One of the other volunteers (Jelena) and I decided to go to Kampot (Adriana is still in the States, so couldn't join us). Kampot is a small town on a river (famous for pepper), a couple of hours by bus from Phnom Penh.
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| Kampot Pepper |
The office closed early on New Year's Eve, so we took the 1.00pm Kampot Express bus which conveniently leaves from just round the corner from my office. After a few hours on the road, with the obligatory snack stop, we arrived at our destination.
We had left it a bit last minute to book accommodation, so were a little bit limited for choice, but managed to find a cheap place on the river. We stayed at the Kampot River Bungalows (or Bungalow Kampot River depending on which website you look at). The room was pretty basic, but what can you expect for US$6 a night. It had two beds, a fan and mosquito nets, so pretty much everything that you need (or could ask for at that price). But the location more than made up for the basic facilities, as it was situated right on the river. The restaurant overlooked the river and you could just jump out of the restaurant into the river for a swim.
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| The view from the Kampot River Bungalows |
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| Watching the fishing boats go out to sea |
On New Year's Eve we met up with another volunteer (Wiske) who is based in Kampot who took us to a nice restaurant for dinner and a few bars for further celebrations. We saw in the New Year in a rooftop bar, watching the fireworks and drinking free shots!
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| Happy New Year |
The next day we just took it easy hanging out on the river, swimming, reading and relaxing. In the evening we went on a sunset river cruise, which was lovely - very peaceful and included seeing fireflies once it got dark.
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| Sunset river cruise |
We ended up back in the town and had a very interesting dining experience! We randomly selected a restaurant which seemed nice but turned out not to be a great choice. The food was OK, but the service was terrible....it took over an hour to get our food. I think that they were just cooking one meal at a time. Once one was done they would move on to the next one! No one seemed very happy with the service and a few people got tired of waiting and left. But we stuck it out. Strangely there seemed to be quite a few people working there but obviously not in the kitchen.
After we had finally got and finished our dinner, the owner came out to apologise and then proceeded to talk to us in the strangest mix of Khmer, French and English.....we had no idea what she was talking about. It was quite an experience.
On the Saturday we had organised a countryside tour in a tuk tuk.....or so we thought. It was a bit of a surprise when a van arrived to take us on the tour. After some strenuous negotiations...we managed to get our tuk tuk. The tour included a visit to the salt fields, a fishing village, some caves and a pepper plantation. The trip ended in Kep where we got to sample the famous crab with green pepper and hang out on the beach for a few hours. Due to some seriously poor planning, I had forgotten to take my swimsuit/bathers with me...not sure how that happened! Luckily I had matching underwear on....that did the job!
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| Caves |
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| Fishing village |
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| Kep beach |
Not having suitable swimming attire does not stop the Cambodians either, as it seems that you don't need any particular swim wear at the beach. You just walk into the water in whatever you are wearing at the time......shorts, skirts, jeans whatever....no fancy beach wear required.
The final day was spent hanging out on the river at our guest house with Jelena and Wiske - swimming, reading, relaxing (there is a theme here) before taking the bus back to Phnom Penh. It was a really great trip. Even though it was just a few days, it felt like a lot longer and I definitely felt a lot more relaxed. I think that I will make a few more trips to Kampot whilst in Cambodia!
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