Kampot and Kep, Cambodia

We arrived in Kampot from Phnom Penh at around 7.30. We were originally told by our hotel manager that the journey was around 2 hours. Unfortunately, it was actually around 4/5 hours. We quickly checked into our hotel and headed for some food! I had already looked up places to eat in Kampot and as we love a good burger, we had two options. They were right next to each other and both looked delicious. We opted for the cheapest option and headed to the other one for dessert. I had read on the reviews that the oreo brownie was good and it was! The burgershack had really tasty burgers for a good price so we were happy. 

One thing I looked into about Kampot was the food (obviously) and found that they did a roast dinner here. As I am a big roast fan, I decided to have one on the Sunday. It was really good.

In the afternoon, we hired bikes from the hotel and decided to go to a nearby guesthouse to kayak. We are so glad we did; the kayak was $5 for a double and we had a really enjoyable hour. It was especially good for me as Chris did all the rowing so I was just enjoying the ride. We decided to stay there for some juice and to watch the sunset. We actually left a little before the sunset as we didnt want to drive back in the dark but we managed to see it from the waterfront in Kampot town. We decided to go for dinner somewhere called yummy pizza but unfortunately the pizzas were not yummy. This was the most disappointing meal so far and at $14 it was not the cheapest (compared to other places here). We decided to go for dessert and a drink to make up for it. This time I opted for a ice cream sandwiched between two cookies. Delicious!

The next day, we wanted to visit the nearby village of Kep. We decided against biking there as the roads were bad so we opted for a tour which turned out to be a bit of a con. It was basically a tuk tuk driver for the day. He was nice and was able to talk to us about some things but we would have been able to hire a tuk tuk for less ourselves.

 On the tour, we headed to the salt fields but we were there during the rainy season so no salt. We did buy some to take home though as it was tasty! 

After this, we headed towards the pepper plantation. The roads were really bumpy but we passed beautiful countryside on the way. At the pepper plantation, we went on a tour around tasting the different types of pepper and learning about the plantation. We ended the tour with some more pepper tasting and we bought some to take home with us.

Next was the elephant cave. We were offered a tour from a man that didnt speak English. We opted for exploring the cave on our own. It was a bit of a mistake as it was dark and dangerous in parts. We saw the tour guide showing others around, shining a flashlight and making strange noises. We left after this and made our way back to the tuk tuk.

We headed to Kep to visit the crab market and to have some lunch. I had some leftover pizza from the night before so I had that with some of Chris’ rice and he had some prawns. The fish being sold at the market was fresh and tasty, although it made me sad when I saw the vendors selling crabs that were still alive (he waved one in my face).

The last stop on our trip was Kep beach. We sat here for a bit before we headed back. We did enjoy the tour but felt we could have done it ourselves instead. After the tour, we headed to an Italian restaurant for some pasta! The food was really good; I had the bolognese with fresh tagliatelle and Chris had the lasagne. Afterwards, we headed for drinks with Dan and Charlotte at a local bar to finish off our evening.

Our bus was booked for 11am the next day so we had time in the morning to grab some proper breccie before departing.