We reluctantly got on the boat to leave Koh rong sanloem, if we had more time we probably would have stayed a couple more nights in paradise. When we were getting on the speed boat ferry it started to rain so atleast it was a good day to be travelling and we weren't missing out on sun. The journey was fine until we reached Koh Rong, which was the other island and a stop off point for the boat. Lots of people piled onto the boat, many more than the amount that got off at this stop. It worried me the amount of people standing up on the ferry and how the rain was getting worse. But we made it to the mainland safely and headed straight to catch our transfer minibus to kampot.

As we arrived in kampot, the skies cleared and we got to see the sun set behind them mountains as we drove along the river. Compared to other cities we had seen the roadside shops here were much nicer and the streets were very clean. I like the way the town had a relationship with the river running through it with lots of pedestrians making their way up the wide path following the water.

That evening we headed into town to find dinner. On the way we saw lots of people getting onto a boat on the river. We enquired about where they were going and the response we got was 'to see the fireflies'. We managed to find a really nice restaurant just off the river and got a table looking over the street and water beyond. It was a French/Cambodian restaurant which a mixture of the two cuisines on offer.

When we got back to the hostel we got chatting to a Canadian guy who worked there. He was trying to get people chatting and create a good atmosphere. He recommended a good hostel in Chiangmai for us which his cousin owned and it was only a few months old. We were getting excited to head back to Thailand and see some elephants. We then made friends which a group of guys by the pool table. The group were made up of a mix of travellers, two English guys who had started travelling together had made friends with Irish guy a few days before and also linked up with another English guy who was travelling solo aswell. It was nice to see a group that had formed while travelling.

The next day we organised a tuk tuk to take us on a tour to see the best sites around kampot. We weren't entirely sure what this involved upon booking it but have found that tuk tuks are the best way to see a place within a limited time. He took us through small villages, past schools, many fields with Cambodians labouring in the sun and we also saw lots of livestock. As we drive past children would often wave to us, it was nice to see them outdoors and often playing in streams or outside their houses. It was a beautiful route and we felt like we were seeing the real side to Cambodia and its reliance on agriculture.

After a long and bumpy but quite pleasant journey we arrived at the bottom of a mountain. We were met with two young boys offering to be our tour guides. We agreed and they led us up some steps by the mountain. We were shown a great viewpoint looking across all the fields. Then they took us down into the caves. A place of worship had been made in the caves around a stalactite that continually had water dripping from it. They also showed us formations in the caves that people believed to look like different animals. They then tried to take us down a hole in the caves to get to the exit. It was a hole straight down and in the pitch black to which we politely declined.

They then showed us a larger section to the cave that apparently led to the exit aswell. We agreed to go as long as they showed us the way. It was a dangerous climb, one wrong footing and you could be seriously hurt by falling on the protruding rocks bellow. They both climbed the rocks with ease while wearing flip flops and they didn't even need light to guide them. They knew what they were doing and showed us which rocks to use. Despite their confidence, I still found the experience scary and we ended the adventure by having to squeeze through a tight gap at the end.

The next place we were taken was a pepper plantation. Kampot is well known for it black and red pepper. We were shown the pepper they sell and got to try the different types which were quite strong in taste. They gave us a free tour around the plantation where we learnt about how the pepper was farmed. The plantation was quite new and well built. The plants themselves were growing in rows surrounded by shelters made from Palm leaves. Apparently the young peppers needed shade from the sun. We then ate at the plantation, they served us bbqed sausages and pork from a French delicatessen. The sausages were beautifully flavoured with fresh pepper. It was a great day out in kampot and we got a great sense of Cambodian culture. We got a bus that afternoon to Phonm penh. On the minibus we got chatting to two German women who had been on a transfer bus with us before. They were well travelled themselves and really interesting to talk to. Luckily for us the minibus dropped us very close to the hostel we had booked.