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Published: March 13th 2009
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We originally planned to fly back to mainland Vietnam from Phu Quoc but all the flights were full. Lee is rubbish on boats so we wanted to avoid the sea but we had no other option. Our only way was a 2 hour ferry from the port to Rach Gia (south) or Ha Tien (more towards the Cambodia border), so we booked a ticket and headed to the port.
When our minibus dropped us off outside a huge, hi tech speedboat, which looked super steady on the water Lee gave a huge sigh of relief, only to be told that wasn't our boat, ours was the little wave grabber one behind. To be fair it was a good trip. It took just over an hour and with air conditioning, hip moving local music and a friendly crew before we knew it we were back on dry land and to customary moto drivers asking us 'where you from' 'where you going' 'whats your name' and all the usual tactics.
Ha Tien is only 10 minutes from the Cambodian border and after fighting away the drivers we decided we liked the town enough to warrant a one night stay. The Ha
Tien/Prek Chak border has only been open for just over a year so tourists are still a novelty to the locals. After being on the tourist trail all the way down Vietnam it was nice to be smiled at by strangers again, along with the usual stares. Its actually quite funny, as back home if someone stares at you, and you look back they quickly look away. Here when people stare, if you look back they stare at you even longer!
After an uneventful evening (apart from carefully recruiting our moto driver for the next day border crossing) we were up early, checked out, had brekkie, and prepared ourselves for the bumpy trip over the border. The road between Prek Chak (the border) and Kep is more like a dirt track. The whole journey was a series of rib crunching, back twisting, knee jerking monouvers and siting on the back of a motorbike for 2 hours, but was fun. Credit to our two drivers, they were experts and judging by some of the skills they showed they had definitely done this trip before.
The border crossing went well. Only 1 bribe was asked for (seemed an apt introduction
to a country full of corruption - more later) we since have been told that $2 bribe was mild and on other borders people are made to pay an extra $20 to the corrupt officials. Although in the back of both of our minds was this the right thing to do??.. crossing into Cambodia that is. We had originally planned the country into our travel plans but after speaking to other travelers and hearing positive stuff about the place we decided to give it a go. If we didn't like it we could always jump on a plane and get out.
We arrived in Kep around Midday and the climate immediately seemed a lot closer than Phu Quoc. Even being stretched out on a beach 48 hours ago seemed cooler. We asked to be dropped of at the bottom of the hill. Kep is split into 2 parts. The beachfront (its small) and the hill. Being stuck in the jungle in a hut seemed like the perfect tonic after our ride, and the thought of some recuperating was nice.
After dropping the bags off, Lee went searching up a VERY steep hill into the jungle and found some
accommodation which turned out to be an excellent choice !!! (Guess who's writing this!!) Vanna bungalows is set about 100 metes up and surrounded by lush jungle. Our hut had a balcony with a hammock and a view right over the ocean (see pics) along with a rather strange life size picture of Brooke Sheilds stuck on the wall.
Our first day was spent sat in the hammock staring at the view. Really it was that amazing. To the right was a mist coming over the Cambodian mountains, and land jutting out into the ocean, the right was close lush forest and in the middle you could see for miles into the ocean, a few islands in the background.
We managed to drag ourselves away the next morning. We headed for the sea front and a monk explained why there was a huge statue of a naked woman on the dock! Apparently during the war, men went away for long periods and wife's waited for years at a time for the men to return. The villagers had erected the statue to pay respect to the war widows. We walked around the curling shape of the bay and came
across the local crab market where villagers pick crabs from the water in mass volumes, put them in a basket and some serious wall street trading takes place. We gave up trying to take some photos, after being barged out the way a few times by potential buyers.
Cambodia is like an oven. After walking a little more and seeing our flimsy flip flops start to melt into the scorching tarmac, sweat running down our backs, and some serious dehydration going on we headed back. After reaching our balcony and taking a breather we were quite surprised to hear some strange noises from our neighbors room only to realize they had forgot to close the window before... getting jiggy with it... we soon headed back out!
One other event in Kep was our visit to the Reil bar. Riel is the local currency in Cambodia and the bar was in complete support of the local currency, we were a little worried when the notice said that you could only pay in Reil. As we had just arrived, we only had dollars... but that was fine!??? Our first local beer in Cambodia (Angkor Beer) and a few jugs later
we ended up chatting away with the friendly owner Marcel. He told us some frightening statistics that around 30% of kids get sexually abused by their own family, and child prostitution in Cambodia was rife. Marcel did share some other happy stories about Cambodia, he was a great host and we thoroughly enjoyed his happy hours!
Our next stop is Kampot 40 minutes down the road, We have been told that Kep isn't the REAL Cambodia, more like a little fairy town that has amazing views and great crabs. Kampot is home to the world famous pepper is used by Michelin star chefs all over the world and tastes rather nice..... roll on the pepper.. here we come.
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