Cambodia 2. Kampot: Spring Festival 2018

After the chaos and noise of the big city I was ready for some relaxing and chilling, both had been promised in abundance in Kampot. I had been advised to book a few nights in one of the riverside bungalows that lined the river to take advantage of the quiet. I found a place online with good reviews that looked beautiful. I knew it was a little way out of town but I wasn't to bothered by that. I read on one of the reviews that the riverside bungalows were worth paying the extra $2, which took my total a night to a whopping $7 a night.

I was shown into a room next to the bar which had a little wooden bridge to get to the door so I was immediately apprehensive about where I was going to be sleeping for the next few nights. Once inside though, WOW! I had a huge bed with a mosquito net hanging from the rafters, a mosquito net that I would soon grow to hate, which was about a meter from double glass doors that lead onto my own private balcony on the river.

From the balcony there was a ladder so that I didn't have to walk the extra ten paces to get to the public ladder in the bar. I was straight in the river! I swam in the mornings before breakfast, I jumped in every time I got too hot (which was all the damn time), I jumped in before bed and every time in between. I was on my own, so whenever I wanted to get in, I did.

When I wasn't swimming, I was lounging on my deck with my book or waving at the boat tours that sped past every now and again. It was bliss!

After the first day I started to get a little cabin fever. The rest of the bungalows were all booked out by one big our group of Chinese families. I was reluctant to put myself into the 'oh look a foreigner' situations that pretty much always go with being around Chinese families, especially those with grandparents. The owner was also having a little trouble with their way of doing things and so spent a lot of time checking up on me and making sure I was OK. He invited me back o his house for a home cooked meal, lovingly prepared by his Cambodian wife. I jumped at the invite as so far, I hadn't really found any local food that I was particularly taken with. We went back to their balcony only to be presented with a huge full English breakfast complete with sausages, bacon, potatoes, mushrooms and eggs (plus more). Her theory was that, as I don't live in England I must miss the breakfasts. I won't lie, I do miss the breakfasts and this was a particularly good one, it just wasn't what I was expecting. Not that that stopped me really enjoying the feast.

Just down the road from the bungalows was a small railway bridge which gets used about twice a week for deliveries. It turned out to be a great place to catch the sunset and was also a short cut into the town about 2 miles away. The bungalows had bikes that I could use, but the road after dark was terrifying so I opted to walk with my little wind up torch in hand.

The town of Kampot is tiny. I think I am being generous when I say its a half a mile in all directions from the town square.

As its such a small town, life runs on a different clock. The post office was never open when I walked past as it usually had a sign in the window with something like "gone to the supermarket' or "getting hair cut" or my favourite "out!"
The bars and restaurants all made up their opening hours as they pleased, I watched one turf everyone out so the bar staff could take a nap (it was about 4 in the afternoon).

Despite being such a small place, there was no shortage of restaurants and bars, mostly serving pizza, one claimed to have the best burgers in Cambodia. I don't know if this is true as I didn't try one, it was never open when I walked past.

After three nights in the bungalow I moved into town to stay in The Magic Sponge hostel (another recommendation) which turned out to be possibly the best hostel I have stayed in, and that includes TaiWan. The dorms were in the attic/penthouse and came with their own private rooftop sun lounge areas and bathrooms. The bar had a large seating area under vines so it was nice and cool and a mini golf course. Actually the golf course ended up causing a little problem as some Chinese family that had dumped their kids on me and another guy were not happy that we didn't let them win. We were promised ice cream for the winning team and I wasn't about to let some kid take that away form me. They didn't ask us to entertain their kids again, so win win!

A few nights there and it was off to Kep for some seaside fun!