Welcome to Cambodia and our first stop Kampot.

We returned from Phu Quoc Island in the morning and were transferred to our bus to take us to the border crossing. If you have read our Ha Tien blog you will remember the guy persistently asking us if we were going to Cambodia. Well lone be hold he was there at the ferry port waiting for us. We had to tell him that we had already booked our tickets on the island for our bus journey. This still did not stop him following our van to the Travel Office where our bus was waiting. Both glad we never booked anything with him as he was far to eager and pretty sure wouldn't have gone how we wanted.

Anyway made our way to the Vietnam-Cambodia border where were charged $5 dollars above the usual visa fee we had heard was but no choice but to pay really. On crossing the border there were at least 10 Casinos which we both had read about, asked the Immigration Officer how much Vietnamese pay to cross and he told us they pay 20,000Dong (60p) for a day to come and play the casinos. With Gambling banned in pretty much every South Eastern Asian country apart from Cambodia, Casinos are everywhere especially on border crossing towns with Thailand/Laos/Vietnam.

We got our passport stamp after Jonny had a little bit of banter with the immigration officer then we were back on the bus heading for our first stop in Cambodia, Kampot. We arrived at about 2pm and our first impression was that the place was a Ghost Town. Found a nice little hotel for cheap and then did our usual of dumping the bags and heading out to get a feel for the place. The whole town was very chilled out, plenty of mopeds still but all slowly passing, we did see a guy transporting 2 Double Mattresses on the back which was quite funny. The day was spent relaxing at the beautiful waterside having a few drinks which almost was spoilt by an ex RAF English t*** rambling on about his 24years of service and how much he loves the Queens corgies haha (Pate sprung to mind).

Booked our onward journey as we dont really have a lot of time to waste and still lots to see before we need to be in Bangkok. Booked our ticket to Sihnoukville through a young boy with a plastic sign saying Travel Agency. Bus was $5 for 2 1/2 hour journey which young lad told us was $4 dollars to bus company, $1 to him. Nice lad who then handed our tickets and wished us "Have a Good Life" without smiling which cracked us up. HERO

That night we tried our first Cambodian dish called Luk Lak (Seasoned Fried Beef with Rice and Fried Egg) which was superb. Headed out for few beers where we met Dave the Scouser we had shared a bus with in the Mekong Delta. Had a few beers with him then walked home through the streets in pitch darkness (No Street Lights here) for an early night to catch our bus tomorrow morning.

Excellent, very chilled, mellow start to Cambodia... dont think Sin City (Sihnoukville) will be the same..

lia suhn hao-y (Cherrio in Cambodian)
J + B