Kampot quickly became one of our favorite places in Cambodia - and in Asia. It's a relax town, not so big and with a lot of nice bars, restaurants, guest houses and a great vibe. So far, it's still mostly small scale, which makes it pleasant - not like Sihanoukville, more about that later. So our first day in Kampot was a day of chilling, writing, eating, walking around, drinking coffee... On the second day, we left for a breakfast out of town - and it became an entire day trip.
 |
| Near Kampot, on small rural roads, with Bokor mountains in the back |
 |
| Pleasant cycling! |
The first stop, after about 10km of cycling, was a place called Greenhouse Kampot, a very nice place on the riverside - and a perfect location for a good breakfast! A breakfast with baguette, croissant, pain au chocolat, perfect coffee and mango passion juice - on a shady balcony overlooking the river. It doesn't get much better than that. It's also a perfect place for a swim - we learned that from our fellow Belgian cyclists
Dave and Iris - so we swam in the river and spent a good time at the riverside.
 |
| Breakfast with a view |
 |
| The view! And what a nice place for a refreshing swim! |
From Greenhouse, we knew there was a small ferry across the river, which would give us a nice loop back if we could indeed cycle back on the other side - and that's exactly what happened. We found the little ferry, we crossed, we found a road - which was not marked on Google Maps nor maps.me at all - and rode from there to another fantastic place,
Daom Djah Spirit Guesthouse. We had seen this place online, had read their fantastic reviews, and wanted to see it for ourselves. To be honest: this is one of the nicest places we've ever seen, so beautifully integrated in nature, such an incredible atmosphere, with wonderful food (yes, we had lunch there) and to top it, super friendly (French!) people. So tempted to stay here for another couple of days next week... We had delicious lunch, relaxed for a while on their breezy top floor, and then went cycling again - for 10 minutes.
 |
| The ferry |
 |
| Orchards; it's full of durian orchards in this area, but as you see on this picture, it's not the season yet |
 |
| What a beautiful area! On the "Love Bridge" towards the Daom Djah Spirit Guesthouse. |
 |
| View from the relax area at Daom Djah Spirit guesthouse |
 |
| These are the bungalows at Daom Djah Spirit, don't they look fantastic!? |
 |
| A tough day in the office - again |
Next stop: Champa Lodge, another place run by a Belgian - there are around 25 Belgians in Kampot, most running a small hospitality related business. At Champa lodge we went for another swim, spent some time in the garden, accompanied by an ice cold Belgian Beer (Chimay this time). Not cheap, but so much worth it. Stefan, the owner of this place, told us about a night market where yet another Belgian had opened a real "friture", a Belgian fries foodstall. So, on our way back to Kampot, we happened to pass this night market (yes, honestly, this was coincidence) and found our fries. They were even better than most you would find in Belgium, and the home made beef balls (bitterballen!) and curry sausage just absolutely yummy!
 |
| On the way to Champa Lodge |
 |
| At Champa Lodge, fishermen leaving late afternoon towards the sea |
 |
| Just another wonderful view |
By the time we rolled back into Kampot it was dark; we had left before 9am, expecting to be back around noon, and it had been an incredible day. Apart from all these nice places we stopped and enjoyed, the cycling trip was also really beautiful, on small roads, through orchards, along the river... It only added to our enthusiasm about Kampot! That in contrast to Sihanoukville...
 |
| Belgian fries in Kampot! |
We took a bus to Sihanoukville, as we will be meeting up with our hash friends here (at the Angkor brewery!) and we're applying for our Vietnamese visa. So we had a comfortable bus ride, partially back to where we had come from (passing Prey Nob again) and into Sihanoukville. We had been told by so many people that Sihanoukville is a nightmare, we were prepared, yet it's a worse nightmare than we expected. It's like a war zone, all construction, all dust, all a big mess. We went to the consulate - which was on the bus itinerary so we just hopped off at the right place - then went for a lunch, and immediately jumped in a tuk tuk towards our guest house in Otres. Otres is about 10km away from Sihanoukville, yet all the way it's the same monstrous construction site, one after the other huge Chinese development, swallowing everything in its path. We heard there are now around 80 casino's around Sihanoukville! We hoped Otres would still be spared, and it partially is (where we are, Otres Village, it's still OK for the time being) but not much longer that is clear. It's a very sad and despressing area, so many small businesses have been destroyed, you can see the remainders of it everywhere, businesses for sale, sad scars of what must have been a very pleasant place. It's not clear what will happen to this place once all the developments are ready, but for now it does not look good at all, and it's absolutely a place to avoid! We are so happy we decided to spend our extra few days in Kampot!
 |
| This is the kind of decline you see all around you in Otres |
 |
| But the seaside is nice! |
 |
| And so is the view from our (open!) room |
