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