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Tuk'n in the side of the country
Based on our failed tour of the previous day we decided it would be best going it alone for our next tour. We commandeered a Tuk-Tuk driver the night before to take us into the countryside, we got him for a decent price although I failed to meet the other objective of him having good English skills. Either way Mr Heng arrived on time so he was already one better than the other tour company.
We drove for about 10 minutes east of Kampot and arrived at some Salt Flats. How salt was produced was all news to us. They flood the fields with water from the Gulf of Thailand Sea in the dry season. This brings in the salt water, and as the water evaporates the salt crystals are left. That process is repeated and then a worker pushes the salt into rows, which is then raked into salt piles by someone else. This drains any water away (the piles look dirty but then after a bit of time it turns white). That salt is then picked up and moved to a warehouse area, after a while it is then transported to a plant where it is cleaned and packed. The fields themselves look like empty rice paddy fields. Good to know how it gets to our table.
We then headed away from Kampot town into the countryside, leaving the roads and then back onto some more bumpy dirt tracks (not as dusty in a tuk-tuk though), going past cows, pigs, houses on stilts and the occasional child that would shout out "Hello". After about 25 minutes we arrived at a Cave "Phnom Sia". A local guide showed us various limestone rock formations that looked like elephants, a turtle and the back of a crocodile. Also a small temple inside the cave is from the 7th century, much older that Angkor Wat! You can then climb down through the cave. Surprisingly I was more prepared than you would think, a flashlight and my walking shoes made sure I had no near death experiences to report (apart from a small cut on my hand). It was only a few minutes to get through, so not the biggest expedition.
The secret lake 5 minutes down the road looked far too big to be a secret. It was a man made reservoir, but it actually looked quite good and more natural than Coate Water!
A few more bumps later we arrived at Starling farm pepper plantation. Kampot pepper was already well regarded before the Khmer Rouge ripped out all of the plantations. In the last 20 years farmers have been working hard to rebuild this industry and nowadays its considered the best black pepper in the world. Each new plant takes 3 years to mature before its ready to start picking. This farm is much bigger than the one in Phu Quoc that we visited last year, both in number of plants and the height (they use bricks to mimic tree branches, as the pepper plants would grow up these in the wild). The picked green pepper was pungent in smell when split in half, and very intense and warming when eaten (that lasts for 5/10 mins after eating). Green peppercorns are not ripe, the black peppercorns are the dried unripe fruit from the green. Red pepper is from ripe and dried fruit (and is less intense) and white pepper is ripe betties with the skin boiled and removed. Hard to know how it compares to the Phu Quoc stuff, I think it smells less intense, but the taste seems stronger and lasts for longer.
The farm also grows mangoes and durians. The pepper is expensive to buy, maybe £22 for 300g back home, $22 at the farm shop so I got 100g bags of black and white plus 50g of red. Almost as much as hiring the Tuk-Tuk driver for half a day.
Most of that info came from research after the tour, looking online to figure stuff out as our driver couldn't really tell us anything (because of his lack of English). Still we came away much better off than Friday!
Lunch time took us to another Cafe called Ellie's. My Pumpkin-Spinach-Feta sandwich was just ok, didn't really see any cheese in it (would have made it taste much better).
After escaping the heat for a few hours under the air conditioning in our room we headed out for round two of mini golf (it was free to play at a nearby hostel). I hit a hole in one for the first time in ages and that sealed another victory for me. I also had some chilli-cinnamon-chocolate ice cream there, a very good combo.
Dinner was at cheap restaurant, $2.75 got
me a Tofu and Veg curry and an ice tea. We stumbled across a local festival in the Olympic park (Cambodia has never hosted the Olympics but they have lots of places named as if they did). Loads of people, stalls selling bugs and other eats, a big stage with some Cambodian pop music. We didn't stay for very long though - more for the locals!
Bowls of rice; 31
Mini golf score; Andy 2 - Tash 0
Tofu dishes; 3
- comments
Tom Mate, a few things: Please leave me some pepper. Do you remember the salt mines in Poland? How come you never tell us what Tash eats? Have you eaten a bug yet?