Lost Cities and Escaped Animals by the River

Hi All

On the occasion of the Water Festival Holiday I fled to Kampot Province near the coast. I normally would have braved the Water Festival (where thousands of people from the provinces converge on Phnom Penh to watch boat races) but I was feeling like a relaxing holiday, most of my friends were skipping town and hotels were full so I figure I will go next year. I was meant to go with Kurt from Kampong Cham office but he got stuck in Preah Vihear.

So on the Friday I heard my alarm go off at 6am, got up at 9:30am and was on the highway flagging down a share taxi by 10. I hopped off at Chom Chao just outside Phnom Penh and stood around awkwardly because for the first time no-one came up to hassle me to get into their taxi, in fact i was pretty much ignored! There were so many people hopping into share taxis but after about an hour of enquiring I was off to Kampot with 25 other people in the van. A few hours later I arrived and checked into the lovely Heng guesthouse ( a bit out of town but the people are great and they lend u a bicycle while u are there).

Kampot is a sleepy, French inspired town stretched along the river with big mountains in the background. I think it is well in the running to replace Kampong Chnang as my favourite town. I have been here a few times with work but its always in late and out early so never much time to appreciate it.

The next morning was election day and being the pseph addict I was jittery about the end of the lean years of social policy. So to distract myself I went to the zoo, Tek Chhou Zoo. This was one shitty zoo. In my time I was there I saw maybe two staff members, I think they use statues like these to simulate staff members

plus the demonic moose for effect I guess.

and saw some probably quite unhappy animals (although they seemed more comfortable that those in Ho Chi Minh City Zoo) and none of them were riding bicycles so I guess thats a plus.

Still it doesn't fill you with confidence when you see torn open fences and at least two animals escape from their cage including this fellow

Oh and apparently Barang's like going fishing for crocodiles?

Anyhoo after that I returned to Kampot town and spent the afternoon clicking refresh nervously much to my delight. After getting loaded and filling up on seafood in a celebratory dinner, I returned to the hostel and met some nice English volunteers and played shithead over gin for the rest of the night.

The next day we headed off on a tour of Bokor Mountain (which was the main reason for coming) and met up with some older Australians who evidently didn't share my enthusiasm when I started gushing when they mentioned we had a new Prime Minister - but they were quite cool. Bokor was an old town built by the French high in the mountains as a retreat during colonial times. It now lies abandoned and is situated in a gorgeous national park and was the site of fighting between KR soldies and government/Vietnamese soldiers during the civil war.

But to get there required the most amazing ride. Two hours in the back of the pickup up 1000m on the most appaling road dodging jutting out branches. But the scenery was the most amazing natural scenery I have seen yet, giant trees and such a thick covering. It is said to be home to tigers, elephants and bears but we didnt see any.

The Catholic church was where the KR troops were holed up for several months with the Vietnamese/Government troops 500m away in the casino.

Said Casino. Very cool but lost some of its spookiness because it was such a nice day and Khmer families were picnicing everywhere (its meant to have fog rolling through it).

We then started descending and did a small walk through the jungle which was fun and finally a boat cruise arriving back in Kampot for sunset.

A thoroughly enjoyable break and I have spent this week as OIC at the office as Mony is on leave. Oh and I bought an awesome mozzie net (having finally had enough of the little buggers)