Bamboo Island - hot tip - read the other Battambang entry first otherwise you will be mighty confused....

We woke up and slap me round with a hockey stick in the back of a ford escort if it wasn't drizzling. We made it to teh boat pick up point ok, apart from having failed to read the small print that involved us wading out to the boat as there was no pier. Jennifer failed to raise her money belt which resulted in a little alarm but we were more alarmed by the Squall faced by our tiny skiff a few minutes out of teh bay. The journey across to Bamboo island was more perfect storm than portland bill, and we arrived in kagoools and wet. Fortunately our room was ready and the belgian girls were there to greet us with a surprised smile. Although the sun wasn't present there were a couple of Portugeusers who were part of the Gang. We had a barbecue tea after exploring the island and sipped beer on the beach till long after dark. ( after Evan went to bed, we witnessed a dodgy boat - clearly pirates - pulling up to the island, a boy swam ashore with a suspicious looking package, and had a pow wow with another boy of the island, then swam back. clearly dodgy. Also, whilst Evan was in bed, I scared a whole lot of crabs with my head torch - although perhaps I was more scared as crabs look a lot like BIG SPIDERS when scuttling quickly along the sand.)

The next day was brighter but still windy so we decided to return to the beach of snookville and head out to Kep the next day. all the group did likewise and the journey by boat back was much more fun.

Jen: Having completely sated ourselves on AMOK the local dish - fish, coconut, spices, all served in a banana leaf - I do plan to try to recreate this when we get home - we fell into bed as early start to Kep the next day. (worth pointing out we shared a room with the belgian girls as well, not as much fun as it would sound...:)

So... our first foray into the world of share taxis - type of transport that is peculiar to cambodia. We got to the share taxi rank about 8.30am, there was us, a spanish guy and a Khmer all ready to rock and roll in a normal saloon car, but OH NO, share taxis take 7 passengers plus luggage. That's 5 in the back and 2 on the passenger seat. The way it works is that you wait around until the car is full then you leave. So we waited... and then impatient westerners that we are, Evan and I graciously paid for the WHOLE backseat so we could actually get going. Naturally being nice we didn't then force the other 2 to perch on the passenger seat whilst we basked in comfort but invited one of them to join us.

Not far to Kampot where we had planned to make our base to explore Kep and the surrounds. However, it was so much like a ghost town when we arrived, that having been dropped off at a hostel, 2 moto drivers appeared from nowhere and for less than a pint of stella they loaded 3 people and 5 bags onto the back of 2 motos and we headed off. I really like moto travel but being squashed on the back with a bag on this back did nothing for poor Evan's thighs so he was quite glad when we arrived in Kep. Our first impression was that it was very mediteranean - not surprising considering it used to be known at Kep sur mer during the french colonial days. It's a really lovely place, very quiet, with very very few western tourists ( we saw about 4) and lots of Khmer having a lovely weekend by the sea ( they go into the sea in all their clothes.) We got a room at a guest house by the sea, then as Kep is very spread out, trekked back into town for a seafood lunch. We then wandered out of town to see a very interesting french colonial house which is now a ruin, riddled with bullet holes, after the Khmer rouge ransacked the town during their regime. The house is now a home for squatters. Happily the town is now getting back on it's feet, there are a few very posh looking hotels being built, and it has such a lovely feel to it that I have a feeling many more tourists will be going there very soon. I also got to practice my french as a moto driver we hailed down to save us from heat exhaustion and drive us back to the centre of teh village only spoke french. Hooray for not feeling like a complete dunce ncxt to all these dutch, belgian, portugese etc... friends we have who are all multilingual.

Had a lovely dip in the sea - how nice to go into sea the temperature of a bath! We met an aussie couple on the beach - the only westerners in sight - and had a beer with them before heading home( He was Russell Crowe , i'm sure he was). Tea was the crab market - very atmostpheric. Very dimly lit, with the sea crashing underneath the shacks on stilts, the only other people there a few khmer and a group of americans. I ate 4 crabs and some claws and very nice it was too. We also bumped into the dutch guy and his potentially illegally young khmer consort who were also our on hideous crossing to bamboo island. They talked about going to visit her parents, so we decided that his motives weren't entirely gary glitter and both were very friendly.

Up early the next day to catch the crab market in full flow - not very flowing in actual fact - and sit by the side of the road  for our bus back to Phnom Penh. As we were sitting there, we were joined by a few idle moto drivers who engaged us in an impromptu english lesson as I taught them the words for the geometric shapes on their request. One thing about the Khmer that I've said before - they are very good at learning languages and parroting you, and they are really really keen to improve their english( the funny thing was that whilst the english lesson was going on another guy arrived and stayed with us who were rfiends of the moto drivers, then our moto driver from the day before drove past looking a little cross that we were haveing a party and hadn't invited him after all we had been to each other the day before, so he stopped as well , suddenly there were 6 of us waiting for the bus talking about why we sometimes call them rectangles and sometimes oblongs, not how i had expected the day to start....). The bus ride back was very interesting passing through villages and markets til we hit Phnom Penh and some shopping in the RUssian market. I was disturbed from my negotiations over a couple of cushion covers by Lore and Annika doing the very same. Small world this travelling community.

In fact, later on, after a very nice curry, we were sitting in the Drunken Frog, managed by Martin from Barnsley - a self confessed " legend around these parts" hmmm really, when the swiss girls from our boat down the mekong walked in, we've seen them in Luang Prabang, Hoi An, Saigon and now Phnom Penh - they are clearly agents sent by the the enemy to track us!

And we'll leave you for there, and next time we'll tell you all about Angkor Wat....