Kampot, Cambodia

Kampot sits on the Praek Tuek Chhu River in southern Cambodia, about 5 km from the Gulf of Thailand and home to roughly 50,000 residents. The French colonial administration established the town as a pepper-trading port in 1908, and Kampot black pepper has held a Geographical Indication since 2010. The 1917 Old Market building still operates along the riverside, while a five-metre durian statue marks the central roundabout. Thirty-two kilometres west, the French built Bokor Hill Station in 1925 as a 1,075-metre resort, where the abandoned Bokor Palace Hotel still stands at the summit.