Sandy and I set off early (6:30) to visit the Kampot market which is only open in the morning. Each time I visit a market, I think there is nothing more to see. This market, near the see, has a big seafood section with many fish, squid, octopus, shrimp, and unusual and large yellow mollusk with black spots in addition to all the usual vegetables, fruits, ducks, chickens, meat, etc. Of note, there is lots of cauliflower, the kind that is sort of yellowish, in this area. Kampot is known for its pepper worldwide. We found some and priced it in the market, sold loose and in bulk, but didn't buy any.

We sat down to eat breakfast when I spotted a single woman a few tables over. I went over and asked her if she would like company so we joined her. She is from Australia, came here with a group from New Zealand, spent three weeks as a volunteer teaching English in Siem Reap and is now traveling a few days before returning home. It was nice to have someone new to talk to. Yesterday she had visited Kep where I hoped to go this afternoon and had some useful information. We also talked about pepper; we had been thinking we could buy it in a big bag and divide it up, but this would probably not pass customs if it is not properly packaged so it is good we did not buy any at the market.

I spoke before we left to the woman at the desk about having a tuk-tuk for the afternoon adventure Sandy and I had planned for the large chunk of free time on the schedule.

At 8:30, we boarded the bus and drove for about 45 minutes in the direction of Sihanoukville with Haeng and Pahlla to visit the women participating in the women's savings group we learned about yesterday. Once there, we walked down a dirt path past a small mosque and met with about 15 women, two of whom were the spokeswomen representing two different groups. This was a Cambodian Islam community. One group has used its money to buy tools, etc. needed for fishing to avoid middlemen and the other sells shoes to the community. At the end, a Khmer (Cambodian) woman came representing a third group that has just started. The groups have about 12-15 members each, primarily women, but some men. One group, for example, includes a blind man in the community. The leaders of the various groups meet together monthly to solve problems and share information. When asked how the groups have changed them, the women responded that they used to feel powerless with their husbands and were often treated badly by others in the community because they were poor, but now that has changed. They hope to expand their businesses and make money to send their children to school. Most children in this area make it, at best, to the sixth grade. We met with them for about an hour, then walked around the surrounding village. Some of the men in the village work building fishing boats which we saw. We visited the town well, donated by some Malaysian Muslims. A village industry is growing mushrooms in a dark cabin, similar to what I had seen in Vietnam, but here they use ground up wood inside the bags, and we also saw how they can use coconut palm leaves to weave together to make roofs. For one group of women, they had met foreigners once before and for the other group, never. They had been afraid of foreigners, but I am sure after our meeting that fear was no more. They hoped we could provide information from the U.S. about how they could do better.

From there, we drove back to Kampot, stopping for a few photo ops, and ate lunch up the street. This time we each ordered a dish from the menu and shared; my choice was curried crab with tamarind and the other dishes included boiled shrimp, shrimp with mushrooms, and octopus with green pepper. I left lunch early to walk the two blocks or so back to the hotel hoping the tuk-tuk would be there, but it was not. After I convinced the woman at the desk that I did not want to go to my room, but wanted a tuk-tuk, she finally called and it arrived in a few minutes. We had to pick up Sandy at the restaurant, then headed out of town, stopping for petrol, sold in some kind of used bottle (like whiskey, etc) curbside.

Then off to Kep which was delightful. It is a seaside town known for its crab and pre-Khmer Rouge a big French and Cambodian resort. There were about a dozen small adjoining restaurants overlooking the water serving varied crab dishes, all of which were enticing. We each had a fruit drink and then walked on to meet our tuk-tuk driver, Vanda(?) who drove us on to see the beach, a narrow but scenic strip, with wooden cabanas with hammocks inside built on the ground above. We asked him if we had enough time to visit a pepper plantation and make it back by 5 PM and he assured us we did.

So off we went into very beautiful countryside. It took 30-40 minutes to get to the pepper plantation. We walked through the pepper vines and learned about green pepper (the pepper that is fresh as it comes off the vine), black pepper (riper green pepper), red pepper ( some green peppers turn red on the same stem as the green), and white pepper which is red pepper with the red skin removed. Red, white, and black pepper are dried in the sun. It takes four years after planting for the first crop. In the plantation were also mango trees and a durian tree with a bud (they are in season April-June). Sandy has been on the prowl to taste the durian, but no luck.

We each purchased some pepper and headed back. Now we had no idea where we were and the driver had known from the start and had been reminded we needed to be back by 5. At 4:50, it appeared we had a very long way to go to get to Kampot, but he assured us we would be there on time. Well, after the second motorcycle malfunction (the first on the way to the pepper plantation), I asked him to call the guest house and let them know to tell our group we wouldn't be there at 5. We finally arrived at 5:15 and fortunately they had not left. We drove about twenty minutes to get on a boat, saw the sunset and watched the various fishing boats depart for night fishing. There are also fisherman walking in the water with big nets for shrimp; they wear a head lamp powered by a motorcycle battery that is in a floating basket. It was interesting, the air was comfortable, there were lots of stars in the sky - just a great experience. Panith, our regular guide, loves fishing, so he was right at home with this and planned to go fishing later in the evening. Pahlla who I thought did not speak English really opened up today on the boat. She initially seemed shy, but today she really opened up and demonstrated her wonderful, warm personality.

We came ashore around 7:30 and headed back to Kampot for dinner at Rikkitavi. I had a wonderful beef curry dish, Saraman, which is a Muslim dish originating in Indonesia.

Our two waitresses who were short and thin and young and very friendly and funny sort of adopted Sandy as their new grandmother which was great fun.