Onto sunnier climes...

• Adam_and_kim's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from Kampot

Trip Start Jun 26, 2008 Previous
Entry Trip End Ongoing Next
Entry

  Kampot, Cambodia
Wednesday, July 9, 2008

We ended up in a lovely villa style guesthouse witha view over the river. Kampot is a small town and seemingly unfamiliar with tourists apart from a couple of expat bars. Because of our 'success' with the moped the previous day we decided to get another, a battered old honda which did the job. We headed to the beaches in Kep and found an all but deserted seaside town. The afternoon spent chilling in hammocks overlooking the beach/sea and nearby islands. After a while we decided to go and find the nearby caves which because of the local limestone landscape were supposed to be carved into beautiful shapes. We trekked back on the bike down the way we had come to find a route out to the mountains but couldn't find one anywhere - roads here tend to run in long straight lines with nothing but paddy fields at the sides. We headed out of Kep a fair way away from where we had started and in the wrong direction for getting the bike back and kept looking. Eventually we found a cave system where the local children excitedly showed us around telling us the story of the dragon of the cave and the turtles and eels he had eaten (rock formations in the limestone). The whole cave tour actually only lasted about 15 mins because it wasn't very big and not quite what we had hoped for but chatting with the kids who spoke excellent english once again was great. We looked at the map at this point and realised we were 45km from where we needed to be with just over an hour to spare before it got dark. The light on the front of the bike was rubbish to say the least. We headed back at pretty much full pelt, whilst watching a gorgeous sunset once again as we sped back toward Kampot making it back in just over an hour - a testament to the little hondas durability across these roads and my increasing confidence on a moped. (I totally intend to get one of these when we return to the UK, such a good idea for short journeys and leave the thirsty performance cars for the weekend:-))
That evening we went to  a british run expat bar called the rusty keyhole - sausages mash and onions gravy with great beer after a long days mopeding! A lovely place right on the waterfront with little geckos covering the wall, open air BBQ ribs their speciality, and classic 70s rock for background music - dad you would have loved it!

The final day before heading back to the capital ( and woken by a cockeral i could have killed with my bare hands) and out of Cambodia we decided to do something a bit special so chartered a boat to Rabbit Island. This is supposed to look like a rabbit lying down but i couldn't see it whatsoever altho kimmy claims she could. Tuktuk to the boat and boat to the beach and back was $20 but well worth it. The boat wasn't particularly sturdy and bounced across some pretty choppy water over the 40min journey to a picture psotcard tropical island. Landing, and short trek through the jungle to a secluded beach with only 4 other people spaced along it and a few huts. Warm waters and a hammock strung between two coconuts trees was bliss for the afternoon, reading, swimming and generally lazing about. Kimmy was out in the sunshine for quite a while and despite the factor 50, got pretty burnt. Surprisingly 6h goes very quickly when your spending your time this away and we soon had to head back to the boat. The wind had picked up and the waves had got somewhat larger on the way back - spray covering me and kim every couple of waves - i was drenched when we got to land but was great fun in the process. Dinner was once again back at the Rusty Keyhole before heading back and getting some much needed sleep before heading back to the noisy smelly capital.

Print this entry Share

Previous Entry Next Entry