Kep--> Kampot --> Battambang

Creative titl, no?

We left rabbit island with our newly reunited friend Kate. The three of us headed off to Kampot for 2.5 great days. Kampot is a riverside town at the Tonle Sap delta. It's got loads of crumbling french buildings which adds a colonial charm to this city. It's also got the most fantastic remains of an old french casino/hotel, church and palace at the top of their little mountain. This is the bokor hill station. The view is breathtaking, and we were lucky enough to have a perfect blue sky day. The casino/hotel is super eerie with its old grandeur. Plus it was used as a shelter for shooting at Khmer Rouge soldiers holding up in the catholic church.

The casino is built on multi-levels  so its easy to get lost and trapped. I was unable to get back out the front door at one point as the maze of staircases seemed to lead me in circles. This is the place horror movies and nightmares are made. The casino has a cameo in a Matt Dillon movie. 2000riel to whomever can name the movie (I've forgotten the name).

On the way to the hill station we trekked for about 2 hrs in jungle on our way to a three tiered waterfall. It was like being in a giant's play pen full of little building blocks. But to us the blocks are massive and tumbled all over. The water is the colour of rust. The guide was not able to tell us why, but Paul and I figure it's because the rocks have red in them and they appear rusted. Must be iron?

The next day Kate, Paul and I rented motorbikes and toured all over hell's half acre. This included a jaunt through some rice paddies where I was attacked by a dog and drove my bike off the (very) narrow escarpment between the paddies. We also headed out to a pepper plantation (Kampot is world famous for its pepper, some of the most expensive in the world) and to several villages. Loved it.

More on the pepper. I have now eaten pepper fresh off the pepper tree. It's powerful, flavourful and green. It's a teeny tiny fruit really.  There is no question that Kampot pepper is the best pepper I have ever had.

The following morning we took the 12hour bus ride to Battambang. On the bus we met Vince from Belgium who is now travelling with us. Our first night in the hotel we met some young people wearing matching t-shirts. I, being the sociable one, asked what was with the outfits (I said it with better manners than that though). Turns out the are performers in a circus currently in town. This is an artistic circus, not the abused animal kind. We immediately headed out to the night circus to be amazed by the Cambodian act (Puthot) . The acts of athleticism and balance were astounding. The modern dance performance was interesting for 20min and then dreadfully boring for 25 more minutes. The final show was the young people we met in the hotel earlier. They are a brazilian drum group from Germany (yeah, we also thought this strange). They were super high energy and got the crowd just jumping along.

Today we hired 'Happy' the Tuk Tuk driver to tour us all around. Temples, vistas, the killing caves, fruit bats, a suspension bridge and a Khmer heritage house. Great. The best part though was the bamboo train. It's a bamboo platform balanced on two sets of attached rollers with a motor sitting on top the whole contraption. Not only does it go quite fast, but it is easily taken apart, removed from the track and reassembled when meeting other such devices. It was a load of fun and Paul was able to get the best haircut and shave of his life at the tiny village at the end. Paul was the barbers first ever foreigner and he told us (through a translator that his hands were shaking as a result). Fittingly, it was Paul's first ever outdoor haircut, and with a manual razor.

Tomorrow all four of us are taking the boat to Siem Reap. The adventure continues
Linds

Lost in Kep

We bought bus tickets to Kampot but thought Kep looked nice. So we got off the bus early. We had read that Rabbit island is pretty undeveloped and will not stay that way much longer. So we hired a boat to the island and checked into the tiny bungalow guest house overlooking the beach. We were pretty pumped to get into the crystal clear water and get rid of the heat and grime of Phnom Penh. When who should appear, shouting, "Hey that's my bikkini (which she had given to me a week earlier) but Kate, our dear friend from Englan. We met Kate on the bus to Luang Prabang and seperated ways when we left Vang Vieng. She ended up at this small remote island the same way we did. She got off the bus at a stop that looked nice. Knowing nothing about the area she took the advice of Marting, her current travelling companion, and headed over to Rabbit island. It's lovely, and we're so happy to be reunited with "our girl".

There's not much to report as Rabbit island is one of the places where everything moves real slow. We sunbathed, swam and splashed about (or, as Paul says "frolicked") for 2 days. I think we needed a touch of the slow paced. Kate had already been there 4 days, so was ready to  leave with us.

We're now in Kampot. We just arrived at our awesome little guest house. It has 3 beds. Poor Kate ahs to share a room with us. Tomorrow we're touring the famed Bokor Hill Station. It's an old colonial French retreat that was bombed out by the Khmer Rouge. It remains a ghost town today. It sounds pretty cool. After that, not sure. Maybe some homestays and "Community Based Eco Tourism" a great catch phrase if ever there was one.

L

"Bit by a monkey" or "Fun monkey disease"

The 4000 Islands were, to be honest, a bit of a disappointment. They are beautiful, yes, but Laos as a whole is incredibly beautiful. We arrived late, haggled for a room and then wandered about. The following day we rented bikes and explored the two smaller of the inhabited islandes (Don Khon and Don Det). There was this great little Gibbon on a leash in the yard of a guest house. I carefully edged towards him and stuck out my hand (slowly) for him to sniff. He took my hand in his and shook it like a gently hand shake. He then hopped up in my lap. I was not expecting this but he was so gentle and human. He stroked my hand and picked at my shirt. In the blink of an eye he was on my head. I was a little less comfortable with this as I couldn't see him. "Paul, what's he doing, what's he doing." He appeared to be grooming me. He then took off my hat and tried it on. No joke. It fell off his tiny little gibbon head. I was in love. He lulled me into a false sense of security. He then grabbed my hair with his vicious little claws and bit down hard on the back of my head. I shrieked and shook him off. However, monkeys don't get shaked off. They're monkeys after all. He hung onto my tree limb forearm and bit down hard again. Yes, mom, he did break the skin. And no, I have not been to the hospital. There are non in Laos. Well, non that would be healthier than a monkey bite anyways.

So Paul and I are watching out for signs of rabies and aids. That's all.

The morning we checked out we discovered the guest house staff stole our laptop. I've lost 610 photos and no amount of crying and pleading with them would bring it back. It's gone. I'm now searching through the facebook profiles of the people I've met for any photos they may have that I lost. Unfortunately, we lost all of Tad Fan photos and no one was with us on the first day. Those photos are gone forever.

We are now in Cambodia. We had to bribe (a lot) at the border. But at least we were prepared for this, carrying a stash of american $1 bills. 

We stopped in Kratie to see the elusive Irrawaddy Dolphins. Cambodia and Laos have the largest population left in the world and there are only about 200 in the Mekong. It's a staggeringly low number. We wanted to see them to support the efforts of the eco-tourism groups promoting their survival. Plus, Dolphins are cool.

Now in Phnom Penn. The bustling capital. It's a great city so far. Especially considering it was a bombed out and completely emptied (actually, all citizens were forced to leave except for those in torture prisons, check S-21 or Khmer Rouge online) only 30 short years ago. There are now 2million people here. And money is flying. Tourism, international funding, and everyone wanting a piece of the pie has led to loads and loads of construction. There is still abject poverty, but it is getting glossed up and over with glassed front stores and posh boutique hotels. It hasn't lost it's Cambodian flair though, it's not completely westernized. They've developed in their own Cambodian way. It's not all for the benefit of the rich either. There is a growing middle class here too. I don't mean to make it sound like paradise, it's not. But it is developing with the pros and cons that development has.

Yesterday was spent touring S-21 and the killing fields. It was something we felt was necessary and respectful to do. But hard. The killing fields has been privatized though. Which kind of makes you want to puke.

One more day in Phnom Penn and then we're off to the coast. Sweet!