Blogs from Kampot, South, Cambodia, Asia - page 19

Arrived in a small town east of Sihanoukville called Kampot. This place until recent years was a stronghold for the Khmer Rouge; they lived up in the hills surrounding the town. In fact as recently as 1994, three backpackers were kidnapped en route from Sihanoukville by the Khmer Rouge and later executed. Nowadays it is just another quiet Cambodian town. It almost has a bit of a creepy feel to it considering its recent history. There are no ATMs, no way of getting money, no real supermarket and everything shuts up shop at about 10pm so there is zero nightlife. Walking around the place you see very few Western faces. The locals are all very friendly. When you first make eye contact they look at you as if to say ‘what the hell are you doing ... read more

Well, Cambodia has been a mesmerising place thus far. We have been fortunate enough to have met some amazing locals and relished the chance to chill out on some beaches. We arrived in Sihanoukville, bussed in from Phnom Penh, on a glorious sunny day. Sihanoukville, Cambodia's "Super Coastal" town has been good to us. We have eaten deep fried prawns from local vendors on the beach, enjoyed the sea - which is almost the same temperature as a luke warm cup of tea - watched the sun set over the Gulf of Thailand, and even enjoyed a game with a young Scrabble "genius". We left Sihanoukville on the 11th May, and booked ourselves on a day tour to explore a local mountain called Bokor, just outside of our present home, Kampot. Bokor is an old French ... read more

After a few days in Sihanoukville I was ready for the more laid back side of Cambodia so I headed for Kampot, about 2 hours east of Sihanoukville. The town is set on a river and has many old french colonial buildings so it has a very neat atmosphere - super laid back. I rented a bike for the afternoon the first day to explore. It took me about 10 minutes to see everything! But it was really nice along the river so I just relaxed in a cafe and organized a trip to visit Bokor Hill Station for the next day. To get to the top of Bokor Hill (more like mountain!), it's a really bumpy 2 hour ride! Myself, two Belgian women and a swiss girl (who I'm now travelling with) were in the ... read more

Hello... so it's been a while... and we are no longer in Cambodia... but we're gonna rewind time a bit and do a blog for it anyways! PHNOM PENH... wow. Twas a beautiful city, perhaps one of the prettiest we've seen yet. After getting off the bus, we were immediately confronted by an overwhelming crowd of tuktuk drivers, banging on the windows of our bus... so we felt like celebrities! Our guesthouse was cool.. had a little garden and everything. So yeah, Phnom Penh was a rad place. On the water, with a ton of ritzy-looking, but affordable restaurants... lots of gorgeous wats, a big park, where all the Cambodians go to hang out and picnic at night, and an enourrrrmous royal palace! Rad! Surprisingly, Phnom Penh had every Western amenity you could ever want... so, ... read more

Kampot is a quiet little town by the river with the French colonial thing more apparent than most places. Promenades with very French lamp posts etc. The French are still trying hard to keep their language in the second language spot for this country but they've completely failed and most restaurant owners struggle to read their own menus whilst speaking English just fine. Anyway, we decided to go on a day trip to the nearby Bokor Hill Station, a big French resort in it's day on top of the highest mountain in the area with views across miles of coastline all the way to Vietnam. Well... views of a lot of whiteness if the mountain is shrouded in thick fog as it was for us. Still we got to see the ruins looking nice and spooky ... read more