2 Days in Kampot


Mayday! Mayday! True crisis here people!


I don't....I don't think that they have any diet coke in this town. Abort mission Cambodia! I'm out!


This was me for the first two hours upon arriving in Kampot, an adorable small riverside town with quiet lanes and ancient French colonial architecture. Kampot is definitely a bit worn and frayed around the edges but seems to radiate a quaint, welcoming charm. It's lovely and peaceful here.


And alas, the mayday call was sounded prematurely. Turns out, they do have diet coke, you just have to look pretty darn hard to find it. Beer, wine, cocktails, and happy hour on the other hand, are literally everywhere.   And cheap. I could drink my way though Kampot for less than the cost of a bus ticket. A fact that I, unfortunately, discovered my first night here. After arriving and dealing with the no diet coke overreaction, I got some lunch and met a group of youngsters who told me about some live music that was playing that evening at one of the riverfront cafes. Not really having anything better to do, I decided to check it out. The music was awesome, kind of folk/pop/mumford and sons meets vampire weekend. Very cool. It also gave me the opportunity to sample some local rice wine called Sombai. The guy at the bar said it was $0.50. When I put a $5 bill down, I expected change and he apparently expected me to drink my weight in really strong rice wine. Needless to say, I quickly made some friends who wanted free drinks.


Anyhow, I've spent the past two and a half days exploring Kampot on foot, bike, boat, and tuk tuk. I did another bike tour around the countryside...this one much more lazy than the first. We slowly wound our way down dusty red roads to small houses and local farms. Local women in tiny, sweltering huts making rice wine or tiny pastries called roll cakes (of which, I ate about a dozen). Beautiful pagodas with glorious colorful interiors and young monks working the grounds.


I stumbled on a tiny sunset boat trip down the river. It's run by a German guy called Bjorn who moved to Cambodia six years ago, bought a wooden long tail boat, and spends his days taking a few people up and down some of the narrow waterways of the river that the larger boats can't pass though. He was delightful and hilarious. It was only he and I and a Mexican guy named Jose who really liked to swear. The three of us got along swimmingly. We cruised along the gorgeous river lined with palm and mango trees and watched the kids paddling home from school and the locals trying to catch their dinner. We stopped at a small sandbar and did some swimming in cool, crystal clear water. We watched some cows swim across the river. I guess in theory I knew that cows could swim, but I don't think I've ever actually seen it happen. As we cruised home, the sun set over the Elephant Mountains.


I visited local markets which were hot, cramped, and maddenly claustrophobic, but teemed with a rich abundance of daily life as well as fruit, fish, meat, and clothing galore. I watched stunning riverside sunsets, wandered down endless side streets, and sat at cafes drinking happy hour specials and watching small town Cambodian life go by. Kampot is easily a place where you could plan to spend the day and suddenly, out of no where, weeks have somehow past you by.

Tomorrow is mostly a travel day for me, getting the bus up to Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor. Until then :)


Miscellaneous things:
Mosquito bites: lots (somehow I have four on my right thumb)
Souvenirs purchased: lots (I have a bit of a problem)
Pizza from guesthouse (supposedly the best in Cambodia): let's put it this way, it was no Pizza Deal