We checked out of the You Khin House, www.youkhinhouse.com , the only resident westerner, a young french guy had handled our travel arrangements by Coach to Kampot, he explained that we would be collected at 9.30am on our day of departure. That morning he was no where to be found, also the transfer was not there, a tuk tuk got us to the Bus Station at the central Market just in time. The ticket even had allotted seats, just ike an airline, we also had a bus driver, a co driver and a cabin attendant, also just like an airline. The coach was air conditioned to just above freezing and the entertainment was Cambodian soap opera's and cambodian Karaoke at the maximum volume. For us it was irritating but for the Camobodians on board it was hilarious, their laughter was to be raucous for the next 4 hours. But our departure was not to be on time, a pommie passenger had not arrived and his pommie mate objected to our leaving. After a half hour of to and froing we were off with the PB sitting well to the back.
The coach took us through the crowded Phnom Penh streets, it seemed to be more interesting and squalid as we went through the outer suburbs, mayhem was the only way we could describe the traffic chaos. Once out of the city we were surprised that we actually built up speed and could average around 60 kph, it was to be a smooth trip with an excellent driver who did not have a death wish.
With a half hour late start, we experienced another half hour stop by the Police. The king was coming so all traffic was stopped and with all the local school kids and locals we had to wait and wait and wait so that we could return his wave as his 50 vehicle convoy passed us.
After about 4.5 hours on the road we arrived intact at Kampot. Kampot is an old french colonial town on the banks of a river near the Cambodian coast. A mass of tuk tuk drivers greeted us as we stepped off of the bus, bags were being grabbed and we managed to retain our own and move away from the frenzied crowd. A shy looking guy was standing by next to his Tuk Tuk and in a quiet voice asked us the never ending question '"tuk tuk"". We liked the look of him and approached him, next was "where are you from and where are you going."" We had him take us to our booked guesthouse Mea Culpa, http://meaculpakampot.com/
He said it was a 200 metre ride and agreed on a dollar, it turned out to be a kilometre and was still a dollar. Our tuk tuk guy offered his services to tour the area and we said that we would think about it. Mea Culpa was what we expected, very relaxing and laid back, run by an Irishman who had a singing voice. The building was a large and roomy of the french colonial style, the garden restaurant was tranquil and a very enjoyable place to sit and reflect.
That afternoon we took the complementary pushbikes for a spin around town, wide spacious roads and very little traffic and traffic rules. My bike had wonky pedals, Hilde who is a much more experienced rider took it off my hands.
Hilde on her bike in the centre of Kampot, like Australia they like big things in Cambodia, here is a Duran.
The town was interesting, many French colonial type buildings all in need of tender loving care, some parts of the town were infested with squalor. One interesting thing that we had observed that day were the impromptu volleyball courts set up all over the country side, we came across a game in progress at Kampot, they played very well, even though the players did not have that much height, they could jump.
That night we ran into our Tuk Tuk guy from earlier that day, we asked him for a half day ride around the area for $10, he agreed to pick us up at 9.30am. True to his word he was there right on the dot. He took us across the river to the local temple and a study centre for local monks.
Hilde and Tuk Tuk at the temple ![]()
Tuk Tuk Getting some fuel.
The fuel system is strange, they have large modern clean service stations all over the place, but locals only seem to buy their fuel from small roadside stands in soft drink bottles. I saw guys in vehicles collecting 20 litre drums from the service stations and delivering them to the road side stands. The fuel is transferred to the bottle and straight into the tank. Petrol costs around USD 1.50 a litre, compare that to the average daily earnings of USD$5, it makes up a great part of their living costs. The Phnom Penh times report on a reed export industry quoted a female sorter earning $1.75 per 8 hour day. Makes us feel very humble.
Our guide took us to a Cambodian park/picnic/resort area for locals, this is where we saw the Buddha above. We saw children playing games with their thongs, sliding them on the tiled area alongside the Buddha, closest to the stone wins, took us back to our childhood, playing games with whatever was at hand, fond memories.
The next morning we arranged for our tuk tuk guy to collect us for the trip to Kep, around 30 kilometres, we told him we wanted to go to Jasmine Valley eco Guesthouse. http://jasminevalley.com/ he arrived with another Tuk Tuk in tow and explained that there was a large hill and that his tuk tuk could not manage it, he brought a friend who had a super Tuk Tuk, it had a large motor bike instead of a scooter pulling us. The 45 minute ride was interesting, more volleyball, courts and another volleyball game in motion.
Our arrival in Kep and the ride up to the Guesthouse was adventurous to say the least. The last hill had us walking the last 200 metre as the supper tuk tuk could not make it.
The Jasmine valley guesthouse was amazing, beautiful open side buildings of mud brick (local mud) timber (local) and reed walls and thatched roofs on the cabins and buildings. All situated in the Cambodian jungle sitting on the side of a steep hill looking towards the ocean. Jungle insects and snakes are part of the package. (we only saw two snakes in the common area. Both harmless, one a whip snake and the other a reed snake. Our mud brick cabin was number 4, it had a spacious bedroom, bathroom, balcony and all power was from its own solar system on the roof, basically if we ran it down with gadgets we would have no lights. We managed to maintain full power for our entire three night stay.
That's it for this post, we need to head to the airport for our fright (I mean flight) to Laos.
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