Today’s day began with a smooth ride up Mt Bokor to an old French colonial village. The road up to the mountain was the best we’ve travelled on as it wound up the mountain. This road was originally built by 3000 local prisoners in 1917 when the village was founded. It was resurfaced by Sokeun, who owns the casino and a five star resort at the top of the mountain. He is friends with the president and also owns the ticketing rights at Angkor Wat and an oil company too. He dominates the market in terms of his income and the property that he owns, making him worth many billions of dollars.
At the top of Mt Bokor, we first stopped at The King of Cambodia’s Black Palace Villa (his holiday house) and then his girlfriend’s villa. Here, we spent half an hour taking photos, meeting wasps, looking at graffiti work and watching a rap and song performance by David and Jake. The village, which is now just a church, provided great scenic views looking over the Gulf of Thailand. After a few ‘selfies’ and future Facebook cover photos we were ready to continue on our journey.
We then arrived at the abandoned Black Palace Casino. All of these buildings were used until the civil war broke out. It is right on top of Bokor National Park. We had lunch on the steps of the casino and then we were allowed to explore, whilst taking more photos of the vast landscape. After some exploration and ‘Hide and Seek’ time, Billy gave us a talk about the National Park. It is amazing to think that the mountain was full of animals, such as elephants and tigers roaming around, years ago. Years ago, rangers were employed to monitor, care for and provide tourists with information about the National Park, but there is no evidence of this now. The wildlife has decreased significantly in recent times due to hunting, war and the habitat being destroyed.
We were then asked to find a quiet space amongst the grounds of the casino to complete the ‘Environment’ section of our Journey.doc and for some individual, reflection time. The views from the top of the casino were amazing and it was an ideal place for thinking.
After the casino tour we got back on the bus and prepared ourselves for our return trip down the mountain side’s windy roads. After a 2 hour bus trip we found ourselves at the seaside town of Kep. We got to relax for a while in the pool across the road from the hotel and next to the beach, before having dinner. We finished the day off with a circle time reflecting on the trip so far.
By Gen Matthews & Lochie Martin