Sihanoukville, Kampot & Kep

From Kompong Cham, we had a few nights back in Phnom Penh before travelling to Sihanoukville on the coast. It felt good to be back by the sea and be able to dip our toes in the water. We had heard varying reports of the place so we were a little intrigued to see what it was like for ourselves. It was probably the most Westernised place we had been to in Cambodia and it almost felt a bit Ibiza-ish with the number of beachside bars.
We stayed for a couple of days and did the usual exploring around the coast. Once you get away from the main touristy area, it is easy to find a deserted stretch of beach that you can have all to yourself. Most of the land along the quieter parts of beach have been divided up into lots, I doubt it will be very long before it is developed.
Despite being usually very trigger happy with the camera, we didn’t take any pictures of Sihanoukville, sorry about that!
The minibus that picked us up from Sihanoukville was overcrowded which lead to a passenger revolt!! In the end the bus company agreed to pay for a taxi for 3 lads, it later transpired that there were 7 people in their taxi!! Despite offloading some passengers, the driver and co-pilot still ended up sharing the drivers seat for the 1 and a half hour journey to Kampot – a little disconcerting!!

Sihanoukville - which one is driving?

Kampot - river view

Kampot is famous for its pepper and, apparently, at one stage, no self respecting Parisian restaurant would be without it. We hired a moped (have now progressed to semi automatics!) and set off in search of pepper plantations. Although you could have guided tours for most things, in the main we have done things under our own steam, this way we go at our own pace and, more importantly don’t spend as much money.

Kep - Kampot pepper

The plantations were off the main road and a couple of Km’s down a dusty track. Both the plantations were small scale affairs with very little to them. We toured the plants where you could see the pepper physically growing and bought some pepper to take back home with us.

Kampot - Temple in cave

From there, we rode round for quite a while trying to find a temple that is in a cave. We would never of found it if it hadn’t been for a little boy who run out of one the houses and offered to be our guide (for a fee of course). He hopped onto the moped with us – 3 people on a moped is nothing, the most we have seen is 6!

Kampot - Temple in cave guide!

He directed us to where we could park the moped where there was another lad who would look after the moped (for a fee). The temple visit ended up costing quite a bit of money as some other kids latched on as well. By the time we paid everyone off, it turned out to be an expensive day. The temple itself had literally been built inside the cave, from memory it was something like 7th century.

The following day, we booked ourselves on a tour to Bokor Hill Station, you could only go there as part of an organised tour. Bokor was built during French rule and used as a holiday retreat, due to the elevation, it was much cooler and gave a respite from the humidity and heat of the cities. After French colonial rule ended and the the war, it was abandoned – it was the scene of a stand off between Khmer Rouge and the Vietnamese army and in many places pock marks and bullet holes can be seen. However, most of the buildings remain in varying states of disrepair.

Kampot - Bokor church

Despite it being a National Park, a large hotel group has bought a swathe of land by the Hill Station and has started to build what will become a huge hotel & casino complex – get there while you can before it is totally spoilt. There is a long access road in varying states of construction from Kampot to the hill station. For some unknown reason, the tour group could not drive all the way up.

Kampot - Bokor truck ride

At the bottom, we were herded into a pick-up truck and then about half way up we were dropped off to trek through the jungle. Although the trek was only about an hour, the heat was under the trees was stifling. At the end of the trek, we were picked up again and drove the remainder. Slightly bizarre!

Kampot - Bokor palace

As we got nearer the hill station, the temperature noticeably changed, getting a lot cooler. Then it started to drizzle with rain. By the time we got there, swirling mist had also descended. With the shells of the buildings appearing and disappearing in the mist, the whole place, although quite spread out, had a real eerie feeling to it. It reminded me a lot of Dartmoor.

Kampot - Bokor palace

We explored the whole site which included a Church & a palace. The palace was a warren of stair cases, corridors, roof terraces and rooms – it seemed almost other worldly with the mist drifting in through spaces where the windows once were. We only got to see one wing of the palace before we had to rejoin the main group to go back.
Despite our grumbles, we still had to follow the same route back down, truck, trek, truck. As we trekked back down through the jungle, you could literally feel it getting hotter and hotter the the lower we got.

Our next stop was Kep, this was a leisurely 45 minute tuk tuk ride from Kampot. We intended to stay a few nights here and it was an ideal place to cross the border into Vietnam, about an hour away. Our phones kept on bleeping as, depending on where you were in Kep, you would get a welcome to Vietnam or welcome to Cambodia text message – annoying when its several times a day.
We trawled around a couple of accommodation options in Kep before settling on a place called the Star Inn, we fondly named this place Fawlty Towers! That evening, Em went to take a shower and mid way through, the electric went. This is not unusual in Cambodia but when I looked outside, I realised that electrics in other parts of the hotel were working. I went to get one of the guys from reception and something had just tripped out. On inspection though, there were lots of dubious looking unearthed wires sticking out of the wall. When we pointed this out, we were reassured it was OK. I then went to shower and exactly the same thing happened. This benefitted us though as we were moved to another room on the second floor which should have been more expensive as it had a sea view.

Kep - Promenade

Kep is a really pretty seaside town/village with a nice beach. As it was out of season, the place was pretty much deserted which suited us. We rented a moped and had a bit of a ride around. I cannot remember the reason but there are a lot of abandoned villas, similar to Bokor in varying states of disrepair. Despite being built in the 1950’s, the architecture of these places is very modern, with really clean lines, some of them occupy fantastic positions overlooking the sea. We couldn’t quite understand why some of these sites had not been developed even though, according to Lonely Planet, they were all snapped up in the 1990’s

Kep - Crabs!

Crab is very big in Kep and, on recommendation, we went to a place that serves up fresh crab with Kampot pepper. The restaurant was right on the waters edge and opened up to the sea at the back. Midway through dismembering my crab, I thought a girl had spotted something in the water as she was leaning over the rail. It was only the sound effects that give it away that she was being ill, this immediately put Em off the rest of her dinner. I continued to dissect, I had got too far to give up on my crab now!!
The next day we spent a lot of time updating the blog, we seem to have fallen a little behind on updating it recently!

Sihanoukville, Kampot & Kep

Kampot, Cambodia