BOKOR (Day 22 - part 2)

The truck then drove us up to the old church, built in 1928. Gerald had heard that it used to be covered with the same orange moss found at the casino.

We walked uphill to an old anti-aircraft gun mount. A thick wall of fog was moving in up from the cliff.

The gun mount .... Looking back down at the church

We followed some narrow paths out to a lower part of the ghost town.

Heading up to the old water tower

The tour jeep picked up up and brought us to Wat Sampov Pram, an old but still functioning Buddhist temple. A newer wat, complete with monk residences, was located elsewhere. Built in 1924 by King Sisowath Monivong, its name means Five Boats Wat, after a set of oddly-sculpted rocks nearby.

Phra Mae Thorani (Mother Earth, or Neang Kongheng in Khmer) wrings the cool waters of detachment out of her hair to drown Mara, the demon sent to tempt the Buddha as he sat meditating to reach enlightenment.

No respect for Mara!

Misty views

Some noisy geese

We loaded into the truck at 3 pm and headed down the mountain. Thick fog was moving in. At one point, the truck tilted precariously on the road... right at a spot where there was already a line of white crosses where other people had died!

After bouncing along for two hours, we arrived back at the park gate where the other tour car waited for us to return us to Sihanoukville.

A small village along the way

We got back by 6 pm. Our driver was happy it was still light out because he didn't like driving at night... too many vehicles don't have working headlights. In town, the power was out on a long section of the street. With no real sidewalks, we had to really work hard to avoid being hit by vehicles going in all directions.

We walked into town and had some dinner. Apparently the pizza place also served ramen noodles!

Back at the hotel, the power went out again. The room got stuffy very quickly with no fan on. Fortunately there were candles available to see by. At 10:30 pm, the power finally kicked back on.

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