Bruised buttocks (steady Keith)

Gorblimeyguvnor, never did I think I'd be harking back to the Bangkok-Siem Reap road with fondness, but compared to the Kampot-Bokor run it's a bloody autobahn... Got back an hour ago from my day tour to Bokor Hill Station, a creepy twice-deserted place (1940, during the fight for independence, and 1972, as Khmer Rouge forces slowly took over the country) up a massive great, er, hill, built by the French in the 1920s as a retreat for their workers in the capital. There's a blasted, cursed feeling to the place, the exterior walls all covered with a rust-like moss and the rooms stripped almost to the brickwork. Strangest of all the buildings of what used to be a small ex-pat village is the old grand hotel, the 'Bokor Palace' - you can wander through the whole place, trying to picture the grandeur of former times, seeing the old ballroom with its walls covered in the graffitied tags of hundreds of former visitors. There's obviously a god-like perspective from the top floor, out over the cliff, following the river as it curves through the rice paddies to the glittering sea... when there's no cloud. Today we couldn't see 20 yards. You can't have 'em all.
Again, I'd been warned the road was bad - again, I was not deceived. This time I was amid five other masochists on the back of a pickup struggling to contend with arse-shattering potholes, biblical rainfall and getting smacked in the face every five minutes by conveniently-placed tree branches, up and up and up for 40km (90 mins). And then back down again... what used to be the only other way out is no longer, the bridge having obligingly collapsed a few months back. A particularly hilarious 15-minute entertainment was provided when we were blocked by another pickup whose axle had snapped (gives you an idea of the road when it slays a 4WD), forcing us to sit and be bucketed upon, pondering the futility of man. Joy unconfined it was not, but I'd still recommend having a look - provided you can bagsie a seat in the cab. Ooh me Rockford Files...