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