We took a bicycle to explore the town and it's street live. The river promenade is nicely done and a good place to hang out.
After an early dinner we returned to our home to enjoy a sunset on the porch of the common area with the river flowing by gently. The atmosphere was great and the music out of the speakers as well. In the pleasant warms of the night we sat there for several hours and played some rounds of SkiBo.
Next morning our Tuk Tuk driver Coca came to pick us up for a tour to the country side. He was excited to be our guide and driver for the day. So were we!
"The Salt Fields"
First stop was at the salt fields. Water is pumped from the few km away sea and filled into this square fields. The sun vaporizes the water and the salt stays left behind. Then it is collected and shuffled together as piles before stored in huts waiting for buyers. The production is only possible during dry season. It takes 2-3 weeks to vaporize the water of one field. A KG salt costs 1$ here.
"The Caves"
Next we went to the Phnom Ch'nork caves. A little boy already joined us on the way and he drove with his bike on the side of our Tuk Tuk and talked to us in a very good English. We stopped at a cafe shop where Coca would wait for is, as Paul and Tikal would be our guides. The boy was 14 and the girl probably similar age. As the kids either go in the morning or in the afternoon to school, they had their morning off and it is some kind of tradition that the kids are your guide for the cave. Their English and knowledge about the caves is incredible.
A short walk brought us to the mountain where we had to climb 203 steps, passing several altars. In the caves are several animals to see. They are not moving anymore as they are part of the rock formation. So you can see an elephant, a cow, an eagle another elephant head, a turtle and other things. Without our guides we wouldn't have seen half of the animals! There is also a temple from back of the 6th century. A place for locals to come and pray and ask for health and children.
The kids then showed us a way through the cave system to the lower exit of the cave. Good that we had our headlamps with us and had such well trained and certified guides who led us safe through the steep, narrow and then wide cave. It was an great experience and we were able to ask the kids a lot of questions and got a better understanding of their life. Soon their guide life would be a little less as they will have to help on the fields as soon as the wet season starts to get the rice planted.
We left them a little tip for guiding us so well and said far well.
"The Fisher Village"
We passed a river with many fisher boats on it. This is the home of the Muslim fisherman who have their settlement right there. They are leaving to sea in the afternoon around 5pm and would return in the morning around 5 or 6am. There are 3 people working on the small boat. 1 sleeping at the time in shifts while the other pull the 10m long nets behind the boat. Each net usually catches up to 30kg of fish. When they arrive at the village there are usually merchants already waiting to buy the fish straight from them. Most of the fish will be brought alive to the market and sold alive to the end consumer. You see many market with bowls filled with a little water and fishes wiggling around in it.
During the day the man fix their nets again or gain more energy for the nights hard work and sleep. We found this woman who was roasting peanuts in their shell and I got a bag of hot peanuts, which I enjoyed on the ride with our Tuk Tuk.
"The Pepper Plantations"
The area of the Kampot province has always been very famous for it's pepper. There has been a time when on each good French restaurant the Khmer pepper mill would have been. A lot got destroyed during the reign of Pol Plot. Since 10-15 years the production is growing again and the farmers hope that the unique flavors of the Khmer pepper will soon be on the top of the pepper list of the world.
The pepper grows on sticks up into a hight of 3m. Unfortunately the harvest already had been and we only found this corn. We got a little explanation of the production and differences of red, green and black pepper.
"Kep"
As we had a stop in Kep, we ate some lunch from a lady close to the beach. She grilled a whole fish and some squids for us, which we ate with rice. The beer with it was ok, the green cream soda not so much! A very scary green color and a not natural flavor at all. We first considered to stay for a couple of days here in Kep, but after seeing the size and the not that spectacular beach, we made up our minds to stay in Kampot for the remaining time until we would go to Vietnam. The locals had fun playing around in the water. Some women rented out tires as floats. The Cambodians have a habit of jumping into the water with their cloths on and hang out in the water. We didn't figure out why, but they enjoyed themselves, so we didn't want to interfere.
"Back in Kampot"
Kampots streets never got boring for us. Our trips with the bicycles always brought unexpected delights. Seeing little boys pee standing on a wall, watched by a little girl, watching in amazement the chaotic traffic with people turning and driving everywhere and anywhere.
"Sister's II"
We found this oasis of delights of cakes in one of the many streets after we got interested through reading about it on Wikitravel. The carrot cake is so juicy and yummy and the owner is a wonderful character who told us many stories about her coffee she gets from Vietnam (the one with the S on it), and how she adopted her little boy Moses. Boys and especially brown boys are not very popular in Cambodia. Boys do not stay with their own families, they also need to pay up to US$ 4000 - 5000 to their future mother in law, to be allowed to marry her daughter. After they got married the boy moves to the girls family. Why brown? I don't know, but I saw "whitening skin cream" on the supermarket shelves.
Khmer Cooking Classes at "Captain :
We had dinner here one night and we loved the Khmer food and after seeing that they offered cooking classes, we signed up for the next day to take some lessons.
Rhea took us to the local market to buy some ingredients. The selection of fresh fish and seafood was incredible. Huge sea snails and many mussels I've never seen before were on offer. The vegetable and herb selection was just as unknown territory for us. We were able to ask her many questions and got a lot of things explained. After everything was set up in the small open room next to the restaurant we started our cooking. First we cut everything and prepared all the raw ingredients. Then we started to put everything together and create three yummy Khmer dishes.
Once everything was cut, the final preparation was very quick and we soon were able to sit down and enjoy our delicious food. Rhea was a great teacher and we had a great time. The time flew by and we enjoyed every little bit of it.
Our prepared dishes were:
Chicken amok
Lok Lak
Tom Yam
All yummy yummy in my tummy!
More pictures from Kampot
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