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Now this entry may not be chronologically nor entirely geographically correct but Kampot is where I am choosing as the location. On our way here we stopped at Phenom Penh for a few days but seeming as we have now returned I will amalgamate these later.
So starting not in Kampot but Sihanoukville on the South coast. With a vague attempt at trying to get some more beach time but then every day we were there it was raining pretty much all day so we eventually gave up! All there was to do was to frequent a few bars in the evenings and, being British, moan about the weather. That's all there is to say about it really. Dubbed the new Thailand and supposedly its current state is definitely reminiscent of it 20 years ago. I hope this isn't the case but a couple of girly bars have already sprung up in the old town.
After our failure in Sihanoukville we headed some 150km East to Kampot which we used as our base for the next few days. The first trip was to take some bikes out to see the caves of Phnom Chhork. Arriving (eventually) somewhere near the entrance we were accosted by some kids, as per usual, wanting to guide us and thankfully we decided to take them up on their offer. They proceeded to jump on the back of our bikes and take us in what can only be described as the back way. Parking up at random man's house, walking through his fields, up a steep hill to some rocks - which we had to clamber/climb over. At this point I didn't know what these kids were doing with no reputedly large caves in sight, in fact no caves at all in sight. But this didn't stop them from taking us through a series of small gaps and crevices in the rocks descending down into the darkness. At times pulling myself through on my belly to fit through and another crawling through a small tunnel opening out to a ledge which we then had to jump over 2 metres down into another 'corridor.' Guided by these small kids we eventually found our way into the large caverns some of which had the remains of a brick temple. After pointing out the main entrance, they led us out the back way again through some more bonkers crevices until we gratefully saw the sun again.
The next impromptu excursion was to Kep via a pepper farm. The farm grew peppers. A bit like grapes. They grew other things as well, mainly fruit. The bike ride was a wee bit painful trying to fit the three of us on the one bike, the driver a bit like Rupert Bear, for a good few hours in total. Kep is an old colonial French town that was deserted around 31 years ago (and still is to some extent) pretty much destroyed during the regime. In this time trees have taken over the large old holiday villas creating a modern Ankor Wat.
The last trip of Kampot was to the Bokor hill station. A town of sorts built atop a large hill for the french to escape the heat and humidity of the lowlands. A 3 hour pick-up ride over the unkempt road gave us our first sight of this, again, abandoned town. Relatively small there was, however, a church and hotel/casino to entertain the rich and not so rich. The casino had been built next to a cliff so it was apparently not unheard of for people to gamble away their life then take a short walk off a big cliff! The place was quite eerie for the most of the time shrouded in clouds making the impressive derelict buildings appear from out of nowhere as you approach them. This was also a strategic place for the Khmer Rouge so the buildings were also riddled with holes and, in some places, floor tiles stained a dark red. After touring the old town we saw a great waterfall and had a walk in the jungle encountering some large, poisonous spiders with their webs strung across the path! One of them had tried to bite our guide as he didn't spot it in time. Fun times.
There are now more photos for India online and a new album for Nepal. I have to point out that these are a combination of both mine and Steve's photos so I can't take credit for them all. But obviously the best ones are mine!
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