After 3 days in the seedy and unsavourable capital city, we left.
We'd heard good things about the riverside town of Kampot around 3 hours from Phnom Penh.
Our bus once again was colossus, old and built for rough terrain, other than a couple of other locals, we pretty much had the bus to ourselves (for the majority of our trip we've been in low season), the bus boasted air con, but it wasn't working, despite this the journey was painless, a straight 3 hour run through the lush yet poverty stricken countryside.
After passing an ocean side town, we were in Kampot. It was the usual scam of dropping us off slightly out of town so we'd have to pay a tuk tuk to take us to centre of town, however we decided to walk and within 5 minutes we came to a huge roundabout with a gigantic durian in the centre! The roads were sparsely occupied with old cars and Honda Win 110cc's bombing around with an expat behind the bars. We had no accommodation booked, we asked around and managed to bag a bargain, $5 a night! A large double room above a supermarket, the wobbly fan when on was a worry, the bathroom door handle was hanging off and the old manager looked like she had weights implanted under her eyebrows, as she could do nothing but frown at us however the room was perfect for us!
We dumped our stuff off, locked the door, then checked it again (we've heard nightmare stories about people breaking into rooms and just taking everything in Cambodia) and had a wonder around. The town was relatively small with lots of small independent restaurants, quirky bars and boutique shops (we were finding using dollars expensive for Asia, however Kampot was cheaper than the capital). Along the riverside with the low mountains surrounding was a beautiful place with a fantastic relaxed and mellow atmosphere.
After Ho Chi Minh and Phnom Penh it was great to be back in the countryside to relax and plan out the rest of our time in Cambodia.
One afternoon we rented out a motorbike to visit one potential host set a little way from the centre of town, he had a simple but brilliant little abode, he wanted help with online marketing for his river tour business, however his website was already quite impressive and we really wouldn't been much help.
Whislt waiting around for replys from potential hosts, we enjoyed the mellow bars ($0.50 for a 330ml draft beer), cafe's and chilling out on the river banks.
Kep
30 km away lies a small beach town named Kep (translates to crab in Cambodia), formerly a popular French Colonial resort. It was a one road all the way, but the busy and dusty tarmacked roads weren't too troublesome. The small seaside province, although a quint with a pretty beach, it really didn't have much to offer; a small market, a few restaurants, large statues and hundreds of empty hammocks! we only spent roughly 2 hours riding around and checking out the beach. Other than the calm blue ocean, walking along the beach and all the monkeys causing havoc, it was a tranquil and nice place, however we wouldn't put it down as a must see!
Host
We finally got a reply from a host and ... a green light!
Anne, a French expat whose been in Cambodia for a number of years. She lived a few miles out of town, so we had to rent a motorbike to reach her, she only needed some help in the garden, some weeding and tidying up.
The small village was only accessible by a bumpy dirt road but she was easy to find!
We arrived late morning (riding a motorbike with our big heavy backpacks was interesting), small in stature, sweaty (from gardening), almost too French to function but really friendly and sweet we greeted Anne. After only a quick conversation and a walk around her modern and minimalist house, we knew it was going to be a comfortable and easy going stay, also the landscape was perfect (also ever changing, as the cloud formations constantly rearranged the shaped of the mountain and you'd see a variety of colours from different times of the day, it was beautiful!) with the back garden facing the Mountain of Bokor. We quickly settled into our room in the house and discussed what needed to be done!
Over the next few days we did odd jobs around the garden, mainly weeding which was tedious but we only worked around 3 hours a day. We were only able to spend a few days here as Anne had a lot on her plate, plus there wasn't a great deal to do here (plus she already had a gardener).
We enjoyed our short time here and wished there was more to do, so we could stay longer. It was great to have some home cooked meals, her food always tasted great, she cooked a lot of pasta which was amazing as we hadn't had it in months!
Bokor Mountain
One afternoon at Anne's, the clouds around the mountain were thin, wispy and the sun was blinding, so we decided to go and explore the mountain area of Bokor! Expecting to pay a big entrance fee for the national park we were nicely surprised when it cost next to nothing. After the checkpoint, the empty, steeply inclined spiralled road beckoned! The shape bends were great fun to tackle on the bike, the only downside was the further up we went the colder it grew, but we captured some amazing coastal views! Deeper and deeper into the mountains we ventured, until the fog overwhelmed us and vision was extremely limited. Dotted around the mountains there were several different things to do.
Passing an old abandoned casino and a ugly but huge gambling resort, we stumbled across a Pagoda complex. As always these Buddhist complexes are all similar yet, still interesting, this particular one had several monks wandering reciting their teachings, the foggy weather made it feel like a mysterious monastery at the end of the world!
Up on Bokor was also a waterfall, which was quite crowded, but Understandably! The loud gushing waters were quite spectacular! It was also really cool as you could stand at the top (no handrail) of the roaring fall and look down (nervously) cliffs!
The last stop on our little D.I.Y Mountain tour of Bokor was a vast lake! Again we had the roads to ourselves and we were probably the first people the car park security guard had seen all day! The lake looked like it was a forgotten part of a dark fairy tail, you could hear a pin drop from the banks, the looming and lifeless trees with motionless water made this place an eerie find, we spent a good 30 minutes relaxing by this foggy, almost haunting body of water before taking the winding and chilly road back down!
Believe it or not going down was much quicker than climbing the high incline roads, we welcomed the warmth with open arms (it felt weird being cold), and felt thankful that we managed to avoid and out run the bad weather that was rolling in! It was a great afternoon, and fun to take on the mountain roads of Cambodia!
Before returning the motorbike to the renter, we went for a little ride around town to burn some fuel, all of a sudden whilst on a small bend I almost lost control of the bike, the steering became wobbly and the bike was all over the place, turns out after taking on the horrendous dirt roads several times a day whilst we were with the host, and all the mountain roads it was a tiny nail that caused a puncture! Slightly annoyed and now late for the agreed return time, we marched maybe 2 miles back to town! Luckily for us the return time didn't matter and to fix the tyre was only $5! After we left Anne's we returned to the $5 room and relaxed for a couple days, enjoying a few drinks at the riverside (the orange sunsets were spectacular!) and looking for food bargains around the local markets!
We enjoyed the ultra chilled out riverside town of Kampot and the cheap room, however we were excited and eager to get to the beach city of Sihanoukville!
