Bokor National Park

Mountain national park above Kampot with wildlife, waterfalls, and the famous hill station ruins

Bokor National Park covers over 1,500 square kilometres of the Cardamom mountain range behind Kampot. The park's centrepiece is the Bokor plateau and its ruined French colonial buildings, but the forest around and below the plateau is of genuine ecological importance. The lower slopes contain dipterocarp forest; higher up, the vegetation shifts to cloud forest — dense moss-covered trees in perpetual mist. Gibbons are heard at dawn; hornbills are visible from the road.

The main road through the park to the hill station summit passes through the best forest. A section of the original French road — steeper and now overgrown — is still accessible on foot or by mountain bike. The Popokvil Waterfall, about halfway up the mountain, is a popular picnic spot reached by a short walk off the main road. The park entrance fee is minimal and paid at the gate.

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A story
The Cardamom Mountains, of which Bokor is a northern spur, are one of Southeast Asia's largest remaining blocks of intact lowland rainforest. A 2010 WWF survey found more than 60 new species in the Cardamoms within a two-year period, including several new snakes and frogs. The ecosystem contains Indochinese tigers, Asian elephants, and sun bears, though sightings are extremely rare and the populations are under pressure.