Dâmrei Mountains. The road to BokorPanoramic view of Kampot and the sea from Phnom Bokor
The Dâmrei Mountains, literally the "Elephant Mountains", are a mountain range situated in the southwest of Cambodia.
Description
These mountains are an offshoot of the Krâvanh or Cardamom Mountains, but occupy a much smaller area. The highest elevation is Phnom Bokor at 1,081meters (3,547feet) above sea level. Located close to the shores of the Gulf of Siam, the densely wooded hills receive rainfall averaging 150–200inches (3,800–5,000mm) annually on their western slopes (which are subject to southwest monsoons) but only 40–60inches (1,020–1,520mm) on their eastern, or rain shadow, slopes.
The Dâmrei Mountains were, until 1975, the principal centre of Cambodia's pepper-growing industry. After the intervening years of civil war and upheavals pepper-growing has revived slowly beginning from the late 1990s.
Tourism
The Phnom Bokor National Park occupies most of the upper levels and the summits of the Dâmrei Mountains. The authorities are trying to curb illegal logging. The park has a great variety of plant species, including rare orchids[1] as well as some spectacular waterfalls during the rainy season.
There is an abandoned French town on top of Phnom Bokor, known as the Bokor Hill Station (Station Climatique du Bokor), where elite French colonial officers spent holidays during the hot season. The place has also a church and a casino, all in a dilapidated condition. Nearby there is Cambodian army outpost which doubles as a youth hostel for lack of other accommodation. Both sites are now becoming tourist attractions, but the road to reach them, built in 1907 at the cost of many human lives, is in rough shape.[2]
Mogenet Luc, La création de la station climatique du Bokor (Cambodge), présentation commentée de sources d’archives inédites, Péninsule, 2007 (2) N°55, Paris, 2008
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