Mozzeenet

Brilliant weekend!! On Saturday morning, Sonia, Ana, Mark (another youth ambassador), Hean and I headed off down the coast to Kep in Kampot province.

It was superb – a tiny beachside town with lush green forest and hills up to the water and a lovely beach where we swam for a few hours. Very deserted, barely anyone around.

It was so relaxing and the lower temp was so nice as a break from the stifling humidity of PP.

We stayed in this fantastic guest house – we were the only ones staying there. It is very French-influenced down there – the house had a great garden with frangipani trees, hence the name Champey Guesthouse (Champey = frangipani in Francais I believe). The rooms were great with beds and square mosqito nets with cane type fittings. Very open and peaceful.

On Saturday morning, we caught a taxi from PP which took about 3 hours to get to Kampot town. We had lunch there, also a nice French-inspired town with old villas by the water, fairly run down.

From Kampot, we caught motos for about 40 minutes over to Kep.

After our swim, we ordered seafood by the beach and ate it on a mat, fresh squid, prawns and fish. There was a beautiful breeze – such a novelty!

We had a beer up at the cafe by the beach when it started to rain then headed back to the guesthouse as we knew the electricity was going to go off sometime soon! We sat down and talked for a while before heading off to bed, slept fantastically except for a few interruptions – from howling dogs and a baby crying. Such is life in Cambodia!

We arranged for the moto drivers to pick us up at 8am in the morning because we initially thought we would take them up Bokor Mountain which is a national park nearby. After talking about it, we decided we would get a car because we had heard the road was very bumpy.

So, we made our way to Kampot on the motos again – enjoying the lush green scenery, many big and fat pigs running around free, cows and wooden houses built near the road. We saw sugar cane and corn plants as well as cashew trees.

At Kampot, we had breakfast and after a lot of negotiations with the businessmen of the town ie the moto drivers, we decided to take a taxi up Bokor and the driver would then take us back to PP.

So we headed off and it was a good ride up there. The car was actually quite suited to the trip as it had high wheels. A pretty bumpy, rocky road up – lush jungle on either side – the national park is home to tigers, leopards, bears, birds and many plant species – it is also prey to loggers and poachers but conservation groups are working hard to stop that kind of activity.

At the top of the mountain, there is a deserted town like a ghost town – the buildings are made of stone and covered in orange moss. We explored the old French casino which is also abandoned. It is possible to imagine it in its hey day with huge balconies and recpetion areas. Very grand and elite. The view down to the coast was magnificent.

We looked around at some of the other buildings and checked out the remote guest house where you can stay – very basic, only cooking facilities, bring your own food. It’s a fantastic place to get away from it all.

Finally, we went to see some waterfalls nearby. we climbed down the path to the bottom level and took a very refreshing shower under the falls! Very cold – to be cold is currently an unheard of phenomenon for us! We had a lot of fun.

Then for a very long drive back to PP – about another 3 hours – seemed to take ages. We were all pretty exhausted, lots of napping in the car and the odd toilet stop by the side of the road.

Feeling quite tired today but that nice relaxed tired feelings with my batteries recharged.

In other exciting news – Sonia is getting a cat today from someone leaving Cambodia! It’s a cute little black and white cat which I saw at a party on Friday night. Fun! Her name is Tooley – funny, Peter and Morag’s cat is called Tilly!

Ruth e xx
Miss Phnomer in Cambodia

Acknowledgements: Photos courtesy of the fabulous Sonia