time went on well-heeled Khmers were also welcome to dance in the ballroom and escape thehumidity and insanity of Phnom Penh. Often, it is said, many an unlucky casinogoer would make full use of the sheer drop behind the hotel to escape paying their dues. And then, in the Seventies, Cambodia fell into the hands of the Khmer Rouge. To them cities were dens of vice and sloth, let alone highfaultin casino and hotel complexes. So it was laid to waste. The ballroom music faded, the roulette wheel stopped and the tiles cracked in the chilly air of the windowless corridors. When the Vietnamese routed the Khmer Rouge one of the last battles was here. Taking four hours to get to on a treacherous road it was defendable and held out for years longer than elsewhere. But the Vietnamese finally made it and one of Pol Pot's last stands was in the church being shot at by the Vietnamese based in the hotel. The post office, between the two, bore many of the fight's scars. Now this deserted complex, and especially the casino and hotel which you can wander round at will, and check out the bedrooms and ensuite bathrooms still complete with French style urinals and gaze out at the view, is an incredibly spooky reminder of an era of Cambodia which is long gone. | ||
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