I’ve spent the last few days in Kampot, a laid-back river town not too far inland from the Gulf of Thailand. You can see Vietnam from Bokor Mountain on a clear day.
Kampot is a happening little town with a big personality. it claims to produce the best pepper in Cambodia, if not the world, and they are also surrounded by salt farms. Salt and pepper….aren’t those two commodities responsible for the “discovery” of half the world? Good thing the explorers didn’t find Kampot first… They also proclaim to have the best durian in the country but it will take a better woman than me to find out.
I spent yesterday on a private tuk-tuk tour. My guide Miki spoke excellent English and gave me a pretty good sense of what life is like for the average Cambodian. It has been less than 20 years since the death of Pol Pot, and it was only then that the Khmer Rouge gave up the last of their strongholds, one of which was a treacherous piece of land on the road from here to Phnom Penh. Two million people (out of a population of seven million)were killed by Pol Pot and his followers. These people still bear the scars, yet they are warm and sweet with a ready smile.
Today was a tour of Bokor Hill Station and tonight, my second river cruise. Did I mention it’s hot? We can swim off the boat. I’m in!
The public section of beach that lies between Otres 1 and Otres 2 was the original Otres Beach a few years back according to Marcus. Then one day with no notice or explanation, the government announced that the restaurants, bars, guest houses etc. located there were to be bulldozed. And that’s exactly what happened. Some of the infrastructure still remains here and there, but mostly it’s just a gorgeeous white-sand beach lined at the ocean’s edge with huge trees that provide much-appreciated shade.
