Cambodia 2 – Salt and Pepper

We spend our last 10 days in Kampot on the Southern coast of Cambodia, where the wide Kampot River meets the sea. It’s a river place, not a seaside place, a sleepy laid back, once old and French, now old and quite dilapidated back-packery place. We settle into a lovely Eco Lodge, The Ganesha, out of the town on the banks of the river …….where the bamboo huts stand on stilts high above the water and camouflage perfectly into nature. Methinks it might be a little too risky, stumbling out for late night pees straight into the river, so we opt instead for a bamboo yurt with matting. The Lodge is surrounded by golden rice paddies and red earth windy lanes and rural communities, hammocks swinging in the shade that the stilted house provides. The staff are lovely here and the children make quick friends and we all feel immediately at home here.

The cockerels wake us up at dawn accompanied by the local muezzin calling this little Muslim pocket of Cambodia to prayer.

In the aftermath of the Philippines’ hurricane, we hear the winds over the next week, cracking old dried coconut palms from their trunks to the ground and banana trees swaying wildly backwards and forwards and cooling us pleasantly in this heat. Stephanie is the French lady who runs this place with her probably slightly wild, pot-smoking partner Emmanuel, who is as thin as a bean pole. They settled here to build their guest house as the Government seems fair and investing here is dependable as they encourage foreigners to prosper and help to promote tourism, which is an important source of income to the country. The guest house is in the middle of nowhere, and they have wisely made good food a priority, so we take advantage and have a lot of our meals here. It is wonderfully chilled. The children disappear off to play pool, and Millie has found Billie to  play with.  Mark and I can  spend a lot of time reading our books in one of the many hammocks, or swinging seats dotted around.

This region is famous for its black Kampot Pepper and its sea salt. The pepper features in most dishes, served in little side dishes and freshly ground and then mixed with lime juice, it provides a delicious bite to grilled meats and a perfect pick up tang to curries.

It’s super hot here so we decide to start our day early and head out on morning ventures, back for afternoon swims in the river from the banks of a local guesthouse. We take a tuk-tuk out past the town, along the sea shore, past the salt harvesting, which isn’t very picturesque and inland to a pepper farm, to see them growing tall on winding vines, hugging on to tall brick towers, displaying tight clusters of green corns, paling to pink. No one greets us to explain or educate us about the pepper growing process (business opportunity missed here)  so our tuk-tuk driver Toni takes it upon himself to educate us, though we struggle to understand him. I decide to google it when I get back to the guest house….the green pepper is picked and should ideally be used fresh withIn a few days, so has a more restricted life. Black pepper is green pepper which has dried and is purportedly a longer-lasting taste in the mouth than other peppers. The French Colonialists quickly took to it and used it in its cuisine.

The scenery is gorgeous, oxen carts bearing loads of hay, collected by the farmers after the rice has been flayed with a machine.  We pass motor bikes carrying baskets of numbed silent chickens  and pink pigs lying horizontally, their pink trotters sticking out of the baskets, dazed by their journey on their way to market.

Toni comes to collect us early in the tuk-tuk and we all jump in excitedly.We love our tuk-tuk rides. It’s the coolest way to get around and while not always the most comfortable on the bumpy back roads, we can see and smell nature unfolding around us. The children want us to get one when we are home St Margaret’s!

Kep is close by, a French Seaside place in bygone days, with its man-made  but none the less beautiful white sanded beach. Famous for its crab market and bustling with women, selling and cooking their fresh catch of every description. Prawns are grilling on skewers,  huge crabs are being plunged into vast vats of water. We dine on fish and swim in the sea. It’s good to feel the salt waters on our skin. We have decided not to go to any of the tempting turquoise water, white-sanded Islands, as we are here for such a short time, and when New Zealand is next, we know the children will be getting their fair share in the months to come.

Billie offers to look after Millie so we take Jemima and Gabriel rock-climbing, which is very exciting. A Flemish man runs “Climbodia” – he has an excellent claim to a mini-mountain here and we spend 5 hours, climbing the hill, using ropes, traversing it, with the help of via ferratta and then abseiling down 35 feet down into a deep cave which we have to crawl through mostly on our tummies and spend the last hour climbing up a rock face with ropes and abseiling. It’s exciting stuff and we are all thrilled by our day with them. We discover that Jemima has a heads for heights and adventure and Gabriel too. Jemima decides she wants ropes and rope clamps for Christmas (that’s easy to arrange! At least the top bit).

Our afternoons are spent at the Champa Guest House who have perfect access to the banks of the Kampot river and therefore swimming. They also have a 6-yr old daughter and a huge sandpit and swings in the garden. So the children are excited to spend time here, and play and swim.

If only we had another month here. We have really loved this place, the atmosphere, the lovely smiley people, who in spite of a horribly tragic history behind them are now remarkably picking up their lives and their former trades  & businesses and against all odds are on their way to recovering.

The food is delicious. And I could definitely live in Phnom Penh!