July 3rd, Kampot, Cambodia
Our day started around 9 am and we left the hotel to find the supermarket to buy new sunscreen. Both Kyle and I got really bad sunburns while we were on the moto yesterday so we thought we better get better protection. So now we have really bad tan lines on our shoulders and legs, we need to get to a beach town and even out!
You have to be careful in Asia when buying sunscreen because some of them have bleaching agents in them to whiten your skin! After the supermarket we went to find some food, early lunch since we didn’t have breakfast. Nothing seemed busy yet, so we went to the internet place to check a few things. Oh and today I have been riding on the moto with Kyle. He is doing much better on the bike today, but I still get nervous. At on point when we were looking for a restaurant Kyle was swerving around the road, and looking around and trying to listen to me, and almost ran into a girl on a bicycle.
We dined at an Indian restaurant for lunch. I had the chicken Biryani, and Kyle had some type of dish with egg, potato, chicken and veggies. We also had veggie and chicken somosas! It was all very good, but my dish seemed to be all rice with some chicken and seasoning.
We made out way towards the rapids, and a local swimming area on the river. On the way we saw lots of stands on the side of the road selling durian. We also saw boys on motos holding hands with their friends on bicycles pulling them along. We paid $1 each to enter the area where the rapids were. Lots of little hut-type bungalows lined the river, some with hammocks. I think you can pay to use them, but we just found an area right on the river to sit on some rocks. We started talking with a couple from Denmark we had seen them buying sunscreen at the supermarket as well! They had rented an innertube that was tied to a rock for $1, the river current was quite strong, so it was a good thing it was tied up. Lots of little Cambodian kids played in the river naked. There seems to be a lot of naked children in Cambodia, and lots of little girls in just skirts without shirts. Kyle even saw a boy naked in his front yard in the Kampot city area, and he was so old he had a bush. Kyle thinks that if you have pubic hair you should probably not be in your front yard naked! Hehe
The children playing in the river were very friendly, they kept saying hi to us, and asking us what are names were, but that was the extent of their English. I took pictures of some of the kids, and video and showed it to them, they really like posing, and then seeing themselves in the pictures. It was refreshing to be around kids that didn’t just want us to buy something from them. Although I still felt like I had to keep a close eye on our stuff. At one point I had noticed Kyle had just set the key to the moto on the ground next to his helmet, so I picked it up and put it in his helmet (I should have just put it in my purse at this point) So then while Kyle was off buying us some water, I notice the kids standing near the helmets, so I took a look and the key was gone. When Kyle came back I asked him if he had moved the key and he didn’t think he had. At that same time he ran off to check on the bike, and I was thinking about the Denmark couple and how we had talked to them about renting a moto, and they were interested in that, and they had left the river just moments before that to go get some lunch. So I thought that maybe they had taken it! I checked Kyle’s man purse and found the key luckily. He came running back relieved that the bike was still where we left it and that we found the key!
Nothing too exciting happened at the river, Kyle swam for a bit, I sat on a rock in the water until I noticed there was a creature trying to swim up my crotch! I squealed and jumped out of the water!
After the rapids we went back to our hotel to get directions to Kep to sit on the beach for a while. It was about a 40 min ride on the moto and my back was starting to get sore from all the jarring bumps. But we made the trip out there anyway, and I am so glad we did! We found this strip of bungalow type restaurants right over the water (I think it is the gulf of Thailand). In the distance you can see some islands, and Bokor Mountain. It was very beautiful. We ending up having a seafood feast! Steamed shrimp with garlic (the garlic was basically raw, but we ate it and it was very spicy, but good) grilled fish, super fresh, and fried noodles with crab and vegetables. It was all so good. The sun was starting to set, I was getting worried about riding the moto back in the dark, but there as no getting around that at this point. The setting and food couldn’t have been any better, except for the foreign children that were running wild around the restaurant while their parents paid no attention. Later the mother came over and asked if she could take the perfect picture of us with the sun setting, and we said sure. She told us about some of her travels and how she is from the US, but hasn’t lived in the states for about 7 years. She mainly bums around from country to country and mainly the ones that are pot-smoking friendly. Interesting, she said Cambodia is very pot friendly.
After dinner we drove a little ways down the road where we had seen some chairs. We sat there getting sprayed a little with the surf, and watched the sun finish setting. It was quite magical and tropical. Kyle drove us safely back to the hotel, dodging bugs and bats. I showered and laid in bed reading, while he took the bike out for one last spin. He was gone for quite some time, and I was getting worried. But he happened upon this bar whose owner wrote the Kampot Survival Guide which we relied heavily upon while we were there. So Kyle chatted with him and looked at the stars. Finally he came back and I sent him out to get some fried rice and water for us. Then it was off to bed since we had a long day of travel ahead of us, with traveling to Vietnam!
