Kampot and Kep - exploring Cambodia's South Coast

We'd been advised to avoid Sihanoukville because of the large amount of Chinese tourists and rubbish there. But we still wanted to see the south of Cambodia, so we headed to Kampot from Phnom Penh.

This was the worst journey we’ve had so far. We booked again with Giant Ibis and initially everything seemed OK. However about half an hour outside of Phnom Penh, we pulled into a bus garage and were told to board another bus, although no explanation was given as to why. The second bus was absolutely swarming with mosquitoes and as such I refused to board until they were cleared out or we could get another bus. As there was no other bus, we had to wait for them to fumigate the bus and we spent the rest of the four hour journey killing mosquitoes! The road was also incredibly dusty and bumpy so overall, not a great journey!

We were dropped off at the durian roundabout in Kampot and made our way to our hostel. This was run by a French lady called Veronique and having arrived in a bit of a state, it was lovely to have a shower and be treated to a rather tasty French style dinner, with potatoes!!

The next day Veronique explained what there was to do around Kampot and that the best way to get around was by scooter. We’d never ridden scooters before ourselves but the roads were fairly quiet so we decided to give it a go.

After about twenty minutes driving on a rather dusty road, we arrived at our first stop for a spot of kayaking. The Preaek Tuek Chhu river has a little spur off of it which is covered over with palm leaves. We spent an hour kayaking through this wonderful landscape. The wind through the palms sounded like rain and the shade was very welcome! Definitely worth a stop. The only downside (as we’re finding a lot in SE Asia) was the amount of rubbish in the water.

We continued north, crossing the river on a small ferry, to the Green House for lunch. This was a delightful little guest house with a veranda and a deck for swimming from. Again, the food was wonderfully French, as a lot of the south of the country still retains its French influence and there are many expats here.

We returned to Kampot down the main road but by the end of our journey, we were absolutely covered in dirt. James’s white top was definitely no longer white!

That evening we took a sunset cruise up the river. We were on the top deck and it was only after we passed under three seriously low bridges that we understood why we were sitting on the floor! It was a bit of a surreal trip, particularly when a Japanese couple started playing hymns and country music from their own portable radio!

After watching the sunset, at a big bend in the river, we pulled over into the undergrowth to watch for fireflies. Again this was odd, as there were five boats all essentially crashed into the side of the riverbank, one of which was full of a bunch of older ladies having a disco! Finally as it got darker, the fireflies started to appear. It was like looking at a tree covered in fairy lights (we joked that that was probably exactly what it was!) The most ridiculous thing was the lady on another boat trying to take photos from her iPad with the flash on.

After being dropped back into Kampot, we sought out some more craft beer and had a pizza with beef and Kampot pepper on it (more on this later).

The next day we jumped back on our scooters and headed up to Bokor National Park. Once we got past more roadworks (it’s the dry season so everything is being fixed before the rains come again), the road was delightfully smooth and a pleasure to ride on. As Bokor is at the top of a hill, the road up was very windy and steep in parts but that just added to the fun. We stopped half way up to get a view back over Kampot, before continuing on to a giant Buddha statue.

Our next stop was Popokvil Waterfall, however being the dry season there was very little water there! However it was still interesting to see what the river bed under a massive waterfall looks like. The strangest thing though (and typical of the rest of Bokor) was the huge, but entirely deserted, newly built restaurant. Whether they receive a lot more visitors during the rainy season, or whether it was simply massively overspecced, we’re not sure!

We jumped back on the bikes to Bokor Hill Station. Again, this was incredibly strange as it comprised of an old temple, a ruined church, a deserted palace and then a newly built casino and loads of accommodation, but again all was basically deserted. Apparently it’s a project being developed for the Chinese, but the tourists have yet to arrive! There was a nice view across to Phu Quoc though, which will be our first stop when we reach Vietnam.

After stopping for lunch we drove back down and returned to the same area we were in the day before, just further north. We’d heard about a water park next to a backpackers hostel, but when we arrived the slides looked decidedly shoddily put together and basically catapulted you into the water so we decided to keep going to another waterfall further up.

Again there was little water here but it was entertaining watching some other tourists messing around and falling over on the slippery rocks! James also went for a swim in the pool at the bottom where a load of fish nibbled at his toes.

We drove back to Kampot before dark as many people don’t use headlamps when scooting around so it can be quite hard to see them! We headed into town for an ice cream (James had kampot pepper flavour, while I played it safe with strawberry!) We then went to a bar called Levels, which has a load of different games consoles so we had a drink and played an odd Michael Jackson game followed by some Metal Slug, before grabbing some dinner.

The next day we were doing a cooking class at La Plantation, a pepper farm in between Kampot and Kep. We visited the Kampot Market first, which was incredibly busy and loud, full of food, clothes and decorations ahead of Chinese New Year. You could even get your hair cut there!

Our driver then took us to his house to drop off some food he’d bought in the market and showed us the fishing boats that his neighbour makes by hand. He explained that his family are quite poor and it is unlikely that all three of his children will go to school as they can’t afford it.

From there he drove us to La Plantation via the Secret Lake, named not because no one knows about it but because during the Pol Pot reign thousands of people died building the dam that made the lake and their bodies were covered up by the water when the lake was filled. Today it’s a very beautiful view which is a complete contrast to how it was created.

La Plantation was founded six years ago and now employs between 100-150 people growing Kampot pepper. Due to the rich soil, Kampot pepper has been granted EU Protected Designation of Origin status, meaning only pepper grown in that region can be officially called Kampot pepper.

There was only one other couple in our cooking class, which meant we all had a lot of chopping and pounding to do! We made three dishes - fish amok, beef lok lak and a green vegetable curry. You can read more about these in my forthcoming Cambodia cuisine blog.

After lunch we were given a tour of the plantation and a tasting class. They grow five types of pepper - green, black, white, red and long pepper. They had started harvesting the green pepper, which because it’s so young and fragile has to be picked off the vine by hand. Overall a very interesting tour, particularly considering James’ huge love of pepper!

We had to wait for another couple before getting our transfer to Kep so got talking to an Austrian lady called Anne who had driven there on a scooter but had had a slight scrape when she arrived so wasn’t keen on going back on the scooter. Her boyfriend therefore rode back to Kep while she jumped in our transfer. On the way we decided to meet up that night for dinner.

Kep is a very small resort, comprising of the beach at one end and the crab market at the other. Our hotel room had a lovely view out over the beach so we watched the sunset before heading up to the crab market end for dinner with Anne and Ron. We spent a lovely evening swapping travelling stories and failing to eat crab elegantly!

The next day we got a boat to Koh Tonsay, or Rabbit Island. This is a delightful little island just south of Kep. After being dropped off on the west side of the island, we wandered round to the south and found a big tree with a hammock where we spent most of the day just chilling out, swimming in the very shallow and hence pretty warm water, and drinking/eating a coconut. It was lovely and definitely worth the visit.

As we left Rabbit Island, we could see a huge sheet of rain covering Kep. It was the first rain we’d seen in weeks but by the time we got back to the mainland it had passed, which we were a bit sad about! We wandered up the beach to see the White Lady and big crab statues before grabbing a pizza and then chilling out at the hotel. It’s surprising how tiring doing nothing can be!

Our final morning in Cambodia was spent at the Kep crab market. It was amazing to watch all the boxes of crabs being brought in from the sea and the locals selecting their preferred, and still very much alive, crabs! Back at the hostel we met an Australian called Trevor who would be joining us in our minibus transfer to the Vientamese border.

I’m glad we made it down to the south of Cambodia as it had a completely different feel from the big cities of Siem Reap and Phnom Penh. I’d definitely recommend making a trip down that way if you’re ever in the area!