Day 82- Sihanoukville-Kampot

An early start to Kampot in an extremely cramped mini- bus, 4 of us wre seating in the back where there is actually only room for 2 people-brill. A guy then threw up about 25 minutes into the journey and then we broke down!!!
Once we got going again, we drove through the Cambodian countryside which is stunning, we were both amazed to see hoe beautiful it is. There are huge mountains, palm trees, paddy fields and plantations, it was amazing.
We checked into Blissful guesthouse, which is really nice, kind of French feel about it, and then went for a walk along the river, and lunch. It's so nice here, really relaxing and laid back, and very quiet. We walked to the orphanage to see if we could do some volunteering, but there wasn't anyone around-unfortunately.
We went back to our guesthouse where we watched more of Lost, then for dinner. I had the best red curry I've ever had in my life.

Day 83

The idea was supposed to be an early start to the day, but this turned out to be a morning of us booking our flights to Bali. After 3 hours of searching we went for breakfast, and rented to bicycles for the day. We headed for the zoo in the blistering sun, which turned out to be about an hours cycle. The ride was a nice one, through the rural villages of Kampot. At the zoo we saw crocodiles, elephants and giraffes. The zoo is a tad skanky but Rog got to shake hands with an Orangutan, and we fed sugar cane to the elephants, so pretty cool.
The cycle back felt a little easier, but we spent the evening relaxing in hammocks! It's a hard life!!

Day 84

Having booked our day trip the evening before, we got up early to start our trek up Bokor Hill. We were given 2 baguettes each and some fruit, Rog had managed to eat his before we even started, but it was nice to taste cheddar cheese after 3 months- yum! After a very bumpy ride we arrived at the bottom of the hill. Our guide was a really nice bloke and quite funny. We began our jungle trek and were greeted by the Jungle expert guy, who was there carrying an AK-47 (a gun). This was apparently for our own safety from the animals- scary! Luckily we got ample amounts of free water, as not only was the jungle sweltering hot, we had a steep incline the whole way, which took us 2 hours. The only rest we got was at a waterfall which was so refreshing. The jungle was beautiful and pretty tough going. At one point we had to climb a vertical incline using the roots of the tree, luckily for me Rog basically pushed me up!
Once at the top we were greeted by a blue truck, this however was the bumpiest ride ever!
At the top now of Bokor hill is an old casino, hotel and church. Owned and run by the French during their control over Cambodia, but no longer used after the Khmer rouge took over. It is now lots of ruins, and the hotel is often referred to as the ghost palace. It is now like a ghost town. It was kinda scary. The view was incredible and went on for miles until the clouds swirled all around us, this was a bit eerie.
After lunch and another journey in the blue truck, we started our descent down the hill. It only took us about an hour, although at one stage Rog and I with a couple of others did get lost, but we managed to find our way eventually. This was quite good fun.
Back at our guesthouse and with a few beers, we had our first Roast dinner in 4 months, this was amazing!

Day 85

In the morning we investigated about visiting a Pepper plantation. It turns outt you can't get there without a Tuk- Tuk driver so we hired a guy for the day, who took us around Kampot.
Firstly was to a Salt field, this was impressive and also very tasty! Onto some caves next, then to the Pepper plantation, where we bought some pepper and learned about its production. At the plantation, they also grew mango trees, jack fruit trees, and Kiwi fruit. We tried jack fruit which is really nice. We also saw a peanut plant, which was cool as I never knew peanuts grew in the ground. The tour was very informative.
Although going to all these places was impressive, our highlight of the day was just being in the Tuk- Tuk driving through the countryside. The Cambodian people are so nice and friendly, the children ran after us, or cycled after us waving and shouting hello. The countryside is so beautiful, and seeing all the people working in the paddy fields, breaking up rock to sell as stones and seeing the farming was just incredible.