The bus would pick me up at 7:30, I was ready, and got onto the bus heading for Kampot. Not knowing what to expect, except for the 5 hour trip. I decided to sleep a bit, which sounds easy, but on cambodian roads is far more difficult than it sounds. I did get some though, but would wake up everytime my bum lifted off the seat. In order to get to Kampot we first needed to pass through Kep. Kep is on the coast, and kampot is 25km from it, but has a river. We got to Kampot and while searching for a hotel I met Marianne, a dutch logistics manager who after doing some volunteer work in thailand is spending the rest of the year trekking around. We got ourselves each a "$4 no window room" as depicted below...

A $4 no window room

Once settled we had planned to meet up for lunch and plan a day out to Bokor for ourselves as this town was far from tourist polluted and thus low on the trip offers. It was back to DIY travel, awesome. To our surprise though, we were informed that Bokor national park had been bought out by an expat and was being renovated to its original glory. What this meant is that it was closed to the public. Oh. We said.

After getting re-confirmation on the peculiar news from the Kampot tourist authority we came up with a contingency. We read that there were caves, we would rent out bikes and spend the day exploring. That was V1.1 of the contingency. After lunch, we walked the town, and there really isnt much else to do. Kampot is a town. A town with a river, very little people and the place one goes to to see Bokor... if that is closed you sit and read a book. So we did. Now V2.1 was being fabricated... what if we rent bikes, ride to the caves and then go to Kep, swim and cool off and then cycle back. A day of activuty, bound to be good!

Dinner time, V3.1 was thought up. Cycle to the caves, then get a taxi/bus/hitch hike to Kep and chill on th ebeach and spend the night there, getting a bus to Phnom Phenn from there.

We had breakfast at 7, so be on our way by 8. Ready for the ride, we came up with V4.1 thsi was the final solution, and proved to be the ultimate solution. Here it comes,

Get a tuk tuk to the caves, check them, then get that same tuk tuk to carry on one way to Kep, check in, get a sea food lunch and either chill on Rabbit island and relax or just on Kep beach. It was glorious, a day that unquestionably makes it to the top 10 days of the trip.

We arrived in Kep after having seen the caves, they were fun rather then impressive. A whole mob of kid tour guides provided endless entertainment and got us to crawl, climb and jump from on boulder to another in the darkness of the cave. After seeing the first 2 we decided it was time for Kep. We got back into our Tuk tuk and started the htel search. kep is expensive, but after some negotuations we found ourselves a room. Straight to the beach, a small man made beach, very picturesque, very chilled.

Along the beach were a whole lot of fish stalls, we dug in! Starting with some barbequed calamari, then a grilled fish on a stick. Then all glory came out when a kilo of fresh crabs made its way to us. Glorious! I think I ate 3 kilos of Crab that day. Oma, I thought of you! I loved it, so fresh, so good, good company and all on a glorious day in the sun, on the beach!

paradise lunch in Kep

Marianne

It got even better when we got invited by a cambodian family to have lunch with them. This was now turning into a 2 hour crab eating day. W got offered cambodian stout and had a good chat. Marlene and her son Jamie had moved to Australia a while back and were now visiting the rest of the family back in Cambodia. It was one of those meals that whenever your plate was nearing empty they would refill it for you with food that was oh so good. (Reminded me of our Skopje adventure with Helena Mattie! haha)

The family was off to Bokor, which according to thyem was stil open, so we went back to the beach.

An awesome and welcomed change from the busy city life! A place well worth a visit. Top 10 for sure.

paradise food