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Published: April 20th 2007
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KAMPOT - April 9 - 10
The Italian dude and I were lucky in that we ended up getting a shared taxi with 5 people not 7 for $5. The cab driver said that he there would only be 3 in the back seats (including us) and 2 in the front. And we made sure that he understood that if he stopped for more people and filled the car up more that we would not pay him upon arrival in Kampot. He agreed to those terms and we were on our merry comfortable way😊 Kampot is a little riverside town with little going on. The one thing I was excited for was the cafe, Epic Cafe!! Ya! I finally had my cake I had been craving for awhile. It wasn't the best cake I ever had but it was still tasty, carrot cake was what I had. The cakes are different here though, not the moist, sticky ones at home but more spongy and thick. Not bad just different. Same same but different. Ha. Anyway. Italian dude and I walked all over town after getting our guesthouse (Kampot guesthouse - $6, 2 bed, fan, bath, tv). We booked a
tour to Bokor Hill National Park for $7 which included an "english" speaking guide, transportation, and lunch. I was super anxious because reading about it seemed pretty cool. A community built in the 1920s with the King's quarters for summer holidays, a casino, guesthouses, hotel, and a church. They all were abandoned when the Khmer Rouge invaded in the 1970s. The road was horrible after the park entrance. Two long bumpy ass hours on the back of a pickup (6 of us). No resting time cause you had to be ready to duck oncoming branches. The view was pretty sweet when the fog was rolling in. The first buildings we stopped at were the King's quarters, including restaurant and accomodation. Not very impressive. Next we drove some more over more bad road to an area where there was a tea plantation. The first little 30 minute hike to the casino was taken from the tea plantation. I was hoping for more hiking but not so. Later it turns out that you can arrange for hiking treks to the Bokor Hill Station which takes 2 days up and 1 day down. That would have been amazing, macheting through the brush. Sheat!
We passed more abandoned buidlings, this time guesthouses and a hotel. Lunch of tofu and veggie curry and rice was served at the abandoned casino. The casino was actually pretty neat. I was picturing what it would have been like back in the day when it was open. I was picturing Stephen King's The Shining when I was walking through and going into the rooms. Pretty creepy. I should have stayed overnight in the "not abandoned" guesthouse on top the hill and totally freaked myself out by going back at night. That would have been wicked!! Plus, the fog was slowly making it's way over the hilltop and settling. The church was creepy too. Nobody was looking forward to the ride back down the hill on the same road. It took 2.5 hours this time and we ended up stalling out right at the bottom of the road just before heading back onto the main road. To fix it, the driver took a wrench and started banging the shit out of the engine. That only worked temporarily because not even a minute later, the truck stalled but this time on the main road. The boys got out to push as
we were coming up to a downhill slope. Worked then stalled. Worked then stalled. We were on our way to take a boat along the river back to Kampot while the sun set. It looked as if we were going to miss the sunset if they didn't get the truck fixed or called for another truck to come pick us up, which they didn't want to do. They wanted us to walk 7 km, which later he said was only 5 km then really it turns out to be only 2 km. We would only walk if we got some sort of reimbursement or whatever but miraculously after adding more petrol the truck started! We did make for riverside sunset. It was very relaxing on the boat especially after the god awful journey on the truck. Back at the guesthouse I was actually moving to another one because the Italian dude was going to be watching football at 1am and I really wanted to get to bed at a decent hour since I decided that I was NOT going to visit the caves and KEP the next day but head back to Phnom Penh. Again, not too impressed with the
whole damn tour things. Later I heard both good and bad things about the caves, if you've seen caves, any caves already then you weren't missing anything.
So I was back to Phnom Penh but only for one day (really a stopover) before heading to Sen Monorom in Mondolkiri Province. Stayed at No. 9 guesthouse again. Very nice place, social wise not so much room wise. I definitely recommend it. I was glad to be getting out of the city cause it was the Khmer New Year. The water guns were already out in full force before actual New Year celebrations.
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Joanne
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Scary!!!!
It looks scary!!!! Would have been fun just scaring yourself..hehe..but i don't think I would be able to stay there for long...just looking at the pics gives me the creeps, can't imagine the real thing!!!