Bokor

Ghost Thermal-Station (Cambodia)

In the middle of the Preah Monivong National Park, in Kampot province, on the top of a hill you can find a ghost town, called Bokor.

I met haze before the buildings, I met ghosts before the town. I met my own ghosts and others.

Here, you can still hear the shots and the screams of the Khmer Rouge. You can see died vietnamise troops and like a far breeze you can speak with french people who came to spend an holiday.

French colonists started to build the street to Bokor in 1917. The thermal station used to be frequented by rich people. The construction was finished in 1925 and were included some houses, an hotel, one casinò and the church...

Alone on the hill, among one million buddish pagoda, this christhian church survives with its mute speach. Only God seems to stay here to defend his house.

Not too far, there is the casinò. This big building is completely empty. Only the wind lives in these rooms, moving like a shadow along the walls.

It goes down the stairs, pass through the windows toward the sea that is waiting for it at the bottom of the hill. Windows don't have glasses, rooms don't have doors, stairs don't have women's steps, bedrooms don't have beds. Silence doesn't have noise.

Desolation is the exact name of this house.

We haven't sky, only a white mud over our ceiling, a cloud shaped music seems to be a room with a large floor. We just have a stony balcony with a short view that force us imaging the landscape under our shoes...

... one folding-bed and an used fire-place, here. Nothing, nothing else.