Kampot

After a busy and heavy few days in Phnom Pen, we were looking forward to getting out into the Cambodian countryside for some relaxation and beautiful scenery. All started well when we arrived and found ourselves a $5 room in a friendly guesthouse on a quiet leafy street. A welcome change from the box in the capital! By early evening we were well settled in the bar with some good Khmer food and beer and some great company, most of which was ex-pats rather than tourists which made a nice change.
We hired a motorbike for 2 days, which was a good way to see the area around the town itself, which is really the main attraction of this area. The first day on the motorbike started out well - Kev soon got used to his first ride with gears rather than automatic and we headed out towards a cave we had read about. As we pulled up outside the cave, we were greeted by a group of kids anxious to show us around the cave. For some reason, the fact that this cave didn't really seem to have been set up as a tourist attraction, despite being in all the guidebooks, never really occurred to us and we happily set off into the dark depths with a group of guides averaging about 12 years old. And one torch. Still, it was pretty interesting to see and certainly made for a different experience! It wasn't until 2 days later that we actually realised we'd gone to the wrong cave... At least we never came across any snakes! The kids tried their hardest to claim a $5 fee for their services but had to make do with considerably less.
After this we drove to see a Buddhist temple, then drove past Kep beach and another 20km or so into the countryside. It was a really picturesque journey, until ominous dark clouds began to appear and we realised the monsoson was coming. At this point we had two choices - all the way back and hope we made it before the rain, or keep going and find somewhere to shelter when it did. We chose to keep going (possible unwisely) and, sure enough, it began. We found a small 'restaurant'at the side of the road and drank coffee and ate noodles and played cards until we felt we couldn't really stay much longer and the rain was easing a little. Unfortunately the rain didn't seem to have eased at all once we actually got moving and within 5 minutes Kev was soaked to the skin. I was really quite dry what with having him to shield me! Once we made it back to Kampot, we were ready for a hot shower (shame we never had hot water then!) and another coffee.
The next day we kept hold of the motorbike, but didn't get out on it until lunchtime as we had stayed up chatting pretty late and so had a slow start to the day. Once we did get out we made it a short journey along the river and to a restaurant for lunch. Hammocks in the guesthouse garden were too tempting and we spent the rest of the day reading and generally relaxing.
By this point we felt we really needed some exercise, so the following morning we borrowed bikes from the guesthouse and took off down some small tracks into the villages. The houses in this area are great, as many of them stand on stilts, with rooms underneath the house as well. We cycled past paddy fields and waved to children along the way. It was really lovely, if a little hot and sweaty! Towrads the end of the ride, I realised that my back wheel was completely flat and was seriously struggling to keep pedalling. I was debating whether to do anything about it or struggle back when a little boy came up to me and mimed pumping a wheel, then pointed towards a group of houses. We followed and we soon surrounded by a large group of children and a man who got out his kit to pump up the tire. Sadly, it turned out to be a puncture which initially had us panicking as we hadn't brought much money with us and ahd no idea how much it was goingt o cost to repair. Language barriers prevented us from either finding out or stopping the repairs so we sat for about half an hour talking to the children as the puncture was fixed. As it turned out it cost next to nothing, and what it did cost was immediately handed out by the man to his children. This puncture turned out to be one of my favourite experinces in Cambodia so far!
Once we got back from out bike ride we had a late lunch, which we had been excited about ever since we arrived. The owner of our guesthouse was a chef back in England and promised us that his Sunday Roast was fantastic. It really was. Roast beef, yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes, red cabbage, cauliflower cheese, carrot, beans, homemade gravy, horseradish sauce... The food in Asia has been great, but that roast dinner was a taste of home! It was so big that we couldn't even eat dinner, although we did pick at a couple of other poeples leftovers during the evening... Kampot has been such a great place to visit - once of the few places we've been that we could both picture living. For once we spent far more time with people who had moved there than other backpackers and got a real sense of what every day life was like. By the time we left we had a plan in place for my very own school (built by Kev). Anyone want to come and teach for me?