Kampot

So, eventually we arrive in Kampot, to a guesthouse with what looks like one huge bed that us girls decide we can share and Sandeep claims the floor. We book a trek to Bokor Hill Station for the morning and grab something to eat before heading to bed to sleep for the big day ahead...

Breakfast in a plastic take away box as we get in the car, pro walking boots on ready for the trek up Bokor hill...i like to call it Bokor mountain actually. The trek was really hard work, climbing up rocks and wondering through the jungle. We stop half way and our guide offers us sticky rice that has been wrapped in a bamboo leaf to give us a little energy for the next 2 hours. After 4 hours we reach a car to take us the rest of the journey. Knackered we fall asleep in the car, Sandeep is sharing the front seat with our guide.

Bokor hill is an amazing place. The mist creates such an eeiry atmosphere. It was once a popular holiday destination for Cambodians with a lovely hotel overlooking the sea and the lake however the Khmer rouge took it all over and now it is just like a ghost town. The mist moves so fast that you look and are able to see the hotel, you look away, and back again and all you can see is thick white mist. I sat up at the top on a huge rock and ate my rice, veg + ants (no that is not a cambodian delicacy) looking out into the mist moving around us. We then went into the derelict church which has writing on the walls from the Khmer rouge and bullet holes in the walls, next we were taken to walk around the lake to the 'haunted hotel', as soon as the word haunted was mentioned I obviously grew slightlyyyy scared. We walked into this huge, derelict hotel, past the NO ENTRY, DANGER sign and wandered around, the mist blows in through the windowless windows and the doorless doors so the inside and outside has this white mist blowing through.....it's so hard to explain the atmosphere...! Sandeep and I decided to go down into the basement which had no windows and was dark, he wound up his torch and we went down....it was so scary I had to come running up! Sanna was taking photo's of the walls and exclaiming that she could se women in her photos... We were the only people there and the atmosphere really was eeiry but exciting.

The trek down was a little cooler, eventually made it home knackered and went in a pickup truck to a lovely restaurant for something to eat. We were supposed to watch the sunset on a boat when we got back from the trek but we were back too late so I suggested (I think to the others annoyance) that we should go for the sunrise instead...at 5.30am.

We woke early, knackered from the trek and went out on a little wooden boat to watch the sunrise, at that time all the fishing boats were coming back and selling their catches on the river bank. It was beautiful, I sat on the front of the boat and loved every minute. We were back in Kapmpot to have a fantastic breakfast (bagels with bananna chutney) at 'Epic Arts Cafe' which employs blind and deaf people. Our waitress was such a sweetie, so smiley and friendly.

After breakie Nina and I went into the market in search of the famous Kampot black pepper, eventually we found it and stocked up... the market in Kampot was the best I've ever been to, it had such a relaxed atmposphere compaired to those in Siem Reap and Phnom Pehn and noone shouted 'hello lady, buy something lady'. I just had such a fantastic morning. All of this before 9am when we were picked up to get our shared taxi back to Phnom Pehn. We were picked up in a little car....drove round, picked up another lady, Sanna, Sandeep, Nina and I were now squished in the back. Sandeep and I thought of saftey first and wrapped the seatbelt around both of us giving him a neck brace and me a corset, it was hard to breath! Then we picked up another man who got in the front with the lady.....and then another....who sat in the drivers seat with the driver, so it was 4 in the front, 4 in the back. The driver was basically sitting on the gear stick, leaning over to hold onto the steering wheel....ridiculous!!! A little frightening ride so Sandeep and I got stuck into watching The Inbetweeners on his ipod instead of looking at cars coming towards us and motos that were dodging us!

Great weekend away and the nice thing was that coming back to Siem Reap felt like coming 'home' and it was very exciting to be back!