Rain & Bikes

I got out of Kompong Cham pretty sharpish as I think I'd seen petty much all the town had to offer. Another day of bus journeys ahead.

Rice and soy bean packages

At our toilet stop there were massive deep friend spiders to eat and big bags of fried bugs. I bought some crackers instead. I was sat next to two really nice local women on the bus who fed me rice packaged in vine leaves and banana crisps on the way to Kampot. Very friendly.

and I found myself in Kampot and had my first view of the south coast as we travelled through a little village called Kep. It has a long beach and lots of huts with hammocks for tourists to hang out in. It would have been nice if it wasn't hammering it down with rain and I almost didn't want to get off the bus into the rain and mud.

First stop a hostel and I found a room for $3 a night (cheapest so far!) at Blissful hostel. A nice little place with a great garden, friendly bar and lots of other people to talk to.

There was a poker tournament on last night so a few hours later I was round a very international table - German, French, English, American okay maybe not that international - and putting my best poker face on. 15 of us started and I got down to the last 5 which I was happy with. The two finalists were a German girl and a French guy who obviously both played a lot. Apparently the French guy had cleaned up the previous week so was the hot favourite, but Judy the German kept her cool and won. A big round of applause from everyone at the bar.

Today I went down for breakfast and the place was pretty empty apart from a French girl who I had spoken to for a bit the night before. She had no plans so we hired a bike (bicycle mum, don't worry) and went to find what we could find.

The market

We rode to a market and walked around a maze of shops that sold everything from fish to hats to engagement rings. The best thing about it was that not one person said 'Buy Something Sir?' to me. It's clearly a much more different attitude down here. As we rode along, people were shouting hello, waving, just generally being really friendly. A very different feel from Phnom Penh and Siam Reap - I like it a lot.

Kid playing with a condom

We passed a little beach where some friendly local kids were splashing about. As we looked closer it turned out one of them was playing with a condom (hopefully not used) as a balloon. Lovely. 

We ended up at a temple and started chatting to a couple of monks. One of them told me I was beautiful and that he liked my hair. I said thanks. What else can you say?

Suddenly there was a massive rumble of thunder and Lilli and I decided it was time to head back before a storm came.

HEAVY rain

We got about 30 seconds down the road before the rain came and we had to pull into a cafe and hide out for an hour or so while the HEAVIEST rain I've ever seen poured down and turned the roads into rivers and the dust into thick mud. It really cleared the hot stickiness of the air and made the ride back much less sweaty. 

As soon as there was a break in the rain we jumped on the bike and sped back to the hostel. We managed to get back fairly dry but pretty knackered and ready for some food and a game of petanque in the garden.

Lovely day!