Koh Kong and the Cardamoms

7th December 2017
Aspara Kampot City Hotel, Kampot
Everything has stopped.  It's too hot.

The ride from Koh Kong took us along Highway 48, through the very beautiful Koh Kong Corridor, also known as the South Cardamom Forest.  It's probably the longest stretch of untouched (by palm oil production) jungle we've come across in SE Asia, apart from the East West highway in Malaysia, where for 100kms or so on the eastern side the jungle is (was, in 2009) pristine.

South Cardamom Forest

The road undulates and then climbs up and back down to waterfalls at Tatai.  Directly out of the village there is a fairly steep climb, which everyone had warned us about, but it turned out not to be that steep at all and it's all of 3 kms.  Traffic was light at this point, mostly motorbikes and cars, a few trucks but perfectly doable.  We met 2 Dutch cyclists, brothers, on the road, and they had just come from Trapeung Rung, they recommended asking the police about homestays when we arrived at the checkpoint. 

Ooh, err ...... we weren't lucky enough to see any

We had found homestays on the web, several of which were on Booking.com or another site called Priceline, which I'd never heard of, and we found one we really liked the look of.  We asked around about the homestay but nobody knew where it was, and we simply couldn't work out it's whereabouts given the numerous alleyways and lack of roads.  So after lunch at a local hostelry we set off to ask at the police checkpoint.  Mistake number 1.  We showed the name of the homestay to the officer who could speak a little English, he explained to another officer what we wanted and he immediately got on the phone.  'Sit down' they said.  Fifteen minutes later, just at the point we were wondering what on earth was going on, a young man on a scooter turned up.  He is not, it turns out, from the homestay we asked for at all, but quite clearly a tout.  Of course he wanted to take us to somewhere that did eco tours, was 'only' $8 a night and very friendly.  When I said we wanted to go to THAT particular homestay they said 'no more'.  Oh yes, that old ruse.  So now we have a situation where the police have a tout working for them and no doubt everyone is getting some kind of kickback. 

It is now the hottest part of the day and the sun has decided to come out with a vengeance.  We are hot, tired and in desperate need of a shower and cold beer.  So we give in and go with the tout, not before telling him that a) we are not paying $8 (the going rate is $5) and b) if we don't like it we won't be staying at all.  The room was OK.  The bathroom had a squat loo and a mandi (you bathe by swishing cold water from a large receptacle).  It didn't look anywhere near as nice as the one we would have liked to go to, but hey ....... We got the room for $5 but I wonder how much the landlady received, given all the hassle and work that goes with renting a room to foreigners, after the police and tout had their cut. 

Sunset at Trapeung Rung

The next day we come down out of the jungle and reach Botum Sakor.  It was still early so we ate and then carried on to Sre Ambel.  About 10kms from our destination we happened upon 3 more cyclists, 2 French and 1 Dutch.  After a long chat and exchange of details, the French were going in the direction we had just come, but Jack was heading our way so we set off together.  We arrived in Sre Ambel just as school was finishing and suddenly we were engulfed by children on bicycles, or foot, all shouting 'hello'.  The next thing I was being taken by a young lady to 'her guesthouse' while Jack had been accosted by a gentleman who wanted to show him his place.  We ended up staying at different guesthouses (I think Jack's was better than ours but I couldn't bear to say 'no' to the girl who had escorted me through the village) but we met up later and ate at the restaurant also belonging to the young lady.

On the road to Sre Ambel

We said our goodbyes as Jack was heading towards Phnom Penh, while we were cutting off south to Kampot and Kep.  However, next morning, just as we're about to take the turning for Kampot, along comes Jack, so we stopped and took a farewell photograph.

By now Highway 48 is full of traffic, mostly trucks.  Sections of the road are being re-graded so the rain from the night before was by now quite muddy, bright red mud!  We mostly cycle on the asphalt lane to the side of the highway, sometimes being forced off by the trucks.  Twice more that day we bumped into cyclists, one from Switzerland and one from Russia.  In case you're counting, that's 7 in 2 days!

At Veal Renh we find a pleasant, new (in fact they are still building the top floor) Chinese-run hotel for $10, although the room has a distinct cabbage odour emanating from the bathroom.  So out comes my trusty disinfectant spray purchased in Germany as an antidote to smelly shoes but we have since discovered has a whole plethora of uses, and the cabbage smell miraculously disappears, for all of an hour.  That evening we are reminded of the trials and tribulations of shopping for half decent food when on the backroads of countries like Cambodia.  Snacks and whisky abound, but what we're looking for is something that will go with peanut butter or just some nice biscuits will do.  We find a little cake shop which has to suffice, and actually, the swissroll-like affair was quite nice.

Children playing and one of them being a 'cheeky chappy'

Whooah!

The traffic lessens and we are seeing rice paddies, water buffalo and freshly harvested rice is drying on mats in the intense heat.  As we get closer to Kampot there are more and more stalls selling food and other commodities.  It's the dry season and that means weddings, hence the competitions being run by beer companies to win a honeymoon and $3,000 spending money.  Wedding venues are popping up all along the side of the road.

Drying rice, praying it doesn't rain

Could have done with a dip myself at this point!

We arrive in Kampot at 1130 and head straight for one of the 'traveller' cafes for breakfast.  BW has the full monty and I have fruit salad with yogurt; we both have a banana milkshake.  We find the hotel and after a cold can of Angkor beer each virtually pass out in the heat.  Around 4pm, when the sun has waned, we wander around this lovely old town.  I think we're going to like it here in Kampot.

Kampot

Laters