Just go, C!
I'm Charity, a proud auntie, wine lover, semi-nerd, and dreamer who can't stay in one place for too long.
I'm not exaggerating when I say that I fell in love with Kampot as soon as I arrived. Okay, yes, I may have said that about other places I've visited, too; fair enough. But there was something about Kampot that just gave me a giddy-schoolgirl-with-a-crush feeling, and I enjoyed every bit of it. Kampot is roughly 3 hours by bus southwest of Phnom Penh. It is situated along the Preaek Tuek Chhu River (How do you pronounce that? Great question. No idea.) which flows into the Gulf of Thailand just a bit further south. The area is well-known for its salt fields, its world-famous Kampot pepper, and it is apparently the durian capital of Cambodia. Durian, for those who may be unaware, is an extremely popular fruit in Southeast Asia. It is dubbed "The King of Fruits" likely due to its enormous size and freakishly spiky exterior. The Chinese especially love it and have been importing it as if it were going extinct. Or, perhaps I should say "ex-stinkt" because it is also, after all, the world's smelliest fruit. If you've ever been stuck behind a garbage truck on a hot, humid day for any length of time, then you know what durian smells like. It was a bit rainy when I arrived in the afternoon, so I decided to take it easy and have some coffee at Epic Arts Café - highly recommend this place, by the way - and I'd read about a little cinema that showed Cambodia-related movies nearly every day of the week at 4pm, so I thought I would check it out. I was pleased to find out that they were showing The Killing Fields that day, so I bought a ticket and made myself comfortable in the living room-like set-up. I had wanted to see this movie after visiting the related monuments in Phnom Penh, but it's an older flick that's not as easy to find on Netflix, etc. Despite it being cringingly-dated in some parts, the movie was great and nicely encapsulated my Khmer Rouge learning experience. If you ever find yourself in Kampot on a rainy day, check out Ecran Theater. The next day, I rented a motorbike through my guesthouse and headed out to Bokor National Park which takes about an hour to go through. The ride up through the mountains was breathtaking, with occasional breaks in the trees and foliage to see beautiful views of Kampot, the mountains, and the Gulf of Thailand in some spots. Everything was going great until I got very nearly to the top of the mountain where one would ordinarily find the Bokor Hill Station, Bokor Church, and a Buddhist temple. These were my intended destinations. I noticed the skies were darker at the top and there was a sweeping cloud of mist which I found to be very intriguing. I wasn't quite putting it together that the sky was trying to warn me that it was about to attack in full force. And attack, it surely did. I am LOL'ing right now as I'm typing this, but let me assure you that I was not amused as I was trying to navigate my way back down the mountain with glass shards of rain attacking my face and body. Visibility was awful, even with my headlights on. There was no face guard on the cheap shitty helmet I got with the motorbike, so rain daggers were assaulting my eyeballs, making it even more difficult to see anything. The wind gusts nearly knocked me off the bike a couple of times. Anyone who was unlucky enough to be in the same vicinity as me in that period of time would have likely heard me yelling, "OWW! OWWWW!" as I was struggling to escape. And it did NOT stop for what felt like hours (probably about 20 minutes in reality), so it went on like this for nearly the entire descent back down the mountain. Needless to say, I was soaked, and when it finally broke and I caught a glance of myself in a mirror, my eyes were bright bloody red as though I'd just come off a two-week bender. So, my advice to you is, if you decide you want to check out Bokor National Park, please only do so when there are virtually no clouds in the sky. Otherwise, you might die. The end. The next day, I took a day trip over to the Kep area (also spelled Kaeb) which is famous for the Kep Crab Market along the gulf shore. Back in its heyday, Kep was holiday resort central for the French and elite members of society until the Khmer Rouge regime of the 70s. Much of it was destroyed during this time, mostly from locals stripping away materials to sell in exchange for food or other supplies. Not much is left in Kep to give any indication of its former glory, but it is still a lovely, relaxed town with enough to keep you busy for a day trip, if you have a hard time relaxing like I do. Today, the areas surrounding Kep are filled with salt fields and rice paddies. You can find several places that rent out bungalows for the day, where you can bring a picnic and drinks or just choose to chill out in a hammock and enjoy the sight and smell of the sea. While I was in town, I checked out the local temple, Wat Samathi. The temple is located right on the outskirts of town and along the border of Kep National Park. As with many Buddhist temples in this part of the world, you have to earn your merit by climbing up a long series of steps to reach the temple. But, the views are really nice, so once again it's worth the extra cardio! And, you really aren't allowed to leave Kep until you've at least stopped by the Crab Market. If you're expecting to find anything clean, organized, and slightly pretentious like the Pike Place Market in Seattle, for example, you will be disappointed. It's typical of any other seafood or meat market in SE Asia, except the focus is on the crab. If you're a big seafood lover (I'm not), you can treat yourself by buying crabs on the spot after they've just been scooped out of the sea and have them cooked right then and there for you. You'll likely be eating them prepared with the famous and delicious Kampot green pepper, a true local signature dish. If you're not a seafood lover, but have an appetite, you'll be pleased to find other munchable items like fresh fruit, various kinds of barbecued meat on sticks, dried fruit and nuts, etc. Or, you can buy some t-shirts, jewelry, or other souvenirs. Just remember that you're in SE Asia and you need to haggle the price. I was happy to just walk around and people watch, and enjoy some freshly...um...squeezed? sugarcane juice. Back in Kampot, I paid a visit to a place called Farmlink, which I had read about in another traveler's blog. Farmlink is a Fair Trade partnership of sorts that focuses on sustainable farming practices and protection of local farmers. Here, they also help process Kampot pepper by drying it and separating out the high-quality peppercorns for export and local trade. They use the less-quality peppercorns in local restaurants, but the less-quality has more to do with appearance than flavor. I was given a mini-tour of the facility and was allowed to sample the red, white, and green peppercorns. They also sell Fleur de sel and palm sugar, all produced locally. I bought some peppercorns and salt for a couple of my foodie friends back home. I certainly don't claim to have a developed-enough palate to taste much difference in the peppercorns, but they all had good flavor as far as I could tell! I capped off my stay in Kampot by taking a $3 evening cruise of the river, price including a free beer. They could have just said, "Hey, follow me! Free beer!" and I would have happily gone along, but the cruise was a nice extra perk. They advertise it as a "Firefly Cruise" because there are a couple spots along the river where you can see some "lightning bugs", as we call them back home. Seeing a few fireflies didn't really impress me since I have seen much more impressive displays growing up in the Midwest, but I will admit that seeing them did make me miss summer nights back home. Awww.
I had a wonderful time exploring this part of Cambodia. It was a welcome change from the fast pace of the two cities I had visited prior. I could easily see myself going back to Kampot down the road, maybe setting myself up as a digital nomad for a month or two. We shall see what the future holds.
1 Comment
3/27/2024 03:13:30 am
The most popular time to visit is during the summer months, from May to September when the weather is generally pleasant and the region is accessible.
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AuthorHi! I'm Charity. I'm from Omaha, Nebraska, USA. I quit my job in October 2016 to travel the world. Archives
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