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Published: February 18th 2009
G&S
On the boat to Rabbit IslandDay 37/38/39 - Kampot/Rabbit Island
We left Phnom Penh at 1PM and arrived at Kampot around 6:30PM. It was a long, bumpy ride. Once we got past the traffic in the city the SUVs slowly disappeared and the road seemed to as well. It was paved for at least the first 4 hours, but it might as not have been. It was in terrible shape - leaving us to wonder if this was a result of the Khmer Rouge. Even on parts of the road that were probably just recently paved, it was an unpleasant ride. When they paved the road they must not have expected big buses and construction trucks to come through, since the road wasn't wide enough for two trucks to pass each other. So every time, a big truck came by, we skirted off the edge of the road into the dusty gravel. If they would have paved a foot more on each side - the ride would have been a lot easier and probably quicker. The last part of the trip was on rocky dirt roads with a handful of detours due to construction. Our bus was constantly dogging chickens, cows and dogs in the
Rabbit Island
View down the beach from our bamboo platforms road. The few cars we had seen on the road were now getting fewer and far between while we were seeing more and more horse and buffalo driven carts.
Lonely Planet guide suggested Long Villa Guesthouse, but they were full for the night, so we ended up staying at the place right next door. It was only $8 a night for hot water and a fan (we actually got 2 fans so we felt like it was the Ritz Carlton). We went over though to Long Villa for dinner and booked a trip to Koh Tonsay (Rabbit Island) for the next day/night. After our long trip down we headed to bed, but to our surprise the hotel got CNN International and ""The Daily Show, Global Edition" was on (who knew they even had a global edition????), so that made the horrible bus ride worth the trip.
The next morning - Sunday, Feb. 15th - we headed to Kep which is about 25K east of Kampot to catch the boat to Rabbit Island. It was an even bumpier ride in a tuk tuk this time, but it was a beautiful one with the coast on our right side and
Boat Docking
Rabbit Island Beach rolling, lush hills to our left. The boat ride to the island was only about 30 minutes or so. The main beach was so picturesque - just out of a postcard. The beach was lined with palm & coconuts trees and had scattered raised bamboo platforms for lounging around. Set in father the beach were tiny raised rustic bungalows. There wasn't a high rise resort in sight, no sound of wave runners, no women roaming the beach harassing you into buying something. It was exactly what we wanted it to be. The electricity only went on after sunset. Our room was sparse, just a mattress on the floor, a mosquito net and a sheet. The outhouse was about 50 feet behind our bungalow, past the goat cages. A handful of dogs were escaping the hot sun under the bamboo platforms, sleeping the day away. About 4-5 cows roamed the grounds while roosters and chickens freely scavenged the area. It was back to nature for us. We wanted to ask where the internet cafe was, but refrained ourselves. The water was nice and cool and very shallow. We were able to walk out about 30 feet and the water would only
come up right above our knees. However, considering our height, the average reader of this blog could have made it 60 feet before the water hit above the knee. There was a fair amount of tourist there, but not too intrusive and nothing like Sihanoukville.
For lunch we got fried crab with pepper and steamed rice. The Kampot/Kep area is world known for their outstanding peppercorn and we can see why. It was absolutely delicious. There wasn't much meat in the crabs, so we definitely had to work to get our money's worth (well it was only $5 for a medium size portion). But after mere minutes, one plate was empty while another plate was plied high with shells. After lunch, we were highly entertained when they let the goats out in the late afternoon. There was a mama goat, a mangy looking one and one we called "Cohones" for his extremely large saggy male parts and two baby goats. The two little ones that had us in tears of laughter as they hopped around with their longs ear flapping about. We both decided that we have to get a baby goat when we get back to the West.
(JK - sort of)
After gaining our composure, we read our books on the beach, listening to the waves crashing until the sun finally set. For dinner we once again feasted on a plate of pepper crabs - large this time - and devoured it at record time. It was one of those meals where there is hardly any conversation cause you're too focused on consuming your food. The dogs had finally woken up from their afternoon nap and sat around us the table waiting for us to drop any food. They were all so cute - see photos and names we gave them. Again, leave it up to us to be on a paradise island and instead of contemplating the meaning of life or having serious discussions about the world, the two of us are petting dogs, trying to teach them English.
After eating we did manage to chat to a nice guy from Holland who gave us his opinion on places we were thinking of visiting and then chatted with a man from Media, PA. He is of Cambodian decent, but grew up in Vietnam before moving to the US. It was so weird that in
a small island in the Gulf of Thailand we meet some one who lives so close to G's family. We played a couple of games of Gin Rummy before the electricity was shut off at 10PM. We knew it was going to be rough sleep, but weren't prepared for the loud "MMOOOOORRROOOO" from cows just outside our window, a fierce dog fight around 3AM and a rooster crowing at the butt crack of dawn.
To say the least, we were tired as hell but walking out of our bungalow and the awe inspiring sight of the beach just steps away reassured us it was worth it. The water was calm and sun was out but not too hot yet. We had some breakfast - well ended up just eating bread with PB that we got back in Phnom Penh - and laid about for a bit. We decided to walk around the island and headed off towards the southern tip. The island is about 6K around but we only ended up walking about .5K of it. Mostly because of time but also because the sun had finally come out in full force and the last few kilometers were proper
trekking, which was not on our agenda for the day. We walked the small path, past roaming cows chowing down on grass and leaves, across an isolated beach then crossed over the grass to the tip of the island. ON that beach kids were splashing about in the water and G even started a little boy that burst into screams when he saw her, but he eventually warmed up to us and waved and said hello. There were also fisherman at work, harvesting seaweed on the long stretch of beach. The were super nice and we chatted with them for a bit. We eventually headed back to catch our 12:30 boat ride back to the mainland, but not before ordering another plate of pepper crab, but mixed it up with a plate pepper shrimp as well.
We had decided to splurge ourselves and booked an air conditioned room at Long Villa guest house, but were really disappointed in it. The room was tiny and the bathroom reaked and was full of flies. G completely bombed the place with Raid and by the time we checked out in the AM there were 4 huge cockroaches and two baby ones dead
Handstands
S showing off her gymnastic skills on their backs in the bathroom. Plus the AC just turned off in the middle of the night and we had the hardest time getting the remote to work to turn it back on. Definitely not a place we would recommended staying at! The only positive things about this place was the fact that the owners just got tow new puppies that were the absolute cutest things! Way to precious for words.
We left early in the AM and may our way yet again back to Phnom Penh to pickup our passports at the Myanmar Embassy.
xxx
S & G
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Mamma Jean
non-member comment
picture perfect
OMG! What great pixs! Sounds like you tw found a little slice of heaven. Ahhh our message in the sand. Enjoy the crab. And...HAPPY BIRTHDAY Steph (a little early) XOXO