Last month we were in Kampot for a teambuilding retreat and, afterwards, our family decided to drive up into Preah Monivong Bokor National Park to see how things had changed since I was last there (in 2007, I think?). Bokor is a mountain near the coast and marks the southeastern end of the Cardamom mountain range. During the colonial period, the French built Bokor Hill Station on top of the mountain and the ruins covered in orange moss have become a popular tourist attraction themselves.

On a clear day, the view from Bokor looking out over Kampot, Kep, and the Bay of Thailand is absolutely incredible. However, we went up in the middle of rainy season so we were lucky when we could see further than a few car lengths ahead of us.

It was very windy and wet. Personally, I wouldn’t claim it was ‘cold’ but the girls declared that it was freezing. It didn’t help that Charlotte forgot her jacket and Catherine intentionally decided not to wear her sneakers. I do wonder what they’ll think of the temperature in Nepal when we travel there for regional meetings in October.

The Khmer Rouge destroyed most of the church buildings in Cambodia – including the Cathedral in Phnom Penh – but the remote Bokor Hill Station Catholic Church was one of the few to survive. The Khmer Rouge actually used it as a base of operations for a time. It is now the most recognizable church building in the country.

As we waded through the mists to the old church building we heard wisps of singing through the mist. Approaching closer, we discovered that the church was in service with mass in progress.

After driving up through the thick forest, the top of Bokor feels like entering another realm. I mean, some of that is due to the mist, but the flora stands out as well.

There’s a large construction company base at the top of Bokor. I didn’t take any photos of the many buildings under construction because of the rain, wind, and mist at the moment. But there’s a lot of work being done here up on top of the mountain.

Interestingly, there’s now a massive number of hydroponic farms up on Bokor.

Built in 1936, the ‘Black Palace’ was a royal residence for King Sihanouk and his family high up on Bokor mountain. It’s even more overgrown now than I remember it being in 2007.

There’s a large statue (about 95 feet tall) of a local deity, Lok Yeay Mao, looking over the sea on the way up to Bokor. She’s believed to be a Goddess of Protection who watches over the mountain and sea. There were a large number of Cambodians stopping to pay tribute to this statue on our way up the mountain.

The advantage of visiting Bokor during rainy season was the many waterfalls along our ride up the mountain. Some of them flow year round, some are seasonal, and some were clearly just overflow from the rains. In any case, there were lovely to stop at.

We talked about visiting Bokor again at a different time of year when there will be better visibility. As it was, we weren’t able to really see the massive new Chinese casino on top of the mountain, the ruins of the old French casino, the incredible scenic overlook of Wat Sampov Pram, or most of the new construction on the mountaintop.