Just back from...

Today I’m off to see the ruins of Bokor, which is one of the main reasons I’ve come here. Unlike the usual pile of rocks that gets my attention, Bokor is not an ancient site. The Bokor hill station was built in the 1920s as a place for the French to escape the heat of the plains. It was more or less abandoned when the Khmer Rouge came to power in the 1970s and now it’s basically a ghost town.

The entire mountain is now a national park, and the only road in is unpaved and very rough, although plans are afoot to improve it. After climbing through the jungle ever upward for about an hour, the car emerges into a hilltop plateau covered with tall grass and flowering shrubs. Soon after, we come to the ruins of the royal palace. At first sight, the small building is hardly palatial, but the long low building is built right on the edge of the bluff. At the rear is a terrace running the length of the house, providing excellent views, weather permitting, of the Cambodian coast and the casino of the distant hill station. Down a path from the royal residence is a much larger building housing the kitchens and a formal dining hall, which also has a good view. There’s also a two-bedroom guest house. Most of the walls here, as at the hill station, are covered with a bright green mossy plant, adding to the post-apocalyptic feel of the place.

Before going to the hill station, we first stop at Popkovil waterfall. Due to the poor state of some bridges, we have to walk the last kilometer or so to the falls. It’s a pleasant walk through a highland marsh bordered by woodlands. I spot a pair of large red squirrels along the way, but they’re gone before I get the camera out.

The falls at first were a rather strange sight. I could hear water falling, but couldn’t see any water running over the stone stream bed leading to the ledge. Only after peering over the edge do you see water coming out of the face of the rock. In the course of flowing to the ledge, the water flows into the limestone and then shoots out of the face. It falls onto another flat ledge, then over another cliff to form a second tier of falls.

 
After hiking back to the car, we drive on to the hill station. The part you catch sight of is the Catholic church, set on a low hill at the edge of the village. We drive past it and up to the ruins of the Bokor Palace Hotel. The grand pile opened in 1926 and must have been quite luxurious for its day, but you have to use your imagination to see that. Doors, windows, light fixtures and even wiring were looted long ago. Like the palace, the hotel sits near the edge of the bluff at the highest point of the station. From the terrace you can get a good view of the village as well as the sea, at least if the weather cooperates. For most of the time I was there, clouds flowed like a sea right up to the edge of the bluff.

There are the ruins of a few other public buildings of the town, such as the post office, jail and another hotel. The whole site is rather eerie, which is probably why it has been used as a movie set.

For more photos of this trip, see the Bokor picture gallery. You can find more information about Bokor and the area in our updated Kampot travel guide.

Apologies to anyone who was trying to enjoy a quiet evening out in Seminyak this evening. I was just a guest at what must have been one of the parties of the year. The search lights, fireworks and live dance club band were not my idea. But when a L’Oreal model marries the son of a well-off (at least before they paid for the party) Indonesian family, I guess you have to pull out all the stops. It felt a little weird being among all these beautiful people, but everyone was having a good time.

The setting for this little soirée was Villa Atas Ombak, a beach-front estate at the far north end of Seminyak. It’s very private, and there are only five rooms in total. You have to rent the entire estate, for a minimum of five nights. This means that when you’re there, you and any friends you invite are the only ones in residence, so it’s like having your own cottage on the beach, complete with pool, kitchen and all the other amenities.

While there is a kitchen (and probably a cook as well) you are just five minutes from some of the best restaurants in Bali, like La Lucciola, Kudeta and Hu’u. You could probably even walk there along the beach, watching the sunset and working up an appetite.

Yes, it all costs a pretty penny, but if you’re looking for a perfect wedding venue, this place would be hard to beat.

Today I took a break from the beach to explore some of the sights of inland Krabi. I had heard about the “hot waterfall” and “emerald pond”, so I booked a tour that included them.

 
Our first stop was the hot waterfall. As you probably know, Thailand isn’t far from the line of volcanoes that runs down the heart of Indonesia. While there aren’t any active volcanoes in Thailand, there are several hot spots around the country where hot water comes to the surface. The hot waterfall is the result of one of these. Hot water rises from several springs and flows through a forest until it tumbles down a bluff into a stream. Over the course of hundreds of years, the minerals dissolved in the water have been deposited on the rocks in such a way as to form large deep pools of water. The sides of the pools are so steep that they don’t seem natural, but they are.

One of the major minerals found in the water is copper, which gives the stony deposits a dark green color. The forest, deep warm water, it’s all very relaxing. While soaking in the water is considered good for you, be sure you don’t drink it. In addition to copper and fluoride, the water also contains traces of lead.

 
From the hot waterfall, it’s a short drive to the emerald pond. Like the waterfall, the pond is the result of hot springs, Water flows through a fissure, over a large rock shelf and into a large pool. Depending on the temperature and other factors, the pond can be anything from crystal clear to deep green. The water is not as hot as the waterfall, but it’s warm enough to be quite comfortable. The water has a lot of calcium carbonate, which deposits on the rocks and creates a rich place for bacteria, making the surfaces in and around the pool very slippery.

I woke up this morning to a rather beautiful blue sky filled with fluffy white clouds. It didn’t last, but neither did it actually rain at all today.

I arrived in Railay last night. Although it had obviously rained earlier in the evening, it had cleared enough for a fat crescent moon to silhouette the cliffs of the coast as my boat approached.

 
Railay (which would be better spelled Rai-Leh) is a bit of a geological curiosity. It’s a peninsula on the mainland of Krabi province, east of Phuket island, but sheer cliffs cut it off from the rest of the coast, making it only reachable by boat. The peninsula itself is really just a build-up of sand collected between the cliffs on the shore and two large rock outcrops. The sand forms three beaches, the east-facing and thus aptly named Railay East, it’s opposite number Railay West and another west-facing beach called Phranang. Railay East is coarse and rocky, but the other two beaches have a fine sand. A bit north of Railay West, but cut off from it, is Tonsai Bay. Boats connect Railay East to Nammao and Railay West to Ao Nang.

 
There are half a dozen or so resorts on Railay, as well as a hand-full of cheap guest houses for the backpacker set. The top end of the hotel offerings is the large Rayavadee, which faces all three beaches and is the only hotel on Phranang. My own base is the Sunrise Tropical resort on Railay East.

The Sunrise Tropical has proved to be excellent value for money. My “Tropical Villa” room is a small cottage with queen size bed, a sitting area, dressing room and large bathroom. There’s also a private outdoor shower. While the beach at Railay East is not very good, it’s just a short walk to Railay West.

I’m starting a long delayed exploration of Krabi province today – that’s the mainland of Thailand next to Phuket. It’s become popular in recent years as development on the big island has gotten a bit too much for some people.

I chose Nok Air for my flight to Krabi’s relatively new airport because they had an early evening flight that fit my schedule, and I wanted to save a few Baht. Now, one of my general rules of thumb for using low cost carriers is to avoid flights late in the day, since they’re almost always late. Sure enough, my 6:10 pm flight actually left at 8:30. However, around 10:00 am on the day of the flight I received an SMS message from Nok informing me of the delay.

The advance information was really welcome, since all of Nok’s domestic flights are out of the old Don Muang airport, which is a mere shadow of its former self. The airport was closed in October of 2006 when the all new Suvarnabhumi Airport opened, but over-crowding and flaws in the new structure caused authorities to re-open the old airport for domestic flights in March 2007.

While the old building remains exactly as it was when it was initially closed, there are no longer enough passengers to support all of the amenities and services that were originally found there. The concourse no longer has any shops or restaurants, so eat before you pass through security. Even outside of security, there aren’t as many options as there used to be.