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Published: September 27th 2006
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Kep and Rabbit Island
The local furniture... Rising slightly late Andrew and I assess the damage to our rear ends, and determine whether or not we'd be capable of getting on a motorbike to explore the nerby seaside retreat of Kep.
After a little whinging and realising that the satelite TV had gone down, we hired a dodgy moto and headed off to Kep, intending to stop at the nearby caves on the way down.
Turning off to the Phnom Chnork caves we are suddenly being followed by at least 10 young males ranging from the ages of 8 to 25 all offering to be our guides. Some are on pushbikes so we can outride them, others are on motos and continue to pursue us for kms, despite us the whole time yelling out "NO GUIDE!! NO GUIDE!!!"
We think we're safe as they all seem to disappear and we take a wrong turn, finding our way again and stumble upon what seems to be the entrance to the temple and the caves. Coming across some 'cute little kids' they guide us along a narrow track bewteen rice paddies where we apparantly can't take the bike any further and are forced to leave it at there
Kep and Rabbit Island
Some abandoned local transport on the way to the cave mum's house! How convenient!
They then lead on ahead, taking us through the rice paddies and vegatable gardens to the cave where it seems some crazy religious fanatic has created a gaudy sculpture garden of life size icons, and has also installed a bamboo toll booth to the steps leading up, asking for a 'donation' to make us feel better.
Out of nowhere two of the older boys that had followed us on their motos apperared, managed to talk the crazy religious dudes into letting us in, and thereby becoming our 'guides'. GAWD DAMN IT!!
The caves were so incredibly uninteresting, once again we had no torch and could only go so far, being able to admire the small 10th century shrine built at the entrance of one, and getting pointed out the obligatory stallectites that look like an elephants head. Jeeze, haven't seen too many of those mate.
We leave after my 15 yer old guide continues to ask me if Andrew is "Terrific for me" to which I reply, yes, he is very terrific. The guy showing Andrew around then pays off the religious fanatics, we then have to pay him, and then the
Kep and Rabbit Island
Nunny kicks back - the only female falang on the island. 6 year olds ask for payment for looking after our bike. We truly are seen as walking ATM's.
Onwards to Kep. The road is remarkably straight, flat and long apart from a masive crater that came out of nowhere and nearly brought us undone, but thanks to Richards' precision driving we escaped any harm.
The smell of the ocean was good as we rounded the promenade that hugs the water. Again, ruins of the French seaside getaway are everywhere (one of which I saw was for rent, despite missing walls, a roof and a staircase) but they are certainly rebuilding the area starting with a statue of a mermaid and a giant crab.
Stopping to admire these works of art we are offered a boat ride out to Rabbit island where we can explore the nearly deserted island, eat some dinner, admire the sunset and come back across to then ride back to Kampot. Sounded good, as Kep itself had not too much to offer.
We leave our bike with the boat drivers' aunt, and climb aboard crossing the small channel and arriving on Rabbit Island in around 20mins. Crikey, there really isn't much here. Cleared
Kep and Rabbit Island
Nunny temporarily changes position to watch the sun set from the jungle, a single house under coconut trees lies on the shore, geese, cows and pigs and a small family eating lunch. There are a couple of small tracks you can see worn into the grass, so we go to pick one, but then told to follow the boat driver where we walk through palm trees and jungle to the other side of the island and a small restaurant, some basic bungalows and a deserted beach.
"aaaahhhhhh" we sigh together, and decide to spend the night there.
After a dinner of shrimp in the infamous Kampot Pepper sauce, grilled fish and noodles with vegetables, we kick back with some warm Anchor beer and watch the sun go down. Can it get any better then this?
There is only two other guests staying who arrive later, and we are content basking in each others company, playing with the resident little puppy to stop him harrassing the ducks, and even collecting a Gecko as a short lived pet. We play cards with some of the local boys, encouragin them the leave the generator on for another hour, then head to our basic hut of a matress and a
Kep and Rabbit Island
Ricko looking young and handsome if not a little scruffy... mossie net. We fall asleep to the sound of the ocean, and hope a coconut doesn't fall on our roof.
DAY TWO
Waking up pretty early we take the boat back to the mainland, jump on our bike and return to Kampot. The roads were pretty busy as we are now entering a 4 day public holiday to celebrate the end of the 15 day buddhist festival where all Cambodians have been visiting 7 pagodas to leave blessed food for their deceased ancestors to ensure they remain happy and do not haunt them.
We pull into Kampot Guesthouse to find Justin and Leanne shaking their fists, they had been up worrying about us all night, thinking we've had a road accident or worse. Sorry guys!
Packing up quickly we jump on the 12.45pm bus the Phenom Phen (bus left at 1.30) in an effort to get to Vientnam.
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