Bokor Hill Station was a Cambodian resort town built in the early 1920s by colonial French settlers, the crown jewel of which was the beautiful Bokor Palace Hotel and Casino.
Construction in the remote mountains was difficult and around 1,000 lives were lost in the process.
The area flourished for two decades as an oasis in the squalid heat and clutter of Phnom Penh, but Europeans fled the area in the late 1940s when the Vietnam conflict ramped up. Bokor Palace was used intermittently over the years, but constant military and political instability—including invasions by Vietnam and mass killings by the Khmer Rouge—ensured the area was all but abandoned by the early ’90s.
Bokor Hill Station is now a popular tourist attraction, sitting on national park land. Although not even 100 years old, the hotel looks like a moss-cloaked ancient ruin. According to locals, the Palace teems with the spirits of those who gave their lives to build it.
A park ranger named Vichat explained that he wouldn’t enter the building at night, saying “Every time we walk past, we can hear the dead walk in there. It’s full of ghosts.” Several movies have capitalized on the hotel’s creepy atmosphere, including Korean horror film R-Point and Matt Dillon’s forgettable crime drama City of Ghosts.
