Moliden Kampot

... the differences between American and Khmai cultures, and why we don't have nom onsom which I find it rather sad since it's so delicious!

Then at 10, Sophea and I hopped into the neighbor's car (7 people in a 4 door car, very typical here) and drove to the wat. Sopea brought a container of rice with her and handed me a small bowl. In the middle of the large room was a wide raised step covered in various small bowls of meat, veggies, fruit, and sweet cakes ...

... Khmai woman named Vanny, only 30-years-old and speaks very good English. There are 5 people in my class out of the 20 that are in my training village (two training villages). We study Khmai for a good 4 hours and I think my Khmai is pretty good at this point, at least for only having studied it for two months. Afterwards, I rush home, take another bucket shower since it is usually around 90 degrees at noon (Khmai people usually take around 3 showers a day!) and I ...

... 3



Sat 1st Aug:

Fried rice at same place for breakfast

Hired bicycle for $1 & explored around town. Hired a motodup each for $7 each for 4 hours to explore out of town

Kampot is a colonial port city – no longer a port & very empty & quiet. Grow Durian – smelly spiked fruit.

Went to Tek Chhou Rapids ( 8km) Major local ...

... at work, riding around on their scooter, or out with friends in the evening. Gordon seemed to take it more in stride than me, pointing out that it would be cool in the hot weather, but I just never quite got used to the sight, and would do a little inner double take every time I saw it.

After suffering an especially unfortunate night of poor judgement on our first night in Kampot, during which I was eaten alive by 50+ mosquitoes while ...

... so fascinated with us all that she stood there staring at us while all her friends wandered off as we drove away. Our next stop was the waterfalls in the "national park". On the way our driver stopped and got out to examine the full-flowing river before getting back in and driving us through it. There are some picnic huts provided for the waterfall, but so many local people have used the site and just left their rubbish that it is now a stinking dump. 100m ...

... well), but filtered out 60% of what he said. He was weird, English is his 3rd language, so I expected some errors in his linguistic choices and mannerisms, and there were plenty, he liked to pick me up on words he didn't understand mid sentence, have me explain them and how they would be used (I love doing that while I'm having a relaxing drink), and then ignore what I was saying and go off on one about how much he thanked God the other day for allowing him to get lost in a city ...

... That was until we stripped off and took it in turns to take a dip. Johannes went first.
Suddenly, a cry went out!
'Ugh! This is horrible! It's not good for swimming.'
'What's the problem?'
'Come in and find out.'
He 'clambered' out and my turn was next.
As soon as I'd ventured not more than a few yards my feet sunk under deceptive sand. 'Sunk' was the operative word. Underneath was mud, mud, glorious mud ...

... get lost, just ask someone.'
I was a bit unsure about the communication. We'd have to use some body language, or at least show them the map.
We sped off at once, nice as Riley, along the sole highway towards Kep. Johannes was on the alert. He kept stopping along the road, 'asking' people at likely turn-offs, if one or the other led to a lake which the scooter proprietor highly recommended us seeing.
The dirt-road was sandy to say ...

... except a British guy and someone else had taken over. He gave us some advice about what to do and where to go while staying here.
'I'd advise you not to try and get to Bokhor. The road's now impassable as the local authorities are trying to spruce the area up and make it more accessible, eventually.' Bokhor's a wilderness jungle area.
'I see...What are the alternatives, then?'
'Well, there's the beach at Kep or Rabbit Island.'
Rabbit Island was probably ...

... people. I wish I could same the same about my own country, the UK, of which, right now, I feel ashamed to be a national. Because of social division, isolation, and a generality of selfishness here, it's difficult to determine who is aggressively nasty and who isn't. A few days ago some French police prevented some Afghan asylum seekers from entry to the UK. You would have thought the 'seekers' would have known better, considering this country is ...