23rd February 2009

Our minivan was collecting us at 8.30am, so this gave us plenty of time to have some breakfast before once again gathering up our belongings for our move to Kampot. As we stood on the already blazing heat we were both surprised and amused to see that Rob & Luke were in fact on the same bus as us!

This journey was an easy one as it was only an hour and a half journey to reach Kampot. We had the name of a guest house that we thought looked very good, but upon arrival there it was fully booked. Being honest, we were pretty pleased, as it wasn't in the best location and it was a long way from anywhere. Eventually the minivan dropped us off at a decent location, where most of the guest houses were located in the town. The first guest house we visited looked nice with little bungalows, but it had a lotus pond next to them, which looked like a stagnant pool! We told the owners that we were concerned about the mosquitos, to which he replied "we have no mosquitos here". We found this a little hard to believe. We quickly found another, better hotel and before we knew it we had checked into the Kampot Guest House and were having lunch in their restaurant. Would you believe it, Rob & Luke had checked into the same guest house!

That afternoon we decided to go for a walk, as we do like to get our bearings in new places, and locate the nearest shops, ATMs, Chemists and of course any nice looking bars and restaurants. As we walked it was pretty obvious that this was a very quiet town and it was also where we first noticed the attrocities that took place throughout the Khmer Rouge regime. The buildings however were beautifully designed in a French colonial style. The one thing that stood out to us was the lack of cars & mopeds, people seemed to mostly cycle around the town. It was a nice break not to hear the sound of mopeds and cars speeding down the roads. After our walk a cold beer was needed. We sat with Rob & Luke and decided to embark on a day trip with them the following day.

Our lunch at the guest house was not the greatest so we headed to another restaurant for dinner at Blissful Guest House. This is where we ate for the rest of our time in Kampot and got talking to the owner, who was from Manchester. He was later to give us advice on where to stay at our next destination, Kep, a small seaside town further down the coast.

The next day we met up with Luke & Rob, we had hired a tuk tuk and driver for the day to take us to the local sights around Kampot. Our first destination was to the salt fields, it was quite an amazing sight, spread over a huge area and continuing right to the horizon. You could even smell the salt in the air. We then continued on our way and stopped at a local fishing village. This gave us great photo opportunities and also the chance to see how people really live in Cambodia. Our next destination took us on a picturesque journey through many farming villages. This is when we truly experienced the friendliness of the Cambodian people, with eveyone waving to us and shouting "hello" as we drove past. Finally we reached our third stop, a temple in a cave. As we stepped off our tuk tuk, we were surrounded by local children, it quickly became apparent that they were to be our guides through the caves. They were amazing children, brilliant English, amazing sense of humour and smiles that will stay with us forever. These children go to school in the mornings and then in the afternoon work on the farms with their family. Although we had given them our names, they did insist on calling Adam "King Kong", because he looks big and strong! After quite a climb up the mountain in the midday heat, we quickly reached the cave entrance. It was quite amazing and also gave us excellent views over the surrounding countryside and rice fields. We had the option to climb deeper into the cave, but as it was pitch black in there, we decided against it. Cambodia is not the place to find yourself needing hospital treatment! After saying farewell to our guides and parting with a few dollars, we began our journey to the pepper plantation. Kampot is very famous for producing pepper, some of the finest pepper in the world is produced here and it was fascinating to be able to visit the source of this. We quickly arrived at the plantation and this was another amazing sight to see, with hundreds of pepper plants stretching as far as you could see. We even got to pick and taste some fresh peppercorns straight from the plant!

Our final stop was at the beachside town of Kep. This little town is where the Khmer Rouge really showed their destructive power, with many old houses still barely standing and showing the scars of that awful time. Kep was also the setting for the film 'City of Ghosts', starring Matt Dillon, which was about these terrible times. The main thing that Kep is famous for is renting a small hut on the beach with hammocks in and eating fresh cracked crab with pepper. So when lunchtime came, Adam and Luke tucked into the crab. Wiith crab claws flying all over the place, they appeared to have a very nice lunch. The beach in Kep is not the most beautiful, but it is the lack of tourists and laid back pace of life here that makes it a worthwhile place to visit. After relaxing on the beach for a while after our lunch, we headed back to our guest house. We had a really great day out, full of fun, and after a couple of beers that evening we had ourselves an early night.

We did not really have any plans for the following day apart from relaxing and staying out of the hot sun for a while. We did however need to get some more money and as there was only one ATM in Kampot, which was a fair diatance away, Adam hired a bike for an hour so we could reach it. This is where he got to see far more of the town, which was filled with beautiful French colonial houses and also cycled along the riverside which was very picturesque. He had a great time, but was very sweaty on his return!

Kampot is a lovely town and it is easy to see why people plan to stay for a couple of nights and end up staying for longer.

We are off to stay in Kep tomorrow to try and get some beach time. We have a great tip of somewhere nice to stay from the restaurant owner and it is only a tuk tuk ride away!