Kampot, Cambodia - Feel the Fear and Backpack Anyway

Mandy: 18th – 23rd December

Monks, Mountains and Muslims

The iconic Dorian fruit roundabout in Kampot. We had heard about it, and the fact that they farm Dorian fruit there and I was hoping that the place didn’t smell of them like Malaysia! Which it didn’t thankfully.

We should have realised that Kampot was going to be windy when we saw this man selling kites from the back of his bike on our way there. We travelled about three hours to Kampot after spending one night back in Phnom Penh

It was good to get away from dirty Phnom Penh again and out into the lovely countryside

More Farmers with their Ox and carts amongst the motorbikes and cattle on the red dusty roads

The roaming cows and Ox have ropes through their noses which trail behind them as they wonder around on their own (The ropes that is not their noses!)

To market, to market, to buy a fat pig; home again, home again, jiggety jig! As we got closer to villages along the way we saw people on bikes with pigs in wicker baskets on the back. Then later we would see them gathered by a market. Some had huge sows and some with small suckling pigs. I thought about you all at home buying your ‘pigs in blankets’ for Chrismtas dinner as we were looking at pigs in baskets! (Chuckle)

Seems that some people didn’t have a basket! Poor pigs!

Oh dear these legs still have the skin and hooves on (grimace)

Women sitting in hammocks selling their meat.

They all load up their bikes with produce first and the passengers then sit on top. This one didn’t have much on it. Others were going along holding sheets of glass or dragging long metal rods behind them. We saw a family of six on the back of one bike but four or five are the norm.

A truck full of charcoal. There were whole streets in Phnom Penh with people selling these sacks of charcoal

50% of people in Phnom Penh alone still cook with charcoal. Cambodia is facing a problem of massive deforestation. Charcoal and wood burning is also a health and safety hazard. People don’t like change though do they. (Me included of course!!) We read in the news that they also have a problem with getting many Cambodian people to use a toilet in their homes (10s of 1000s have been fitted into homes by the ‘government’) as people do not think it is healthy to go to the toilet in their home, instead prefering to go outdoors! This in itself causes health issues and they are trying to educate them. We have seen lots of people peeing in the street and even people like bus drivers who walk past a toilet prefering to pee in the hedge! Madness. We also saw posters on trees trying the educate the local people about food hygiene.

These stone jars, which collect water, are outisde all of the old shacks in the countryside and even this new building had them.

Monks and a Dentist! Thought we were back in Battambang for a minute!

The unusual sight of coconuts without the green outside on. This stall in the market was making fresh coconut milk as the local shoppers waited. It might not be that clean in Asia but everything is made or served fresh in fairness.

Kampot’s market was the ‘freshest’ smelling market we have been to and we have been to every local market, in search of meat photo opportunities for Dad, in each place we have visited.

It might not look good but it didn’t smell bad there.

Now this was sad to see but you can’t get fresher than this. The live Chickens and Ducks sat awaiting their fate! Again no smell or noise.

They like their shrimp paste there!

We couldn’t find out what this was, it looked like some kind of fine root…..with live insects crawling about inside!

Kampot has a high percentage of Muslins here. Just saying (smile)

‘Ponds’ face creams seem to be doing well in Asia. Most are face whitening creams of course.

Families picnicing ON the Waterfall on Boker Mountain as it’s the dry season

Monks were enjoying the Waterfall too…. For those of you thinking “where the hell did Glen get that shirt!?” It is from Java, Indonesia when we went there last year. It keeps the sun off when we are on the bike and it really doesn’t matter that it clashes with his check shorts because clashing seems to be all the rage here to be honest!

Oh dear, just a trickle of water becuase it’s the dry season…… Minutes after this photo was taken I was bitten on the hand by something that caused a surprising amount of pain! I swore a lot, for which I feel bad seeing as there were so many monks around. But I was thinking about the fact that I might get a bad reaction to it more than the pain…. I didn’t of course!

Glen went to see what these women were selling from their wicker baskets in their ‘pyjamas’

Ah more piglets which we had seen on the back of the bikes on the way there.

We loved Kampot. We found the best, simple noodle place there. It only had four items on the menu, two dumpling and two noodle soup choices. Cheap and freshly made in front of you. And all for the equivalent of £1.35 for 12 pork or veg dumplings which were served with a homemade dipping sauce and a free pot of Cambodian black tea. (Well we assume it was tea, it was a pot of hot water with twigs floating in it) (Smile)

Kampot Salt fields (out of season!)

Our motorbike ride up Bokor Mountian

Glen went inside the old church while I walked up the hill a little way to take some photos from above. Suddenly I heard a noise and I jumped thinking it was a Monkey. A young couple appeared on the path from the trees and laughed saying “did you think we were a Tiger!?” “NO!” I said, “I thought you were a Monkey, so just imagine what I would have done if I thought you were a Tiger!”

The old Catholic church on Bokor Mountain was built by the French In the early 1920’s which is now covered in ‘red’ lichen

I got the urge to make one of these simple, common Asian brushes, pictured below, which had been left inside the church along with Incense sticks for people to burn on the altar