It was really nice to stay put for 7 days as we did quite a bit, but again, managed to find a lot of time to read and play games. Here is our week:
Lots of reading time on the bus to Kampot.
I always love the scene from the road. This was on our bus ride to Kampot.
We're staying at this guesthouse on the right.
As I booked guest houses and hotels during our trip, I always try and get a balcony or outdoor area attached to our room. Here is the sunset from our balcony.
Kampot is right on Kampot River, conveniently enough. There are lots of floating restaurants and boats docked near the town center.
The heat is more extreme down here, and Maeve begged to return to the hotel room so that she could get relief from the A/C. Drama queen. Although, I'm not going to lie -- it does feel really good in the middle of the day. ha.
We did a paddleboard tour...
And, when I say "we" - I say that we all went on the paddleboard tour, but somehow Maeve managed to have our guide offer to tether her board to his... omg. Although, I do believe she'll go places in this world. Work smarter, not harder is a motto she likes to embrace.
Yoga. I did not attempt this as my back no longer bends like that. #old
The sunset on the river was nice to see every night.
We hired a tuktuk driver for a day (because Maeve still won't let me rent us a moped for our adventures) and we went to the nearby salt fields. It was cool to see and learn more about the process.
I can attest that it is indeed very salty.
Around the salt fields are all these structures that store all the salt.
Surprise -- this is Surprise Lake. I went swimming in it -- though refreshing, the bottom of the lake was very slimy and was super thankful for my Chacos. Maeve opted to pass on this swimming opportunity.
We passed through small communities along the way to the pepper plantation. We were on this bumpy road for quite a while, and it was the bumpiest road I think I may have ever been on. Who needs a chiropractor?
We saw the salt fields, so obviously, we needed to check out the pepper plantation. It was a very informative tour and sounds like they are doing a lot of good things for this local community as well.
We learned about black, red, white and green peppers.
After the pepper plantation, we made our way to Kep, and saw some nice farmland along the way.
In Kep they have a big crab market. This is a problem for the self proclaimed seafood hater. I wanted to go through the crab market and pick my lunch out there.. she wasn't having it, and therefore we settled on a restaurant that served more than just crab.
French fries are a nutritious lunch, right?
Then we went to the beach. All the locals lay out their mats on the side walk. It seemed like only the tourists were spread out on the sand.
The water was so nice and warm.
This was so funny to me. Do you see the slow moving traffic on other side of the median on the right? That is, in fact, where westbound traffic was supposed to drive. Nope. Our driver, and many mopeds decided the could just drive on the side with oncoming traffic... this sums up Southeast Asia traffic mentality in one example. Ha.
In Kampot they have these "firefly cruises" -- at 5:30p you board ($5/pp and you get 2 free beer as well) and then one by one the boats leave and head down the river to a specific spot where you can see the fireflies when it turns dark. We did get to see some fireflies and it was a fun experience overall.
Its nice because you catch the sunset on the way.
I wouldn't be documenting our trip adequately if I didn't include some full-on market photos. We hadn't yet gone into a market quite this big or smelly yet... so it was an education for Maeve. One that I don't think she appreciated at the time, but still really good for her to see.
It didn't take long for her to try and stop the smells from entering her nose. Ha.
We took another cooking class. This one was Khmer food. It was good -- not quite as fun for Maeve as it was group cooking and actually a lot of hard work, and sometimes hard for her to participate in it all. There was a ton of mortar and pestle pounding and coconut shredding (to make coconut milk).
Dinner on the river.
This experience was probably our most fun of the week -- we did a half day tour with Climbodia. It involved some climbing, Via Ferrata cables lines, a 30 meter abseil into a cave, and then cave exploration. Check out Maeve climbing up this wall and receiving instructions from our guide.
The surrounding views were very pretty.
She did it!
There was some pretty awesome navigating at the top of this climb using the Via Ferrata lines.
We met a new friend, Ruth, from Montreal on this climb with us. She and Maeve were two peas and pod comparing their fear of bugs and how sweaty the both were on the climb.
The abseil was awesome as you had to bring your own self down. I actually went down first (pictures out of order) and then Maeve went second. She was a little terrified at first but sorted herself out right away and got all the way down by herself. She was super proud of herself.
It was super fun as there was just a hole dropping you down to the bottom. Fun abseil.
Here is Maeve again -- she figured out the lean back and push against the wall technique.
Next was climbing and exploring the caves.
So glad we did laundry the day before. Ha.
Popcorn and book while poolside.
We decided to seek out a pool in the afternoon... Though we loved our guest house, a pool would not have been a bad idea. Ha.
I doubt you can really see this, but poor Maeve is feeding many mosquitos down here. I had just bought some tiger balm and applied it to all her bites. Not only does she get bitten, every bite swells up so she has lumps all over. Its weird because we don't really see many mosquitos, but they must come in at night to get her. We're being a bit more vigilant about the repellant now to see if that helps. She must be extra sweet. I think I have 2 bites.
Kampot is a cute little town. I really enjoyed our time here.
Today we did a river boat afternoon/sunset tour -- and it was just Maeve and I with our guide, Bjorn. It was super relaxing, and informative.
Bjorn took us to a plantation and shared lots of knowledge about farming and the fruits being grown there. We saw mangos, papayas, durian, coconut palm trees, and bananas.
This is a walnut. I tried the apple attached to it too.. it wasn't horrible, but it wasn't quite ripe yet.
Bjorn pointed out lots of other plants/flowers/fruit, as well as birds in the area. I also swam in the river... Maeve was close, but then I think saw some insect. Ha.
This is a hibiscus flower
Beer while watching the sunset.
A well timed play with the umbrella wth the sun setting. Thanks, Maeve. Ha.
We also enjoyed a spa day, because who can afford a spa day back at home. I keep telling Maeve that life will be really different when we get back at home.. do not expect to have or do whatever you want to do. We chose to go to a women's spa that operates as a vocational training center for Cambodian women -- to give them well paid jobs and training opportunities.
I can't help but think of this country as we travel around, and all that they have been through. The genocide that they experienced via the Khmer Rouge was not very long ago and I just look at people who are 45 years old-ish and older and just can't fathom what they endured. At the spa I was actually chatting with a girl from Toronto, but her dad (about 13 at the time) managed to escape with some of his family - but lost his dad and all his sisters to the Khmer Rouge. He has a gunshot wound on the back of his leg, she said. So tragic. Anyway, I have told Maeve about the war and history, as the Khmer Rouge destroyed much of Kampot and took over neighboring Kep, but opted that going to the Killing Fields (which I did the last time I was here) would be too much for her, as she can be really sensitive. I don't claim to know much about the Khmer people, but it does appear that they are very resilient and marching forward the best they can.
Okay, that is it for now...
