KAMPOT 4TH-6TH JANUARY 2007

There are no buses traverlling from Sihanoukville to Kampot so we had to take a share taxi. The taxi being a Nissan Bluebird and the share being eight adults squashed in a car for two hours!

Kampot is a sleepy riverside town and is well known for producing some of the best pepper in the region. We found a room at Blissful Guesthouse which was great and only $4US a night.

On the 5th we hired another XR250 to visit Boker. Boker National Park is one of the countries largest protected areas and contains an abandoned French Hill Station. Boker Hill Station was twice abandoned; first in the 1940's whilst fighting the French for independance and then in the early 70's when it was left to the Khemer Rouge forces that were taking over the countryside. It has since remained uninhabited and today has a genuine ghost-town feel about it. It is crumberling buildings that were once a small community including; a church, casino, post office, water tower, an old hotlel - 'Boker Palace' (used in the film 'The Shining') etc etc. You can walk round all the buildings and see bullet holes in the walls, its very quiet and erry and unlike anything we've ever seen! The main adventure was actually getting to Boker.... Its only 41km from Kampot but the road is in terrible condition, the worst i've ever seen. It winds its way up through thick jungle where the folige is trying to reclaim the road and you basically ride over rubble and pot-holes for two hours each way! I am so glad Lewis is good on a bike!