Swirling Clouds

Bokor mountain is a well known mountain side resort near Kampot, Cambodia. Better is to speak in past tense or in future tense, because at the moment that I'm posting this, access is restricted as one of Cambodia's wealthiest tries to revamp the former home of this nation's pokies.

But why would the gamblers flock to this mountain top only to make losses? Better is to take profit from the natural surroundings which are outstanding.

Essentially Bokor is a wide mountain plateau 1000m high just kilometers inward from the sea. Mists and the absence of activity give it an eerily silence.

Besides this silence, mist, cold and the ruins of better times there is one waterfall, Popokvil (Swirling Clouds), existing of two steps. The visitor arrives at the top of the second step, about 15m high. He/she crosses the stream and walks down to the rock plateau between the two. Here one can take a direct shower or try to bathe in some holes in the rocks. Continuing on the far side one can go to the bottom of the first waterfall (20 m) for a brisker shower (see top photo). Below the falls huge rocks are strewn about.

Essentially access was via driving up the mountain and instead of going to the former casino, head east over a track to a car park from where one can walk in 10 minutes to the falls. But alas due to the ongoing construction access is not available. An oddity is that this is officially a national park ....

Both accomodation as well as food is available from Kampot town itself. We were able to visit the falls in April 2008.

The plateau between the steps.

From the top of the second step.