We arrived in Kampot at about 6pm after a very bumpy 3 hour ride. Whilst in Laos we learnt about Lao time, but it’s becoming clear that Cambodian time is no more clear. Our bus was due to leave at 2.45pm. They picked us up from our hotel at 1.55pm. We then sat in an office for about 45 minutes while we waited for other people. Very odd! Also, whilst keeping an eye on our journey from Phnom Penh to Kampot on maps me, it was clear that we were travelling along a parallel road to the main road. This road was pretty bumpy at times and I can only imagine there must have been a good reason for this. I hope anyway.

We checked into our accommodation, which was lovely, and headed promptly out. We had heard of a boutique 30 seat cinema in town so wanted to get some food and then watch their 7.30pm showing of La La Land. For dinner we found a British/Cambodian restaurant called The Rusty Keyhole. I had my first taste of Kampot pepper, as I had a chicken breast in a pepper and mushroom sauce with, wait for it… mash!!!!! It has been a very long time since I had some mash and it was great. Simon had the best ribs I think I’ve ever tasted and that Kampot pepper was delicious.

We bought our cinema tickets and couldn’t quite believe we were heading into a cinema screen. The building was like an abandoned store/house. It was very very odd, but we made it up to the room and grabbed a double garden chair covered in pillows. Very comfy. For $5 total we can’t complain. We got to see the movie, and it was comfortable. However, there was some noise from a nearby bar that didn’t get drowned out by the movie. As for the movie, we both really enjoyed it. Simon didn’t enjoy the ending, which lead to a good old debate on the way home.  Definitely worth a watch.

The next morning was a lie in kinda morning, sleeping for as long as we could. When we were finally awake we headed over to the top rated breakfast spot in town, Ellie’s. The walk from our hotel took us along the beautiful Kampot river and through the quirky relaxed town. We were aware very quickly that there is a large Expat community here as there are a lot of Westerners walking dogs,  doing food shopping, riding large motorbikes and running cafes and restaurants. It is definitely a relaxing place and with beaches, countryside and the weather, we can see why some people would settle here. We had a lovely brunch, walked along the river, booked some activities for our time here and our bus onto the next stop.

The rest of the afternoon was blog, research and booking time. I don’t think people realise how much time and effort this can take while you’re travelling. Think of all the research you do for a 1 or 2 week holiday and then make it bigger and shrink your budget. It really can be quite a lot of work to make sure you are getting the best deal on your hotel, the cheapest transport option that isn’t going to kill you, that you eat at restaurants that aren’t going to render you incapacitated and use companies that aren’t going to scam you! That evening we had a $5 trip lined up. We were going on a river cruise along the Kampot river. For $5 the boat was going to take us up and down the river for 2.5 hours so we could see the countryside and the sunset and then make a stop on the way back to see some fireflies. The $5 also included a beer or coke. The trip wasn’t luxurious by any means. We were given a beach chair on the deck and that was it. I’m not even sure our skipper spoke English, but we had the BEST time. I’ll let the photos show you why.

The next day we went on an all day countryside tour of Kampot which included a trip up to Bokor National Park. I wish I could tell you that we learnt a lot, but we didn’t. The tour guide told us absolutely nothing so we spent a good 3 hours looking around abandoned buildings. Bokor National Park Hill Station was an old retreat used by the French in the 1920s to escape the heat of Kampot and Phnom Penh. The hill station has been abandoned twice, once during WW2 and again during the Khmer Rogue Regime. What is left is an eerie array of abandoned buildings for tourists to explore. On paper, sounds fun, but it was the first time I was truly bored. Here’s a few photos from where we visited.

King Sihanouk‘s residence

Pagoda

The Old Catholic Church

Le Bokor Palace Hotel and Casino

Looking at the photos, this trip did give me a chance to have a play with the camera. We are still very much learning how to use it, so if anyone has any tips, please send them our way. We stopped at a waterfall to have our lunch of cold vegetable fried rice. To top it off, he told us as it’s dry season that there is no water at the waterfall. How pointless. We weren’t holding out much hope for the afternoon part of our trip and were planning on complaining when we got back to the office. However, we didn’t get taken back to the office, we were taken to a tuk tuk driver. Oh here we go I thought… Luckily we managed to confirm that he was meant to take us and yes, he wasn’t going to ask us for any more money. The problem was, he then told us that normally the countryside tour would take 6 hours and it was already 2.30pm. So why did the company sell us the whole day tour with all of this included when it wasn’t even possible? He asked us to tell us what we would like to see the most and he would try his hardest to make this possible.

Lets just say that this tuk tuk driver, who for the life of me I can’t remember his name, saved the day. He gave us so much amazing information and was really funny to be around. We had a great time from this point on. We just wish we’d had him all day.

Our first stop was to the Kampot salt fields. Here we were able to try the local Kampot salt and learn about how they bring the water in from the estuary and evaporate the water.

Our next stop was to a Kampot pepper farm. Kampot pepper is known World wide for being some of the tastiest pepper. It did not disappoint. We learnt how red, white and black paper was grown and treated and bought 100g to bring home as it was that tasty. Our tuk tuk driver had a good laugh at me when I ate an entire kernel (correct word?) Hot!

We stopped at a pier for a view over to Rabbit island.

Rebel

An old colonial building with gun shot marks from the Khmer Rogue regime

We went for a walk along Kep beach and saw the famous Kep crap and a sexy lady

We went and saw the Kep crab market and had a cheeky cocktail. Why not ehy?

This man started slapping the sea… must have been fishing. 

We really did have a lovely time in Kampot and are glad we made the effort to stop there as a lot of people don’t. We saw some beautiful sights whilst there and continued to see the true loveliness and friendliness of the local people.