Cambodia: Kampot & Phnom Penh

The river and it's curious decorations

Krong Kampot is a little town at the south western part of the country, it doesn't really offer that much to see other than a few viewing points and the Praek Tuek Chhu river, but it often serves as a base city to explore the vast surroundings.

But the reason of my visit is a different one. Due to the lack of time that I have left in Cambodia (2 days) I can’t really visit one of the islands or even Sihanoukville for that matter. On the other hand, I do know that Paul is in Kampot and that he is heading towards the capital the next day. Something that fits perfectly into my plans. So I decided to meet Paul in Kampot, explore the little town and proceed to Phnom Penh on the next morning.

As I arrive I end up in a little café that works with deaf people, this made me think about the concept and how the fact the there's more places like this in Cambodia than in Spain.

The Durian Roundabout

I meet Paul and we go for a little walk around the town. The viewing points are just a few, one of those being a roundabout with a massive Durian fruit in the middle. 

We also find the remaining of an old cinema theatre, which is quite famous in the area. But the front place of the cinema seems to be ideal for parking, because every single time that we walked by it we found a bunch of cars parked in front. Not really great for pictures.

It's also remarkable that all the building in this area look like they have a southern European style, and as I read into some  information about the town I see that it's because of the Portuguese and French influence from back in the days. Does this French influence mean that I'm finally getting some decent bread in South East Asia!? 

We decided to go for a few drinks, and the prices are so low that you can't really drink water here. So we snack a bit and have a few drinks, preparing ourselves for the exhausting sunset and firefly cruise that we booked for this afternoon. 

The cruise would have been enjoyable, I'm sure about that, if it wasn't for the people that joined us. A group of old Australians, and not that I have anything against elders or Australians, no, the problem was their mentality. One of them hated everyone that wasn't Australian, but then again his girlfriend was a 20 year younger Cambodian woman. And even worse, this woman's kid was a little spoiled brat and made the trip worse by telling the captain "I'm bored, can we please turn back" and ruining our chances to see the fireflies. 

Anyway, in search of a place for dinner we find a locally famous pizza place, run by an an Italian who got tired of Europe and decided that he wanted a relaxing South East Asian life, he runs the place with his Mom and a very limited amount of stock, no pressure, no haste, just his passion for his food and good company. We had to wait for quite a long while before getting our order, but it was soo worth it (by the time we got the order he had sold out all his stock) We had excellent Italian food for a very decent price. 

The next morning we have a bus awaiting us at 7 a.m. with our final Cambodian destination: Phnom Penh. The capital of the country. 

A Stupa in honor of the victims

As we arrive we drop everything off, and on my way to the bank I find a Tuk tuk driver that is willing to do the tour of the S-21 prison and the Killing Fields for 15$ (I had red that the average price is around 20$ or more) great! This means that we have the whole day to visit the two must see places of the city.

The killing fields are truly as impressive as they say. Especially with the audio tour, you get an image of how terrible the events where during the Kampuchea Communism era. The guide explains what used to be done and even shows a few places that are very capable of shocking you so much that you drop a tear.

I would love to say that the next stop was less impacting but I’m afraid that it's not the case. The S-21 Prison is just as shocking as the fields, and maybe even more, because everything is still standing just as it was the day that they found it. Here you hear about how the rest of the world lived without even knowing what was going on in Cambodia. How even after the fall of his communistic regime, Poll Pot (the dictator) still got a place at the UN world conference, instead of the actual regime.

Lots of shocking things and unbelievable information, but I don’t want to expand to much on what happend in the country during these dark communistic years, as you have plenty of tools to find information about it yourself if you really want to know more about it.

After few minutes of silence on the way back to the hostel we start planning the night. The Russian market seems to be a great thing to visit if you are in town. It's a 40 minutes walk away from the hostel, but being young and fit we decide to walk there. It wasn't that bad and we got there fairly quick. But the market closes at around 6-7. And by the time we get there (something like half past 7) everything is closed. Yay…

Luckily for us, there is a little night market in the same area, nothing that you can compare to the Thai night markets, but with enough food stands to chose from. 

Which was actually, all what we were looking for.

Back in the hostel we notice how the staff is in a party mood as they are is getting everyone shots and drinks on the house, Paul and I join in for a short while before eventually saying good bye to each other.

It was a pleasure travelling with you Paul and I hope that you enjoy Nepal and the tiny mountain it has.