Week 7: Cambodia’s sleepy South coast

17.10.2011 - 23.10.2011

Day 1-4 Kep
We escaped the island of Phu Quoc on the ‘Super Dong’ ferry and headed to the Cambodian border crossing, Ha Tien. This border was only recently opened to tourists. It was a bit of a wasteland which we had to walk through and again we were pretty much the only Westerners there (a running theme). On the Cambodian side there was Las Vegas Casino, where guns are apparently used frequently to settle disputes over debt. This only added to the Wild West feel of the place. One of the guards tried to charge us a $1 each to fill in a health card, a common scam that we were wise to. We politely declined and carried on walking to meet our waiting transport.

Jasmine Valley was our base for the next 4 nights. It was an eco lodge nestled in a valley on the edge of Kep National Park. Run by an Aussie and his Cambodian wife, it was the sort of place you could picture yourself running if you were in the hospitality game. Or at least aspire to. Everything was designed and built from scratch using local materials and the owners have taken great care to ensure its eco properties are maintained. The setting and facilities were great and the guy was even building Cambodia’s 1st skate ramp in the jungle! Dude!! Even though you were in a remote solar powered environment, the food was absolutely fantastic with an excellent mix of Khmer and hearty Western bush tucker, including some amazing 'pig ribs', black panther ale pie and some excellent pizzas out of its wood fired oven.

In this unspoilt valley there were only ten or so huts which were intertwined with the jungle. One nights’ accommodation was in a mountain hut on stilts which had superb views down the valley to the sea. The next few nights were on firmer ground but equally cool as we shared it with a family of geckos and the occasional bat (which wasn’t hut trained as it kept pooing on the floor). Indeed this place wasn't really for the squeamish as we came across snakes on the footpaths, a tarantula in the pool table pocket and many interesting noises from the jungle during the night.

The place had a natural spa pool which was full of Garra Rufa fish, the kind that people pay £20 for a 30mins foot massage. There were hundreds of these things willing to give you a full body ‘massage’ if you were willing. FC wasn’t though; he couldn’t stand more than 10 seconds with the critters before he was in hysterics as they were so ticklish. Away from this we spent two days walking in the National Park where we managed to find a number of camera shy monkeys as well as plenty more creepy crawlies. There were also some stunning sunsets to be had whilst braving the mozzies. There wasn’t much else to do in sleepy Kep town but we quite liked that as we really enjoyed the tranquillity of our jungle retreat.

Day 5-7 Kampot
Our next stop was the rather chilled out town of Kampot. This place was home to a fair number of expats as a result of a few NGO projects, one of these was called Epic Arts which helps deaf and disabled kids …. We had our breakfast at the Epic Arts Café where you ticked off on the menu what you wanted, a clever little idea.

We took a tour of Bokor National Park which was interesting. This was a place originally ‘created’ by the French looking for some fresh air in the hills. They even built a casino in this holiday retreat. Later King Sihanouk built his Summer Palace there which had a separate wing for all his concubines. In the 70s it became rather less glitzy as the Khmer Rouge and the Vietnamese turned it in to a war zone, with the Khmer Rouge using it as one of their last strangleholds. Lots of bullet holes can be seen in the remaining buildings as a result of this slugfest. Now the NP has been bought by an oil magnate and is privatising the whole thing. In the next few years a 3 + 5 * hotel will be completed, and not much will be left of this isolated French outpost. A bit of a shame really but money seems to talk in Cambodia with many National Parks being bought up by rich investors, cashing in on the tourist dollar. There is still an attractive waterfall in the Park, which gave us an opportunity to cool down.

At the end of the day we took a sunset boat trip along the estuary in a long tail boat with some of the people from the tour. We also had a couple of interesting characters join us as we set off; one was an American photojournalist working in Phnom Penh, the other a huge Singaporean solo traveller. The sleazy American was very drunk and was trying to hit on an English girl and making really crass comments, particularly when the Singaporean guy joined us half way down the river. This guy was massive and when he sat down everyone else had to move to the other side of the boat to stop it tipping over. No joke. He had a branded pair of shorts on called ‘Big Boy’ and the American decided to keep on calling him this much to everyone else’s embarrassment. Just before we turned around the American decided he was going for a swim and jumped off the boat, to be fair if he hadn’t of jumped everyone was queuing up to push him and it was a shame the skipper waited around for a minute instead of leaving him in water. But hey, it made for an eventful ride and we really enjoyed our sunset cocktails laughing at the events of the day.

We then had a chilled out Sunday that consisted of wandering around the town, watching the rugby world cup final, which we missed the last 15 minutes of due to a thunderstorm and then watching the Utd v City game...less said the better. Shame the thunderstorm didn’t continue during the footy, fuzzy grey would have beaten that all day long!!

Craic of the week:
Definitely watching the sleazy American (about 60+) trying to chat up the English girl (30)...
Sleazy American: “You have a lovely smile”
Poor English girl: “Er Thanks”
Sleazy American: “Wanna go for a drink tonight?”
Poor English girl: “Er I need to phone my mother later”
… Great lines but he bombed as much as he did when he belly flopped into the water!!

Learning of the week:
Kampot pepper is world renowned and is commonly imported by French chefs.

Film/Soundtrack reference of the week:
With all the animal life in our jungle accommodation it felt a little like this, especially with all the bat guano in our room.

Dish of the week:
Crab with green Kampot pepper