Advertisement
Published: March 13th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Have you ever been in a small saloon car with 7 other fully grown adults eating spiders, whilst travelling at about 120km per hour (well that is what one can assume you are travelling at considering the speedometer has no needle)?.............we have!
After braving the aircon VIP bus which was neither aircon nor VIP (surprised..not us) we travelled from Siem Reap 7 hours to Phnom Penh where it was decided that we would get a "share taxi" to Kampot in South Eastern Cambodia. The trips between places in Cambodia have been my favourite yet. As well as travelling on local transport with few westerners you travel through some of the most rural areas we have seen. Tiny village settlements line the roads. Old fashioned machinery works the FLAT landscape. It also gave us invaluable insight into the local Cambodian delicacy of barbecued spider and cockroach which one can only assume is some kind of desert. Vendors with baskets packed to the brim pummelled the windows at every stop. However, eating an enormous spider one leg at a time was not something on our travelling tick list. The locals loved it, along with the loud karaoke video and slapstick police comedy
blaring for the whole journey. The oddest thing to see yet is mopeds with large pigs - one tied on each side, or a couple of hundred chickens alive tied upside down by their feet to a stick which the driver rests across his shoulder. These so called "bikes of burden" seem to be at the heart of the commercial revolution dragging South East Asia into the 21st century. The best option is to admire from afar and try and not think about your dinner later that night. These journeys really have given us a chance to see the "Real Cambodia'.
We arrived at the "share taxi station" via mopeds again. Just as tuk tuks are characteristically Thai, in Cambodia taxi's are mopeds. There is no option to wear a helmet and with so many mopeds on the road there are more than a few accidents. However, thankfully we were not expected to get a moped to Kampot. There were 2 other Cambodian men also travelling to Kampot - easypeasy and not too cramped. That was until the driver carried on to pick up another passenger. We watched in amazement as we had 3 in the back, a passenger
in the passenger seat, a passenger in the driver seat and then the driver was straddled across the gear box between the seats, one foot in each well. His right foot and hand controlled all the pedals, the wheel and the horn and his left foot just sat in the passenger well the whole time. It was a terrifying journey but also pretty good fun. The Cambodian guys were helpful beyond the call of duty and the taxi driver was made up with his $4 dollar tip(by accident). So that was a lesson to learn about share taxi's. The more the merrier. And it was....... On our way back to Phnom Penh we shared with 4 in the back and 3 in the front, athough this time the driver sat in his own seat and 2 elderly Cambodian women sat on each others knees.
Kampot is a dusty, derelict little town that was once full of grand French buildings, although it is difficult to see them. There is no doubt that it had some sort of french charm....maybe about 100 years ago. There is a river which could be pretty, however, the town would need lights for that. In
short, there is nothing much to do there and the town remains pretty bleak with what feels like a town curfew at sunset. A proper little ghost town which we found more than a little unsettling. It was another fine example of a lesson we preach to other travellers we meet but do not follow. Although we were always considering coming here we were having second thoughts until we spoke to some people who described it with such enthusiasm that we thought we had better go. They must have had their beer goggles on because when we arrived it is not what we were expecting. Everytime this happens we swear we will never again listen to the book of lies (lonely planet) or other people, as everyone is so different in their opinions, but you always do.
Kampot's redeaming feature is the proximity to the Bokor Hill Station, which is heralded as one of THE sights to see in Cambodia. The road there is somewhat bumpy. The intrepid travellers that we are we were sat on the back of an open air pick up truck and got more than a little dusty as well as another few thousand bruises
to add to the others as trees and branches lashed at our faces. The road cannot even be described as a dusty track. More just a route up the mountains.
1,080m up in the mountains, Bokor was built by the French as a holiday resort because of the cooler climate. It has been deserted since the French moved out and now it has a genuinely creepy ghost town feeling with an old catholic church which looks like it was locked up yesterday, and a hotel which looks like something out of The Shining. The view is pretty spectacular from the hotel terrace and you can see all the way to the coast. So, after a boat cruise home we decided to make like a tree and leave Kampot for the brighter city lights (well any lights would be a first)....Phnom Penh here we come....
Advertisement
Tot: 0.141s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 26; qc: 132; dbt: 0.1063s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.4mb