Our shuttle van picked us up on Saturday morning, bright and
early!, at 6:30am. The guy who set up
the tickets for us kept reiterating OVER and OVER and OVER that the van would
be there at 6:30 AM, not PM, AM!!! Okay, okay, I get it? I don’t look like a morning person? What????!!!!
Then we take the van to the bus station and hop on a bus for
a 3-4 hour ride to the countryside in Cambodia – a very small province called
Kampot. I see palm trees everywhere, the
river, people working in the fields and rice paddies with machetes… welcome to
Kampot!
We had lunch at a really unique spot called the Epic Arts Café. Where WERE you mom? You would have LOVED it! It’s run by an organization which supports
people with disabilities in the local community, and everyone in this
particular café is deaf and speaks Sign Language. Even on the menu there were pictures showing
you how to say different things in sign language, like “Where’s the bathroom?”
and “Can I get the check please?” It’s the
quietest café I’ve ever been to & we were definitely in the minority
because we were the ONLY ones who weren’t speaking using Sign Language. The people were great. The food was great. The organization seems absolutely wonderful
too! What a nice surprise! J
Then I checked into my bungalow hut made out of straw, fully
equipped with a mosquito net! And for me…
that’s paradise! Seriously, LOVE IT!!! J
A little while later we headed out to go explore some caves
nearby (well, “nearby” is kind of relative if you’re moving as slow as dirt
through unpaved roads in a tuk tuk) called Phnom Chhnork Cave.
As we got closer, every single child we saw standing in their yards or
on the street smiled at us with the biggest smiles you’ve ever seen & said,
“Hello!” in English with perfect pronunciation.
Even children who were as young as probably 2 years old were calling out
“Hello! Hello! Hello!”
Two boys
on a bicycle rode up behind us and followed us the rest of the way as we’re on
the tuk tuk, talking to us, asking us all kinds of questions about where we’re
from, how long we’re there, etc. I ended
up hanging out of the back window in the tuk tuk for the rest of the way to the
caves just chatting with them as they rode behind us. When we got to the caves, which were WAY, WAY
out in the middle of farming country, the two kids hop off their bicycle and tell
us they are our tour guides to go through the cave J Okay!
Sounds good!
We walk up
200-something steps up to the top of the cave, then physically climb down our
way through the STEEP rocks in pitch blackness using small flashlights and the
light from my cell phone. LOVE IT! J We saw bat caves, a small underground lake, a
temple which dates back to the 7th century… so cool!!! And we’re really lucky our “guides” were
there because they told us every single rock crevice to hold onto as we were
climbing around in pretty steep areas.
Of course, these kids do it every day and were practically BOUNDING
around and swinging from the tree roots over jagged rocks… And of course I’m
yelling out to them, “Be careful! Be
careful!” and “Does your mom know that you do that?!” (but of course she
probably does and wouldn’t understand what the big deal was since it’s such a
common everyday activity).
Then we
just paid another $3/person for the bus ride back to Phnom Penh early the next
afternoon and headed out. I would have loved
to stay there longer, but because it’s really not the far away and it’s so
cheap to get there, we’re going to go back to another town near Kampot (called
Kep) next month. Who wants to come? There’s still time you know!
Oh, did I
mention that both times I’ve taken a charter bus in Cambodia, they’ve played
only a few things on the TVs during the drive – Khmer men doing comedy/variety
shows dressed in drag OR very dramatic Cambodian music videos ;) Quality!!!
When we
got back to the bus station in Phnom Penh, we thought we were close to this
mall where we like to go to eat pizza at a place called The Pizza Company
(stuffed crust, AMAZING pizzas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yummmmmmm!!!), but it turned out
we didn’t know where we were, so we ended up hiking around the city for a least
an hour and half, got side-tracked when we happened upon the best stationery
store EVER (Ahh! The pens! The paper!
The planners! Yippeee!!! And who would’ve thought that Noman actually
really likes stationery stores too? I
never would’ve guessed it! We were like
two hyper kids in a candy store!)… and eventually, the pizza was ours! Oh, so delicious!
What a
rockin’ weekend trip! I can’t wait to see
more places! This weekend we’re going to
go exploring around Phnom Penh. Since we
live here and we’re pretty much just working all week, we don’t get to go
wander around and sightsee much. So this
weekend we’re thinking about either buying bicycles and riding around to all
the different sights & Wats in the city, or renting a moto and motorcycling
it! I’m pushing for the bicycles, since
I did have the falling off of the moto incident, and another “near fall-off” on
my most recent moto ride … I just have to admit it. I suck at riding on motos! And I’m pretty sure that I make the moto
drivers very nervous because I squirm around too much & it makes them a
little unbalanced. I can’t help it! I always feel like I’m going to go flying off
of the back & land on my head in the middle of the street! So I keep readjusting just to make sure I
have a really good grip.
Funny
enough… as I’m sitting here typing this in the lobby overlooking the street,
Noman just pulled up on the back of a moto!
Ha!!!
