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Published: August 7th 2013
Mountain View
Stop by for a quick lunch and wind up relaxing by the river for two hours. How could you not enjoy the view for a while?Thank you to everybody for all your support and comments about Ikelos. It reminds me how many people's lives he touched. I really appreciate them.
So I am on the move again. I am just trying to get out of my house and find a little peace. It is rough being in my house all alone. I keep expecting to open a door and Ikelos and see Ikelos laying down in a room or on the sofa or something. I knew that I had to get out of there. So I am wandering again. For me wandering is good for the soul. It always makes me feel better. I guess maybe I like to run from problems or something. I just know that wandering allows me to process the fact the he is gone slowly. I can take it in a little bit at a time instead of such a major shock all at once. I go through periods of happiness and sadness, but traveling with my friends is helping to me to smile more. They are also very supportive. They only got to meet Ikelos once but they knew he was special to me. When I am
Full Belly Full Hammock
Man cracking crab was hard work. Time for a quick nap.
getting sad or feeling bad they do a good job of lifting my spirits. They remind how good of a life he had and how I took him all around the world. Its kind of funny. They were telling me yesterday that they have always wanted to go see the mountains in Utah and the Grand Canyon. I pulled out my phone and showed them some photos of Ikelos in front of the mountains in Utah and they reminded me again how lucky he was to get to have this trip at the end. He got to see more of the world than most people and he spent so much time with me at the end.
Anyways to the good, happy stuff. Lets talk about some travels. Its weird my Russian neighbors have not been anywhere in Cambodia except Sihanoukville (the town we live in). They arrived in Phnom Penh in the morning and immediately took a bus down to Sihanoukville. When I mentioned to them that I wanted to get out of town for a couple of days, they were all for it. They have been having a great time so far and they are really
Russian Neighbors
They are loving their first trip out of Sihanoukville! enjoying Cambodia. They just finished living in China for 5 years and they find it very relaxing here.
Our first destination was Kep; famous for its crab market, it is a great destination to go and stuff yourself full of seafood. I have been there twice before so I knew the deal. Almost anyways, I am quite sure both times I drive there before they had a great little road. Since I drove a motorcycle before I know I would have remembered the road if it had been the same. Now they have ripped it up (planning on building a bigger road I think) and then stopped working on it for the rainy season. Now it is a river of red mud that makes the last 20km take over an hour. I am more and more impressed with my little jeep everyday. It is slowly falling apart but then engine keeps going and it never got stuck. We saw some people who did. Go to the crab market and buy some fresh, tasty crab. The bigger and more active the better. They pull the cages right out of the ocean for you and you can pick your
Greenhouse Lunch
This view is from the Greenhouse Guesthouse where we had lunch. About 5km outside of Kep. crab. Only $2.50 per pound. Another $0.25 per ound to cook it for you. Then after we got our crab, shrimp, fish, squid, and sauce we drove around to one of the little huts on the beach. You can either rent them for $5 or if you buy 2 dishes of food from them then it is free. So we ordered some friend rice and soup to go with our seafood. We then proceed to spend the next 3 or 4 hours cracking crab, swinging in hammocks, and looking at the ocean. A great way to spend the day. After we finished we decided to go to one of the waterfront restaurants for a snack and a little after dinner drink. Well, they don't drink, so they had coffee and I had a glass of wine. Russians that don't drink. Weird huh? It was just a really peaceful and relaxing day.
The following morning we had an early breakfast on the oceanfront again. I was greeted with one of my favorite views that I had forgot about. There is a beautiful little island not too far off the shore in Kep. I have looked at it many
times and to me it just looks like the perfect island. It is ringed the entire way around by a beautiful white sand beach. It is small enough and probably relatively affordable enough that you could buy it and build a house on it. It is close enough to the mainland that it wouldn't be too hard to get your supplies. It is big enough to have some lush vegetation, maybe even some fruit trees. I am not sure because I have never been there. It is not a destination island. I bet you could probably find a local fisherman and pay him to take you there. I may actually do that one day. It would be terrible to ruin the fantasy though, so maybe just better to keep looking at in the distance and pretending it is paradise. I one time spent a week just reading a book and staring at that island every day from my hammock. Seeing the island again really brought a big smile to my face. I think it truly is my favorite island, even though I have never been there.
After breakfast we went back to out hotel with the idea
Battered and Bruised
The little jeep has been performing well. It might be slowly falling apart and leaking water but it keeps going. of checking out and heading back towards Kampot, but the day was so nice and the pool just looked so inviting........
Okay so a couple of hours later we were back on track. We had checked out of the hotel and were back on the red river of mud heading to Kampot. So Kampot is known for its pepper, old colonial french buildings, and its food. They have some great restaurants here that just do some fantastic steaks. Our first stop was a place called the Greenhouse, based on a recommendation from a nice couple we met in Kep. It is a bit out of town, but that is its charm. It has a beautiful setting on the Mekong River with Bokor Mountain in the background. Bokor is actually our destination today but I'll get to that later. We had a great lunch made better by the atmosphere we were eating in rather than the food itself which was just ehhh. They did have great coffee though and it was definitely to enjoy a cup on the patio watching the river flow by. There was also a little puppy there running around. It's pretty funny. I picked
Rubbing for a Genie
There is a license plate underneath all that mud somewhere. him and was holding him kind of petting him and you can tell he is either not used to being held that much or just doesn't like it that much. He kept trying to growl and act tough. Eventually I put him down and he ran outside. Two minutes later he comes walking back in chewing on my sandal. It was hilarious. Smart little bugger. I guess he recognized my smell already.
We would have stayed at one of the rather spartan bungalows at Greenhouse but unfortunately there were full. So we drove back in to town and stayed at this beautiful place that I have stayed at before. We got the rooms for $17 a night and they are luxurious. Staying in these two hotels has made me realize that my bed at home is just not comfortable. Neither are my sheets or pillows. I have to go looking for some good stuff to sleep on. It certainly makes for a nicer sleep. In the evening we went for a walk around town and happened to walk by a french restaurant that the couple had also recommended to us. We had quite enjoyed their first recommendation
so, even though it seemed priced a little high, we decided to give it a shot. The dinner was amazing and even though it seemed expensive at first they give you some extras that are unexpected. The menu just has four or five items on it each day. Today their was a seafood platter, tiger shrimp, chicken or pork provencal, and of course steak with the famous Kampot pepper and cream sauce. I already knew I was going to be having a steak for dinner so that was my choice. My friends are vegetarian (or kind of anyways they eat seafood) so Dima had the seafood platter and Alla asked for a vegetarian plate and the chef was happy to oblige. The french chef came to out table for a bit to talk about the food to make sure Alla would be happy with her vegetarian dish and asked the temperature for my steak. I think that may have been the first time in Cambodia somebody asked me what temperature I wanted my steak to be. A plate of different kinds of bruschetta was brought to our table. I had a glass of white wine to start with the appetizer
and then a nice glass of merlot to go with my steak. After the meal a digestif was brought out to the table; some kind of cinnamon brandy or something. Some nice little extras you know. Makes it feel more like a real French dining experience. Well as I mentioned before my Russian friends don't drink, so that meant three digestifs for me. I bet my food was digested real well that night.
Its a good thing we had decided to walk that night because I certainly had a great little buzz walking along the river on the way home. Kampot is just a really relaxing and peaceful town. I think the best description of this little weekend trip would be relaxing and peaceful. It does not feel like one of my usual haphazard adventures. Just one pleasant meal or day after the other. Taking the car instead of a motorcycle certainly gives it a different feel. I know this area and these places pretty well. I speak some of the language and can identify a lot of the snacks and drinks offered along the side of the road. Actually my friends have been quite impressed with my Khmer
Into the Mountains
The road from Greenhouse Guesthouse. speaking ability. They have commented a couple of times on how I am really speaking Khmer and the people seem to understand me without any trouble. So my accent must not be too bad despite what Socheata and Busain like to tell me. The only problem is once the people hear me speaking a little Khmer they think I am like completely fluent and they just bust out with long conversations really fast and I always have to remind them to speak slowly and that I have only studied Khmer for 3 weeks. So eventually we always hit an inevitable wall where conversation can go no deeper. I can't wait to speak and understand more Khmer.
Even though I have been to this area twice before, I have never been to the famous Bokor Mountain. I have been here and friends have gone there while I decided to travel a different way, but I have just never been there. I probably should have went back in 2006 since they have built a new casino there now and I hear it ruined the atmosphere a bit. It is a decent sized mountain and it is usually cloudy up there. I
think you are supposed to go early and there are old ruined french colonial era buildings. Chuck went there and told me it had a really cool and creepy feel. Unfortunately with the addition of the new casino it might have ruined that. Additionally we are not going there that early (we are doing everything at a relaxing pace) and have decided to have breakfast on the river first and will probably get to Bokor around 11:00. Who cares. If it isn't cloudy and spooky, the afternoon sunshine will the make the ocean vistas that much more beautiful. There is always a silver lining.
There will be more photos of this leg of the journey added in the next blog once I get them from my friends' camera.
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AyA
non-member comment
Hey Skinny bitch! I miss you Bong Samlunch!!