5 days in Phnom Penh was enough. After that we didn't really find much more to do than walking the streets, saying; "no need for tuk-tuk now" to yet another driver or turn down about 10 young persons trying to sell us the "Lonely Planet Cambodia" for 5 dollars.
We could sit at the riverfront with all the other tourists and watch the heavy overloaded boats going north along the Tonle Sap river -it is still a mystery to me how they could keep floating- but at the end of the day it was only repetition.
A quick look at the map and we discovered the south east part of the country at the Bay of Thailand. Down there there is the major beach resort town of Sihanoukville, but also a town called; Kampot. We decided to go there and made the arrangements.
The 24th in the morning we laft Phnom Penh and drove out of the town headding south of the National Highway 3.
At the beginning the road was fine, but after about 30 kilometers away from the capitol it turned into a dust road, and stayed like that all the 150 kilometers to Kampot. It was some drive we were doing, and I am happy that the driver was experienced and used to the Cambodian traffic.
Along the dust roads there was several towns and villages, and also along the road people had put up stalls, where they were trying to sell whatever goods the had or produced. Because of the dirt road, the first maybe three meters beside the road into the land was covered in thick red dust, so I can only imagine how the meat or fruit they were selling would look like, as it was displayed just at the side of the road, not to mention their lungs and the lungs and stomaches of their cows, who was also feeding on the fields just along the road.
After 3 hours we arrived in the town Kampot, we were both hungry and thirsty, so after getting a roof for the night at a guest house a bit out of town, we walked into the city to get familiar with this our new home for the next days.
What we found was a really pleasant sleepy little town, with some bars and restaurants, some hotels and guest houses and some travel and trip organizers, but all very quiet and laid back. There was absolutely no hassle here. At the very nice riverfront we found some bars, and one particular one caught our eye. It was called "the Rusty Keyhole" and looked a bit improvised with it's sofas on the pavement in front of the house. Even they had sunscreens sat up, it was way to hot to sit outside, so after trying to move sofas and sunscreens 3 times we ended up inside the little pub.
Cold Cambodian beer arrived and food was ordered from the menu, which was a mix of European and typical Khmer (Cambodian) food. A young Cambodian woman with a very British accent helped in her very friendly -yet relaxed- manner. The food was excellent, so was the service and the whole atmosphere of the place.
After leaving the place and walking further up the riverfront, we were first approached by a guy from a trip organizer, asking if we knew what to do the next day, or if we wanted to join him on his sunset cruise on the river later this afternoon. "We've just arrived and want to explore a bit more before we decide, thank you".
Just 50 meters further we were again approached by a man. He came from his tuk-tuk from the other side of the street.
"Hallooo; wanna do a tuk tuk trip to the country side. I show you salt fields, pepper plantation, cave with temple and Kep. One day, only 20 dollar! for both of you".
Well, it was a good offer and the guy was very friendly, so we had a look at his offer which indeed sounded tempting.
"Yes that is fine we can do this tomorrow, sounds good!"
"Promise?" The man looked at us with big asking eyes.
That is the thing with the Khmer people, a promise is a promise and then you can relay on them, and they want the same.
So we promised him that he could pick us upo at 8 the next morning outside our guesthouse, and he would take us arround the whole day in his tuk-tuk, for 20 dollars!
With all that organized, we went onto more exploration of this fabulous little town; Kampot.
Like always,what you are about to read is not really breaking news stuff or have no actuality at all, but is some 2 or so week old. Anyway it could nicely continue this kind of series or season I've kind of started, with a song of the day.
bands has a gig some where, she always send out an e-mail to advertise where and when. So we joined in with other colleagues to go to Wan Chai -the red light district of Hong Kong- to find this place called: "Rock school" where she performed in an event called: "Underground, Girls with guitars".
