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Published: December 19th 2009
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So Tuesday we finally we got to Kampot, only about 1 hour from the border. Was an interesting drive in as we went through a small town where all the houses were little shacks made our of random sheets of metal and bits of wood, you could tell straight away the different between the two countrys and how Cambodia is much poorer. It was pretty filthy too, loads of rubbish everywhere, just dumped on the streets. Our bus driver drove us round to a couple of guesthouses until we found one we were happy with. $10 room again with TV and hot water but no AC 😞 And it was hot!!!!! About 34 I think that day. Guesthouse was really nice though and had a little garden area with funky moon chairs and cute lights etc.
As soon as we sorted our room we headed into the town area which lies along a riverfront, only a few minutes from our guesthouse. Since we were now in Cambodia we had to get some Riel, the currency for Cambodia as we only had our dollars and dong from vietnam. Eventually we found a cash machine but it wouldnt let me withdraw on
our cirrus card, only visa, which we didnt want to use Stes visa as it would charge loads. Eventually we found another atm that accepted cirrus, but it only gave out dollars ?? so we figured they must accept dollars everywhere which seems a bit strange. We were so desperate to get cash as we had no water or food and were starving, so headed to the nearest shop to get a drink with our dollars...which they wouldnt take, great start! Tried a few more shops but no luck, eventually we found restaurants tend to accept either Riel or dollar so we managed to eat at last (about 4pm by this point!!). We later asked about how to get Riel and the only way is to withdraw dollar and then change it at a currency exchange for some Riel, seems so ridiculous, why dont they just use one currency! Anyway at least we had money now, the currency exchange had close for the day but we would go back tomorrow.
Earlier that day when looking for a guesthouse when walking into one right in front of us walking our was Carine and Sandra, the 2 french girls from our
11 day trip in Mongolia!!! We had kept in touch every now and then by text and we knew they were somewhere probably in south vietnam or cambodia but had no idea they were here in Kampot! So Tuesday afternoon we relaxed after our time rushing around all afternoon hungry and dehydrated plus Ste had a bit of an upset tummy and wasn't feeling too great, but after a bit of rest we went to the girls guesthouse and met up with them for a drink and catch up! Was so nice to see them again and hear all their stories and where they had been (even though we had done the same route we had all been completely different places). Ste's burn on his leg was starting to look a bit minging now and the french girls were fussing over him and kindly lent us some stuff that you spray on burns to dry them out, its gross though as its bright red so just made his leg look worse, but it seemed to help.
Wednesday we had a lovely long lie in 😊 (I know we are so lazy sometimes, but its so easy to run yourself
down and feel ill and tired, dont think either of us ever feel 100%), finally ventured out and sat for ages debating whether to do a bike ride or not, but it was looking rather cloudy like it might rain and I was feeling a bit rubbish (backache, cold blablabla) so we decided to just have a nice stroll around head to the local market and sort out our money. The market was absolutely crazy!!! It was sooo much worse than any other market we had seen, absolutely boiling hot, all enclosed little shacks with tiny walkways they are filthy, dirty with water, food everywhere, ahhh it was not very pleasant, turned out to be quite a short visit. Had a nice stroll along the river, and stopped for a drink to watch the sunset, very nice. Started to rain a little so we headed back and had some yummy dinner in our guesthouse restaurant and chilled out there for the evening talking to other travellers. Its funny because everyone coming the other way from Thailand into Cambodia goes on about how cheap it is and me and Ste are like, what, no its much more expensive than vietnam! Nobody
believes us. Its still cheap compared to home of course, but dinner is more like $3-4 where in Vietnam that would buy you an amazing dinner in a very nice restaurant, normally we would eat for $2-3 if that. Only slightly different, but still. Drinks are slightly more too 😞
Thursday we had planned on doing a bike ride as we both felt better. Got up had some nice brekkie only to find the bikes had already gone, turns out everyone must get up much earlier than us for a bike ride. The guesthouse only has so many that it lends out for free, but none left. So that was our plan out the window. Kampot is mainly a big travelling point because of the sights nearby that you can visit on trips which neither me or Ste had much interest in as most of them involved hiking and trekking up mountains which we did not fancy in this heat. So we had another day to do nothing 😊 We headed into town again, had to get a few bits from the supermarket, and decided to go back along the front, find a nice cafe and chill out for the afternoon, read a bit and get some dinner etc. Found a really nice place that had cheap drinks, yummy chocolate shakes for $1...these are my new addictions! And a happy hour later in the evening with pints of beer for $1, yes actual pint glasses, dont think Ste can remember the last time her had a pint glass! had a lovely afternoon and sat in this restaurant till 9pm when we decided we should get back as our bus to Sihanoukville was at 8am in the morning.
Was a random few days, but nice to see our first place in Cambodia and see a small town rather than the cities. Going to be in Sinhanoukville for xmas now, spending 8 nights there by the beach, cant wait!
Take care,
lots of love
Layla & Ste xxxx
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