Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Kampot, Cambodia

At the border to cross into the Kingdom of Cambodia!
In the space of a few short hours, we travelled the full political spectrum from Communist Vietnam to the Kingdom of Cambodia. The journey from Phu Quoc was complicated by politics, of course- Cambodia is visible a few kilometres away across the water, but to cross the border requires backtracking to mainland Vietnam, then a long minibus ride to the border, the inevitable wait to cross on foot, then a further minibus ride to get to the area that we had been looking at so many hours before. Like much other travel here in South East Asia, however, the trip is relatively seamless despite the number of transfers between various modes of transport, languages and currencies.

We wound up in Kampot, which is a sleepy little town catering to ne'er-do-well expats. The place has a somewhat Wild West feel, and there are many older, leathery European rain- and snowbird types who obviously come here to pass the winter season. The streets are never busy and the place has a very laid-back feel.

The fish amock at Mira's in Kampot. This was the first, and what would turn out to the the best, that we had in all of  Cambodia.

This little urchin, who belonged to the proprietors of a nearby business, befriended us as we awaited a meal of pulled noodles at the local movie theatre.
We had been given the impression from watching an Anthony Bourdain video that Cambodian food was kind of boring, but that is definitely not true! We discovered what would prove to be the best fish amok that we would find here, and everything we eat is incredibly fresh, well-prepared and extremely cheap! Iced coffee for breakfast runs us 25 cents each, and the grilled pork on rice with an egg looks delicious for $1.25.
Lunch being prepared for us at the roadside Khmer Flavors restaurant. The owner was a retired boxer (check out the knuckles) who had gone to study cooking in France, then returned to help support his family. He whipped up a curry from scratch right in front of us, and supplied a tiffin for us to take home the leftovers.

Cruisin' the giant Durian Roundabout in Kampot on our rattletrap bikes. This region of Cambodia is known for durian, pepper, salt and crabs.

The mobile plastic vendor. Careful when passing as shoulder checks are impossible!

Pepper drying in the sun at the agricultural collective building in Kampot. We later discovered the fancy spice shop in our neighbourhood back home gets their pepper from this exact spot. Kampot pepper has in international reputation.

Watching "The Killing Fields" at the theatre. You could also rent a private room to screen films, or download movies for a nominal fee onto your hard drive to watch on your computer. No FBI warnings about movie piracy here!

Same guy, different place. Kampot is a fairly small town and you begin to recognize people/be recognized fairly quickly.
We signed up for a tour to see some of the local area. The day trip began with a tour of Bokor Mountain, which has long been a hill station for people to escape the heat. At 5000 feet elevation, the altitude does offer a nice respite from the oppressive heat at sea level. The atmosphere of the place is a bit strange, however, as many attempts have been made to develop the area for tourism over the past century, most of which have failed, leaving behind a ghost town of abandoned luxury hotels, churches, and casinos. The Khmer Rouge used one of the hotels and the monastery as prisons, the history of which lends the whole place a rather sombre air. A Vietnamese consortium is currently developing a massive vacation home complex, but it is hard to know who would buy them. The fact that the first thing they built was a casino and a hotel indicates that the primary market will be China and Vietnam. The sales centre for this effort has a massive scale mode of the proposed development, but there were no sales people evident. Very strange.
It was an early morning start up Bokor Mountain, as you can see. 

In the background, an immense statue of Yeay Mao, the patroness saint of this part of the coast. The story is that she was traveling by boat on a conjugal visit to her royal husband when she drowned. For that reason she is believed to protect traveller and sailors, and offerings made to her are generally in the form of phallic objects (bananas, anatomically correct wooden carvings, etc.). The building in the foreground was part of a summer retreat that belonged to the King. It is abandoned now and occupied by park personnel squatters.

Some graffiti in the abandoned royal hill station.

Bouldering at the base of the Yeay Mao statue. 

An abandoned Catholic church on Bokor Mountain. It was built when the area was being developed for French tourists around the beginning of the early 20th century, and survived the Khmer Rouge era surprisingly well.

At the monastery at the top of Bokor Mountain. The monks were killed by the Khmer Rouge and the monastery used as a prison by them, but it has been refurbished and repopulated since.
After the day trip up Bokor Mountain, we had a few hours free before we gathered to do the included river tour. Luckily the current here is gentle enough that the long tail motor only had to idle to send us upstream as the muffler was seriously lacking. We cruised past sunset and were able to see the fireflies in the dark.
Riverside fisherman's bungalow.

Sunset on the river.

Bowen experimenting with a fish eye lens on the boat.

Our happy family!
Of course, you haven't traveled a place in Asia if you have not rented a motorbike and negotiated the traffic on your own. Liz and Remy got up early one morning and did just that, making a run to Rabbit Island and toward Kep until the roads got too bad to continue. We toured the salt flats and poked around some side roads.
Kampot street scene - still life with firewood and baguettes.

Our morning coffee shop - iced coffees for 25 cents!

Buying gas for the motorbike, dispensed from a 1 litre glass liquor bottle.

An opulent Cambodian country house.

And the not-so-opulent version. Same basic plan, though.

Visiting the salt flats. Try not to look at all the garbage.
The local industry is salt farming, which takes place all the coast between here and Kep, located back toward the Vietnam border. Mud flats are flooded with sea water and allowed to dry in the sun, with the salt skimmed off the surface and stored 5 or 6 feet deep in warehouses beside the road. We watched barefoot, shirtless men shovelling the salt into 50 kilo bags which were then sewn up and stacked for shipment by truck.

Preparing the salt for transport from the warehouse.

Shovelling the salt into 50 kg sacks. It was about 35 degrees that day, so you can imagine how hot this work would be! No wonder this work is a cliche. I will never complain about my job again.

Heading out for dinner, Cambodian-style.

The huge feed of ribs at the Rusty Keyhole restaurant. One advantage to being in an ex-pat town! This was a heavenly meal for Bowen.
After about a month of growing a beard, because he could, Remy decided the had had enough of the itchiness, sweatiness, and lack-of-willingness-to-kiss-himiness by Liz. It was time to hack it off! With the assistance of a pair of folding scissors and his safety razor, Remy performed a slow transformation from bearded weirdo back to fresh-faced all-Canadian boy in front of Liz and Bowen's eyes.
Start - the full griz.

Remy's tribute to our Hutterite brethren in Alberta.

The chop.

The whitewall jaw, ready for more sun. ( and smooches!)

Did we mention how cheap the beer is here? Dangerously so. Prices are in USD

And accommodations. We are going to love Cambodia, provided we don't expire of the heat.
Kampot was a nice, low-key introduction to Cambodia. We have already noticed a change from Vietnam in the demeanour of the people, with the Cambodians being much more open and friendly. And the cost of living - we love it! We are all looking forward to continuing our travels, even though the heat is getting to us a bit. For that reason our next stop will be in the beach town of Sihanoukville!

~Remy









Monday, May 4, 2015

Phu Quoc, Vietnam


Flight from Saigon to Phu Quoc. $95/person and one hour long. Perfect!

The view of Phu Cuoc from the air is pretty nice!



Flying to a new place just never gets old. Despite this being our 15th flight since leaving Calgary on Sept 5, 2014 we are still excited to get on an airplane and venture off somewhere new. Phu Quoc will be our last stop in Vietnam so we will make lots of effort to eat all of our favourite things one last time and maybe pick up one of those coolie hats that are all the rage here! Kidding- they've been all the rage since about 1935. We think it will make a great if slightly cumbersome souvenir. We should have bought one in Saigon and had Hollis or Connor take it home for us. Heck, Connor probably would have happily worn the thing all the way home! 

Phu Quoc sits in the Gulf of Thailand and is actually closer to Cambodia than it is to Vietnam. Given the amazing opportunities for eco-tourism and the fact that 70% of the island's tropical forest  was declared a national park in 2001, we were surprised by the amount of garbage casually tossed into the streets, rivers and the ocean. We found some beautiful, clean places to relax but the garbage was never far away. We figure the Vietnamese don't look after it in hopes that if it's dirty then maybe Cambodia will stop their fight for ownership.

Bowen finally gives Vietnamese iced coffee a try and loves it. Careful, it may stunt your growth.

A relaxing way to spend an hour right outside our door at Thai Tha Tien  Bungalows.

The massage lady on her way home from work. Nice commute!

We never tire of boats, they make such a pretty picture.

We aren't sure if these are full time homes or just used for a days fishing.
 We have been on so many snorkelling trips but this is another thing we never seem to get tired of. For $15/person we get picked up at our bungalow, driven to the pier, a day on the boat visiting 2 or three islands, lunch and all the snorkelling gear included (if you don't mind moldy snorkels). Plus we almost always meet neat people to exchange travel ideas with.

The views above the water were way better than the ones under in this particular spot at least. We all enjoyed jumping from the top of the boat into the water, especially Bowen.

The view from up here is pretty good too!

Paradise!

Sea urchins for a lunch appetizer! They were totally delicious, and you only eat the gonads.

Want one?



We learned that Phu Quoc is famous for four things: beautiful beaches, fish sauce, peppercorns and their own breed of Ridgeback dogs. Fortunately for Bowen there were 8 Ridgeback puppies born about a month ago at our bungalow so he could get in as much puppy time as he wanted. Bowen is the biggest dog lover I have ever known. It's sad his parents are such travellers because it means he has to wait until he moves out to actually own one.
Bowen in his happy place

See the distinctive ridge down this little guy's back? There are only three breeds of Ridgebacks in the world: Thai, Rhodesian and Phu Quoc! Who knew?

Vietnamese stew for breakfast. A very, very large German man approached us at breakfast and insisted we try this dish. Ok, ok, whatever you say big guy. He was right. It has become our new favourite thing. We had it for lunch again the same day.

Big stinky vats of fish sauce brewing. If you have ever owned a bottle of this you know the smell. We will be using way more of it when we return to Canada.

It's available in all sizes but don't even think about trying to smuggle one of these on the plane home unless they wrap it airtight for you. It will be confiscated even from checked luggage, just in case.

We spent a morning exploring by motorbike and found a racetrack for the Ridgebacks! The obstacle course was a fun way for the dogs to get some exercise and the "no betting" policy made us feel better about watching. We toured the facility just to make sure the animals were well cared for. They are!

Even in death they are well looked after.

Here is a grown-up version of the Ridgeback. Not nearly as cute as the puppy.


We wanted to go right to the source for some of the famous peppercorns and eventually found this farmer tending his stock. With a little help from Google Translate on my iPhone we were able to purchase 1/2 kilo of the much coveted spice.
Caring for and cultivating this prized spice is a lot of very hard, hot work.

Here is the farmer reading my request via Google Translate. Travel is so much easier  these days with the help of technology.

Mistake! I wound up with sand everywhere!

Drinking Saigon just outside of Saigon. COOL!

It only took about 5 tries to get this right.

The locals like to play here but only after the sun goes down. 

Even when we travel we carry along our version of the "Mormon pantry" we have at home. Peanut butter, muesli and rum are the key components. The rest changes with the tide.


We had high expectations of Vietnam but it took us a long time to get our feet under us here and we never did find our usual groove.  Just when we thought we had the food scene figured out we would move to a different place where there was a different food scene. The dishes we had come to love either weren't available or were served at different times of day than we were used to. There is nothing more disappointing than having your heart set on a delicious Bun Thit Nuong for dinner only to find it's only served for breakfast. I know, poor Liz and Remy.

 We found the people were more business than pleasure and with tourism being a relatively new concept here the Vietnamese have a lot to learn about making visitors feel welcome in their country. They could use some pointers from the smiling, friendly people of Thailand! Now there is a country we will come back to again and again.
Tomorrow we are on to Cambodia. We have no expectations whatsoever and have no idea where we will go which seems to suit us just fine.


~ Liz