Adventures in South East Asia: Cambodia

From Phnom Penh I headed south with Katrina to the fishing town of Kep while Stephanie did her own route to the town of Sihanoukville to meet some friends. What was supposed to be a 4 hour bus ride turned into about 6 due to our bus breaking down and then being fixed a few hours later. If anything it was entertaining, you can see what a site we were in the photos.

We had a crowd of Cambodian children who watched us stranded tourists

Kep is a very small town so on our first day we just hung out and read and I rented a motor bike for a few hours to look around. The countryside of Cambodia is beautiful, flat rice fields for miles dotted with palm trees, huts, and water buffalo. The next day Katrina wasn't feeling well so I went on my own to Rabbit Island. It's a half hour boat ride from Kep and the day I went ended up being very very windy. It's always a great feeling when you get on a boat and the first thing they give you is a life jacket. So after a scary boat ride I made it to Rabbit Island where I hung out on the beach and explored to find remote beaches.

Our reading spot

Typical Cambodian scenery

Beach to myself on Rabbit Island

I was in the front of the boat which was morel like an over sized canoe with a motor, the waves were so bad we held up that tarp to keep us and the rest of the passengers dry

The next morning Katrina and I headed to Kampot by an interesting mode of transportation. On my boat to Rabbit Island I befriended an Australian couple who had just come from Kampot by motorbike. They were going to drive it back the next morning and then come back to Kep to catch a bus to Phnom Penh so Katrina and I offered to take the motorbike for them to save a trip. So to do it the SE Asian way we piled that motor bike with our two large backpacks, my small back pack, and her not so small purse, we were quite the site.

Motor bike loaded SE Asian style

Once we arrived in Kampot I immediately fell in love with it. The aging French buildings that line the streets, the laid back feel, the people.... After a delicious curry lunch we hopped on the motor bike to the caves of Phnom Chhnork about 12 km outside of town which also houses a 7th century temple. Once we got there we were greeted by about 12 children offering to be our guide. To make things fair and more fun for us we decided to hire them all for $1 each (which ended up being $2 after the tour, they were so cute!). So we were lead through rice fields to the caves by a group of 12 English speaking Cambodian children. They would pick flowers for us to put in our hair, would tell us which plants were used for what kind of cooking, they told us what the rock formations looked like in the cave, and then once we got into cave climbing they would tell us exactly where to put our feet, it was definitely a highlight of my trip.

Streets of Kampot

Our guides leading the way through rice fields

7th century temple in the caves

Cave climbing / exploring

The next day we went on a tour of the Bokor National Park. To get to the park only took about 10 minutes but to get to the top of the mountains it contained took about 1 hour but riding in the back of a pick up packed with people is always fun. Back in the 1920's when Cambodia was a French colony Bokor was home to a colonial hotel called the Bokor Palace. When the Khmer Rouge took over it was deserted and what remains today is quite a site. So we explored around there for a while and did some hiking in between. It was the coldest I have been on my trip, again it was really windy. The tour ended with a river cruise into town which was a nice way to see the sunset and end the day.

Bokor Palace, creepy but beautiful

Waterfall in the park

River cruise

For the next two days I did some volunteering for the local school. I figured I should give something back since I had been traveling in this part of the world for so long. From 2-4:30 I helped out at the drop in center which acted as the schools library, place to do arts and crafts, and play center. Then from 5-7 I would help teach English. They like to have Westerners because of our accent, I sometimes couldn't even tell if the Cambodian teacher was speaking in Khmer or English because his accent was so bad. So I thought this meant I would read a few things and correct some of the students but no, I taught the class. The teacher just handed me the book, pointed to where they were and then told me to go from there. Let me tell you, it is difficult to teach a classroom of 40 Cambodian children about the seasons in English considering they don't have seasons in SE Asia. But none the less it was a lot of fun and the people I worked with along with the children were all so wonderful.