Kampot, Kep & Sihanoukville, Cambodia

(see map) trin: We visited Kampot intending to see Bokor National Park. Upon our arrival, we learned that park was closed. Ok. We just rode the bus for five hours to get here. Now, what are we going to do?

A friendly local girl at our hotel gave us some suggestions on what to do. Not really sights we would normally go out of our way to see but since we were there... We rented a motor scooter and set out for a day of small town sightseeing.

First stop was a local cave with a giant suspended boulder.

Some local boys followed us on their bikes and gave us a tour complete with flashlight.

Rice paddies along the way.

Mike and his bike.

We planned to stop at the Kampot Pepper Plantation but we never saw the turn off. So, we kept on to Kep, a mellow little beach town.

Mike walking back from a swim on the narrow beach. The sand was imported from Sihanoukville before the war but very little of it remains today.

I guess it works because the locals don't actually sit on the beach. Instead they rent covered spots on the sidewalk.

The thing to do in Kep is eat fresh seafood. At random we picked one of the seaside shacks and ordered some Kampot peppered crab. The crabs are kept in woven baskets in the shallow surf just outside the restaurant. A woman waded out to collect our lunch.

It was finger lickin' good. Literally.

The sky was ominous as we hopped on our scooter and started back to Kampot. The journey is about fifteen miles and the sky opened up when we still had thirteen more to go. No big deal in a car... but a motor scooter is a different story.

We were soaked to the bone, long bolts of lightening blazed across the sky and the small road narrowed as it started to flood.

To wait out the storm we pulled over at an abandon school where we sat under a wooden shelter with a stray dog and some chickens. We were laughing at ourselves. It was all we could do.

The next day we caught a bus to Sihanoukville where we rented a small basic bungalow on Seredipity Beach. We have mixed feelings about the town. While the beaches are physically beautiful, the town has a seedy undertone. We saw many older western men (usually fat and wearing a speedo) with young Cambodian "girlfriends."

There was also a constant stream of aggressive vendors on the beach. After traveling for eight months, we are no stranger to saying no to hawkers but in Sihanoukville it was overwhelming. To avoid constant harassment, we spent a lot of time on our porch where we read and hung out with the kitties.

I don't like to write bad things about places. So, I'll end by saying it was a really nice porch and we watched several amazing lighting storms from it.