II. Cambodia
Chapter III. Kampot/Back to Phnom Penh
Day 21 (part 2) O Captain! My Captain!
We arrive in Kampot around 4pm and get a tuk tuk to our hostel – another Mad Monkey. We’re staying for three nights, but we’ve only booked for one. It means that we gotta hurry and find another hotel before tomorrow.
Just like the guide says, Kampot is a really peaceful and relaxing riverside town. As soon as we’re set, we go for a stroll along the river. Most guesthouses are already packed, but we eventually manage to get a room for tomorrow.
All the restaurants are lined up on the riverfront. But the one recommended in the guide is a few blocks away.
When we find the place, the owner tells us thay they’re out of food (it’s a pub, not a restaurant). Instead, he recommends us a restaurant on the riverside.The food there is really good and not too expensive. I also love all the lights all around the buildings.
In the guide, we read that some places on the riverfront send boat tours on evening… firefly watching tours. We don’t want to miss it. One of the best places to book a boat is Captain Chim’s. Also, they offer half-day kayaking trips up river.
It takes us a long time to find the place because they’ve moved. Captain Chim’s is a restaurant/guesthouse run by a really friendly family. The mother seems to be the boss.
I’m excited to know about their kayaks. She says that the current is too strong these days, so they don’t rent any at the moment. Ah.
Fair enough, we book a firefly tour for tomorrow night.It’s $5. Then, we realise that for $15, they offer a day tour of Kampot - including the firefly watching tour. We decide to go for the big tour instead.
I ask a guest in the restaurant if she’s done the firefly tour. She did and she says that it was a ‘magical’ experience, especially wihen all the fireflies came buzzing around the boat. It sounds enchanting. I’m looking forward to it.
On the way back, we stop at an ice cream place called Wonderland. Just like in Hoi An, it has really good ice cream, a cheesy name, and it’s run by French people. Except that their specialty is frozen yogurt and homemade popsicle. I get one that has fresh mint leaves inside. Never seen that before, but it’s a great idea. I talk with one of the owners to see what there is to do around. He says we should go see Bokor Hill in the National Park. We’ll get there if we have time. Back to the hostel at 10pm.
Durian Roundabout (picture) Durian is a famous fruit in South East Asia (mostly for its horrific smell). Kampot is Cambodia’s main producer of durians. We tried to find some, but unfortunately we’re off season. They will only be ripe around May.
Day 22 Firefly
We get up early and get a tuk tuk to our new guesthouse. We leave the bags at the reception. Our driver (his name is ‘Wan’) picks us up a bit after breakfast.
We drive away from Kampot.
We first stop in a salt producing community village.
Kampot is famous for its sea salt. It is of a more natural quality since no factories are used in its development process. There are no machines. All the work is done by hand. Thousands of hectares of land are used for sea salt between Kampot and Kep. During the dry season, pools are filled with salt water. When the water evaporates, it leaves only salt crystals. The process is repeated several times, and then people collect the salt. When the dry season is over, the pools are used as rice fields instead.
The red dirt track, the blazing sun, the wooden barn, the shutters banging loosely with the wind‌ Are we in a Western or something?
We’re leaving. Our next stop is an ancient cave - Phnom Chhnork. .
The road can be really dusty sometimes.
At the end of a bumpy dirt track, we arrive at the entrance.
Wan tells us that all the fields below are farms. More than 70% of the population in Cambodia are farmers.
Can you see the elephant with its baby?
And here? Do you see a pig or an elephant?
Inside the cave, there’s a brick temple from the 7th century. It’s dedicated to the god Shiva. Inside, you can see a linga, the phallic symbol of fertility. In Cambodia, lingas can be found in almost every temple.
Later, we stop at an artificial lake.
It was constructed during the Khmer Rouge regime by locals forced to work all day - with almost no food, nor rest. Today, it’s a relaxing place to sit down and unwind (just watch out for the crocodiles).
When the road was built, a major part of the population couldn’t read. So, instead of street names, they used statues of animals to indicate a direction.
Eventually, we arrive at the pepper plantation. It’s an organic farm and they produce their own electricity. For instance, they use solar panels and wind turbine.
Before Cambodia’s civil war, Kampot pepper was used in all the famous French restaurants. But when the Khmer Rouge came, they destroyed all the pepper farms and forced the peasants to grow rice instead Today, Kampot pepper is making its comeback. Our guide (a young English girl who works here as a volunteer) explains that Kampot pepper grows best here because of the quartz in the soil. Also, the peppercorn vines are extremely sensitive to sunlight. The farmers use dried palm branches to protect them. Peppercorns are harvested, every year, from February to May.
When the grains are picked, they are boiled and then, left to dry outside for a week. Green peppercorns get their black color from the drying process.
White peppercorns are black peppercorns with their skin removed (less spicy that way). The red peppercorns are green peppercorns that have been left on the vine for 4 months longer (the sweetest but most expensive ones)
The tour of the plantation doesn’t last long. After that, our guide introduces us to different fruit trees. (Mango Tree)
Pomelo Tree (with a fire ants’ nest…)
Papaya Tree Female (left) / Male (right)
This might be a lychee tree. But I’m not sure anymore.
We’re back on the road. This time we drive to Kep.
Kep is a small peninsula founded as a colonial retreat by the French in 1908. The place is mostly famous for its beaches and excellent seafood – that they cook with Kampot pepper.
The beaches in Kep are too shallow to swim. Most people stay on the shore to have fun. (I expected more cave dwelling today, hence the long pants and the running shoes)
In Cambodia, people are very traditionnal. When they go swimming, they tend to keep their clothes on. Men and women alike.
According to the Lonely Planet, this is a statue of Sela Cham P’Dey, a fisherman’s wife waiting for her husband to return.
Kep is renowned for its Crab Market. Every day, dozens of crabs are fished out near the marketplace and can be served on the spot. The locals are so proud of their fresh crabs that they’ve built a giant crab statue at the entrance of the city. (Unfortunately, I didn’t know any of this when I visited the market and Quinn stayed in the tuk tuk, so I just looked around quickly and we didn’t eat any here)
Looks like someone doesn’t like the smell of dry seafood…
That was our last stop. Time to head back to Kampot. (lots of houses in Cambodia are built on pillars to protect from the monsoon).
In Kampot, Wan drives us to our boat. It’s time to start our firefly watching tour.
In the boat, we meet with other travellers, including a couple from Paris on their world trip. Even compared to the boat from Koh Rong island, the word I’d use to describe our boat is ‘rickety’. There’s not even a proper roof (I guess it’s nice for star watching, but not really reassuring)… We understand quickly that we need to be evenly seated on both sides or the boat is going to tip over. Thankfully, there are seven of us. That should do it. (this is not our boat)
This is our boat…
This is the Old Brigde, one of the symbols of Kampot. It has been repaired multiple times and it’s now a mishmash of different styles. It might be replaced shortly though, because the entrance is locked.
There’s also the railway bridge that, according to the Kampot guide, is ‘by far the most fun’. We didn’t have time to check it out.
The boat leaves at sunset and we’re going to be on the river for about two hours. It means that we will be back around 8pm, which is too early to see the fireflies in all their splendor. It has to be dark enough. Nevertheless, when we get to the right spot, the driver stops the boat and we can see some trees briefly sparkling with fireflies. None of them came flying around the boat, unfotunately. Ours is definitely not a ‘magical’ experience, but it’s still a chance to see something new. Apparently, the cycle of fireflies is quite unpredictable and today is a bit colder than last night. Maybe, it’s just bad luck.
Thankfully, the French guy shows us that there’s more than meets the eye. Moving the water with your hand, or with a long stick, is the only way to see the plankton glowing beneath. But again, you never see the seaweed, only the water surface that sparkles a bit around you. Good thing he was there, because it’s not the boatman (who doesn’t speak any English) who would have said something… When we get back to Captain Chim’s, I’m starving. I’d really like to try their famous seafood with Kampot pepper. That’d be the perfect way to end our tour. Unfortunately, they’re out of seafood for the day. Too bad, we’ll come back tomorrow then. Especially, because I want to rent a scooter from them to go to Bokor Hill. Now, we still have to find a place to eat.
We’re going back to our previous restaurant. It’s closed. I don’t understand, it’s supposed to be a late bar. Actually, most places are closed. And this is when it hit me – today is Chinese New Year’s Eve. Most establishments that are remotely Asian-run are going to be closed for a couple of days. Eventually, we find an English pub called ‘Rusty Keyhole’ that advertises the ‘Best Ribs in Town!’. They may be the best ones in town, I don’t doubt it. But they’re definitely not the best I’ve ever had. At least, the portions are quite large and I’m not hungry anymore.
We come back to our hostel and watch a stupid movie on TV. Some pork ribs, a pint of beer, and a movie about the American Dream, such a traditional way of celebrating the Chinese New Year‌
Day 23 Crash
Today, we’re going to visit Bokor Hill, outside Kampot. In the morning, we get breakfast in a catery staffed by young people who are deaf or who have a disability. I get Kampot pepper ice cream and it tastes exactly like it’s name suggests. It’s ice cream with peppercorns inside. Weird. Quinn’s breakfast takes a long time to be prepared, so, in the meantime, I go to Captain Chim’s to rent a scooter. Wan is here (I thought he was only a tuk tuk driver, but apparently, he works closely with the family that runs the guesthouse). He shows me the bike. I check everything – dashboard, lights, brakes and fill up the gas tank at the station. And I come back to pick up Quinn.
Today is the Chinese New Year (Year of the Monkey). There is a parade in the street.
In the early 1920s, the French established a hill station on top of Phnom Bokor (1080m), a few kilometers away from Kampot. The site was abandoned several times and the station became a ghost town It was appropriately used in Matt Dillon’s thriller ‘City of Ghosts’ (2002). To get there, you have to follow a winding road all the way to the top.
At the foot of the hill, the road is flat and straight. It’s a really pleasant drive. But just like all mountain roads, the further up you go, the more difficult it becomes. I drive slowly and carefully. However, I don’t always see cars behind me in my rear mirrors, so I have to turn my head swiftly when they overtake me. And then, it happened…
The traffic is quite heavy for a mountain road, with lots of buses and large vehicles. I tend to stick to the right side, near the railing. At some point, right after a bend, a SUV starts to overtake me. I get as far on the right as I can and look aside real quick to make sure it has enough space. When I put my eyes on the road again, I barely have time to see the couple of square stones that are lying right in front of us. With two people on a scooter, going uphill, we were not going any faster than 20km/h. I brake hard, but it’s too late to stop. The front wheel goes over the first square stone and we crash on the side.
Of course, we’re both in shock. But fortunately, we only have a couple of cuts and bruises. No major injury. Thank god. Like I said, we were not going fast. And when the scooter crashed, it was almost at a standstill. Surprisingly, the only time when there’s no one else on the road, is the one we get the accident. So, no one stopped to help us. We throw the stones away from the road and I push the bike on the side to check the damage. We got a broken headlight, and that’s pretty much it. I can still start the engine. Could have been much worse. Let’s keep driving and rest once we’re up there, off the main road.
Except that when I try to drive, Quinn notices that we have a flat tire. It must have blown up when we hit the sharp edge of the rock. There’s no way to drive at all in these conditions anymore. Our only solution now is to call the guesthouse but our phones don’t work in Cambodia. We have to either stop a car or walk to the top and find some help.
At first, I try to push the bike uphill, but it’s much too heavy. I lock it and leave it on the side of the road. How far are we from the top? No clue. However, it’s already a long way down. Eventually, we manage to stop a car with a family. The father, a really friendly Cambodian, lent me his phone to call the guesthouse. I get the mother on the phone, explain the situation and tell her where we are. She says that she will send her brother. I assume he’s going to come with a truck to pick up the scooter. We give a heartful thanks to the family man. Now, all we have to do is wait in the shade.
To be fair, there are a couple of signs that warn you about falling rocks – just like on any other mountai road. But one would expect the stones to fall on the side of the cliff, not to the other side of the road, near the railing. And the worst part is that, if I had not turned my head backwards at the decisive moment, none of this would have happened.
After a while, Wan shows up, alone, on his own scooter. So, he’s the brother. That’s why I’ve met him this morning. He tells us to take his bike, while he’s waiting for someone else to come and pick up ours. We still have a few hours before sunset, but I’d really like to drive back to town right now. Wan convinces me that everything is fine and to simply bring his bike back to the guesthouse when we’re done. We drive at least 15km to get to the top to find a grocery store (for some snacks) and a map of the area
There’s only one way back down. I decide to drive as far as I can first. And then, we’ll come back progressively to the exit.
The most popular ‘attraction’ is the Bokor Palace, a grand hotel that opened in 1925.
From up there, the view is spectacular. You can see as far the ocean.
My leg hurts and I don’t want to drive in the dark. We leave the place before sunset.
Back in Kampot, I drive around the city for a while, just to have a look at the different streets and roundabouts. And we stop at the Night Market.
I bring the scooter back to Captain Chim’s. Time to pay for the damages... They tell us it is not our fault and it could have happened to anyone. They only want us to pay for the rental and the headlight. Which is less than $15 for everything. I’m so relieved !
We’re staying here for dinner. And finally, after all this time, I have the opportunity to try the famous seafood with pepper dish.
It’s really excellent. They don’t grind the corns or anything. Instead, they cook the seafood directly with peppercorn vines. It gives the whole dish a unique flavour.
After dinner, I come back to Wonderland one last time and have a chat with the owners - two French guys who make their own ice creams. They both have a background as pastry cooks and confectioners and decided to set up their place in Kampot, after travelling around Cambodia for several months. I tell them about the ice cream place in Hoi An, in case they’d like to partner or something. We get back to our hostel and pack the bags. Tomorrow, we’re going back to Phnom Penh.
Day 24 S-21
For breakfast, we get to a bakery (‘L’Epi d’Or’) for some awesome French pastries. After a 5hrs bus ride, we’re back in Phnom Penh. We’re only staying here for the day. Our real destination is Siem Reap, but we don’t want to spend 12 hours in the bus (and night buses in Cambodia are rarely recommended). Since we have the whole afternoon, Quinn wants me to visit the prison of Tuol Sleng – another important historical landmark.
To get there, we could have taken a tuk tuk, but I’d rather walk. I’m glad we did, otherwise we would have missed this New Year parade in the backalleys leading to Tuol Sleng. For a while, Quinn and I were the only westerners, here, to enjoy the parade.
After this joyous, colorful intermission, we arrive in a much grimmer place, the prison of Tuol Sleng (also called S-21). Just like with the visit to the Killing Fields, a fascinating audio guide is available at the entrance.
In 1975, Tuol Svay Prey High School was taken over by the Khmer Rouge forces and turned into a prison. It soon became the largest centre of detention in the country. It’s here that thousands of prisoners were detained, before being sent to the killing fields of Choeung Ek to be executed. It has now been turned into a museum.
On the ground floor, each classroom had been turned into a torture chamber. Most people imprisoned in S-21 had commited no crime. They were simply ‘a threat’ to Pol Pot’s dictatorship. A lot of them were intellectuals. They were tortured until they would confess some imaginary crime and forced to sign a paper to admit it. Then they were sent to the killing fields…
The next building contains the isolation cells, where prisoners were sometimes left in the dark. There is a large hole in the room for the guards to walk easily from one room to the next.
When the Vietnamese Army liberated the city in 1979, there were only 7 prisoners left alive. This skilled painter once heard that the guards were looking for someone to paint portraits of Pol Pot. He volunteered to save his life. He would stay alive as long as Pot Pot was satisfied with his paintings.
After this depressing experience, time to move to something a bit more light hearted. We walk to the Independence Monument and watch people for a while..
For dinner, we follow the Lonely Planet to look for a restaurant. After walking for 1h, we agreed that it must have closed some time ago. We have dinner at the hostel instead. I get lok lak, which in this case is pretty much meat with vegs and an egg on top.
There is a Blue Pumpkin ice cream nearby. We get some and, interestingly, as our bill is over $5, we are allowed to choose a set of dim sum in the Chinese restaurant upstairs. And they’re pretty good too. Now, that’s a pleasant surprise.
Our hostel is a Mad Monkey once again. They’re easy to get to and reliable enough with their services. However, this time, the experience is not as enjoyable. We’re staying in a 10 bed mix dorm. Except that, not only is our room near the bar, not only did they take out the door leading to the next dorm (that’s now 20 beds without separation), but we’re sharing it with a bunch of stupid, loud teenagers (whose accent makes me think either England or Australia).
It’s close to 11pm and we have a bus to Siem Reap at 6am tomorrow. We definitely need some sleep. But these morons are taking out the bottles and start drinking in the room, laughing, singing and shouting, like we’re not even there. At first, I don’t say anything hoping they will go away soon. But Quinn asks them politely to stop. One girl replies that if we wanted to sleep we shouldn’t have chosen a hostel. ‘It’s a hostel called Mad Monkey, what did you expect ?’ This behavior really pisses me off. It’s a hostel. Sure. It’s called Mad Monkey. Fine. But we’re not the ones who put all these signs in the room saying drinking in the room is forbidden and that guests should respect other people’s sleep. We’ve been in hostels countless times. Other guests are usually smarter and more respectful. But what’s the point of arguing with drunk people.
Thankfully, they leave soon after, to go party or something and they never came back for the whole night. Good riddance. I won’t miss their company. Next destination : Siem Reap!