“How much would I have to pay you to stay here for a night?”
“Oh- I’d do it for free…”
When the question was posed again 20 minutes later among a cacophny of insect sounds, led by an electronic alarm bug whose beeping contnued to accelerate to an impossible rate, I lost all interest in flexing my fearlessness in the face of abandoned buildings.
The day started with a leisurely morning of waterslides, blob launces, and zip lines at my waterpark hostel. By 2 PM a group of scooter riders had assembled to explore the Bokor National Park in Kampot, Cambodia. The ride climbed steadily through a proper tropical jungle that offered beautiful views of the Gulf of Thailand and the wide sky.
As we continued to climb, the temperature dropped to a pleasant coolness, and the clouds filled in, limiting our view to a gray clouded dome. The clouds continued to grow denser and descend toward us until we were riding through a tunnel of fog.
Then the rain began.
Relative to temperatures at home, it was still quite warm, but my body acclimatized quickly. I was shivering and eager to pull over at the first building I spotted, a massive 5-star hotel and casino buried in a national park.
Entering the hotel, we were greeted by the sound of plastic arcade machine gun fire. No more than 30 Chinese tourists lounged in the lobby, which I assumed was about half of the guests staying at this eerily empty luxury hotel. After coffee and snacks, the rain let up enough for us to begin riding again.
The group originally intended to catch a sunset at the peak of Bokor Mountain, but now we pushed on with the intention to visit an abandoned town that once served as a respite from the oppresive heat for French settlers.
The heavy fog continued to fill in further, cutting visibilty down to just over three scooter lengths. Thankfully our lead scooter was navigating the winding roads by gps, eventually bringing us to an abrupt stop by a staircase that seemingly led into the clouds.
The abandoned church wasn’t particularly creepy, hence my overconfident declaration that I’d spend the night if only I had a hammock and bug net. We wandered around a bit, making our way to the summit which no doubt offered incredible views on cloudless days. Instead we gazed into an endless gray wall that devoured the rocks we threw over the cliff to try to establish a sense of distance.
Dave Tortora 