I really had no idea where to go or what to see in Cambodia and heavily relied on some suggestions from fellow travelers.  From the capital, I decided to head south the the beach towns as I realized I had a lot more time in Cambodia than I thought.  One of the suggestions I got from someone was to head to Kampot.  I had no idea what there was to do there but decided to book a bus and see what was up.  I booked a hostel with very good reviews just outside of the city and made my way to Kampot.

I have been pretty lucky with bus rides so far, even though I have heard a lot of horror stories, mine have been mostly uneventful.  I can pretty much sleep anywhere at any time so, I typically sleep for half of most rides anyways.

I arrived in Kampot and made my way to the hostel which was a bit further out of town than I had thought, but was off the beaten path and looked like it would be pretty chill and quiet.  I checked in and a few minutes later another girl from the Netherlands named Oska checked in and we decided to get some food together.  We headed into town towards a hole in the wall Italian place which was recommended to me by several people along my travels.  It’s an Italian guy with a Cambodian wife who make pasta and pizza in a makeshift kitchen for a few hours every night.  I wanted the pizza but he had just run out of dough a few minutes later.  So I had the gnocchi and it was soooo good.

We walked through the night market and then walked around town for about an hour heading back to the hostel.  Next morning I woke up, went for a run and then headed into town to rent a motoribike for a few days as it was only $4/day and most of the activities were slightly out of town.  We ended up meeting another person in the hostel that was interested in doing some of the things around town but was not comfortable on a motorbike, so she jumped on the back of mine and we were off towards a cave just out of town.

We drove for about 20 minutes to a cave at the end of a pretty bad dirt road.  Upon arriving a bunch of kids greeted us and showed us around.  They were very helpful and for $1 tip at the end, we saw parts of the cave we would not have seen.  Part of me is a bit worried that the kids are here making money at the cave rather than being in school, but their English was very good from interacting with tourists and they were actually pretty cheeky.

There were a few tight spots in the cave but overall it was a nice one.

The next stop on the journey was a quick dip in “Secret Lake”  It really isn’t that secret but it looked like a nice place to cool off.  It was a great swimming spot, but there were these bugs in the water that kept biting us and so the swim didn’t last that long.

After the swim we got back on our bikes and continued on to La Plantation which is the largest pepper plantation in the area.

The plantation offered a free tour and tasting of the various pepper they grew there and the difference between all of them.  The mainly sold three types of pepper.  White, red and black.  White pepper is basically black pepper where the outer layer had been soaked off, red pepper is special peppercorns that grow on the same bunches as black but appear randomly.  These have a different flavor profile and must be removed from the stock by hand.  These are obviously more expensive and have a milder flavor than black pepper.

We got to try all of them including long peppers which also had a slightly different flavor.  Honestly by the end of the tour, my mouth was burning and I could not try any more peppercorns.  We went out to the fields and saw the workers and fields which was really cool to see.

After the pepper farm, we got back on our bikes and headed back to Kampot.  For dinner, I was craving a burrito so we went to a mexican place in town and I had a delicious burrito.  After dinner everyone was pretty tired, so we played a game of settlers (which I won) then headed to bed.

Next day Anna had mentioned she wanted to go for a run in the morning so we set out bright and early for an exploratory run around town.  We had a short photoshoot at the Durian statue at the centre of town.  Apparently Kampot is very proud of their Durian.

After the run we met up with our other dorm mate and then headed into town for a breakfast.  This was the heartiest breakfast I have had on my trip so far and it was so good.  A great way to kick off the day! (At $6 it was also one of my most expensive meals)

After breakfast we headed towards Bokor mountain on our motorbikes.  Andrei (the polish guy I met in Luong Prabang) was also in town and decided to join us!  This is a national park just outside of town which used to be a luxury resort, then used by the Khmer Rouge and has kind of fallen into disrepair until fairly recently.  I have heard rumors that the Vietnamese are using it to Launder money so there is a ton of new development including renovating some of the old buildings and also building some luxury resorts.  There is even a brand new large luxury hotel with a casino inside, but more about that a bit later.

It was a bit cloudy that day and the weather was calling for rain, but we pushed through and hoped for the best.  The drive up was over an hour but on a really new and windy road, so it was pretty fun to drive.  We stopped at a large Buddah statue which was also supposed to have a wonderful view, but by that time we were in the clouds and visibility was almost zero.  We cotinued on up the hill to a waterfall which was pretty small given that it was dry season.  Apparently it is very beautiful in the rainy season but it was still cool to explore a bit.

After the waterfall we drove around the top of the hill for a bit and then went to the Hotel and Casino to check it out.  This is honestly a giant hotel and Casino with a huge parking lot.  The parking lot was completely deserted and when we went inside the hotel, there were tons of staff members but almost no guests.  It was very strange and creepy honestly.

There was even an arcade, but unfortunately it did not have Pinball.  WE went up to the small casino they had on the second floor and many of the people in our group did not know how to play blackjack which was the only table game open.  So I sat down with $6 and tried my luck.

Luck was not on my side and I lost all but one hand.  It was a good educational experience and I got a free water out of the deal.  Similar to the rest of the hotel, the casino was also empty.  I did ask how much it would cost to stay there and the lady told me it was $85/night on weekdays and $95/night on weekends.  Pretty standard for a normal Hotel but pretty expensive for Cambodia.  After a brief stint in the Hotel, we headed to see the old Church and the “old Casino” which were abandoned at one time.

In the last year the casino has been refurbished and is no longer that interesting to look at.  With that, our exploration of the hill was complete and we had to rush back to the Hostel as they volunteer at a local school and we needed to get back by a certain time in order to join.

We made it back and immediately took off to the school.  It was about a 30 minute drive outside of town, and we arrived a bit late so only had about 45 minutes to spend with the kids.  They have a formal english teacher, but interacting with westerners and speaking english is the point of our presence.  We introduced ourselves, played a few games.  Taught them about big, bigger biggest and small, smaller, smallest as well as a few other things.

We then finished off with a game of duck duck goose and the hokie pokie, which was pretty fun.  The whole experience was pretty amazing and the kids looked like they really enjoyed hanging out and I for did.  When it was time to leave, we headed back to the hostel.

Upon returning to the hostel, the owner Ivan told us that he was planning a family dinner that night and everyone should prepare a dish from their home country.  We had two chefs staying there and one had even worked at a michilan star restaurant in London.  There was another Canadian from London Ontario there so we got some cheese and some gravy mix and made some Poutine!  The spread was pretty amazing including Fallafal courtesy of Yvan from Isreal, A pumpkin soup from the UK, Hummus, assorted salads, and some kebab wraps!  It was an amazing dinner both food wise and company wise!  After dinner and clean up, most of the people staying in the hostel decided to go to a bar to keep the night moving.

We ended up starting at another hostel which had a rooftop bar called Mad monkey.  This is a chain of party hostels dotted throughout SE asia and you can pretty much guarantee a party atmosphere if you book a night at one of them.  We arrived and the mood was a bit more tame than expected, which was fine by me.  Someone convinced the crew to do a Kamikaze shot which I think was red bull, tequila and some other booze arranged so that when you took the one shot glass the other dropped into the red bull.  It was alright, but that would be it for me.

We left and ended up heading to a boat bar on the river and I ended up dancing for the rest of the night until 3am.  There weren’t that many people there so it was just me an like two others, but I had a great time.

This post has gotten really long because I spent a bunch of time in Kampot, so I am going to post this one now and work on part 2 soon.  Up next, Kep and Rabbit island.