Steve and I  woke to the sounds of chickens and roosters and what sounded like a call to prayer but could have been just karaoke. 

We had a tasty breakfast cooked by David the Australian owner a laid back almost hippy style guy who can actually cook very well. Steve loves his French toast for breakfast and the little omelet I have is delicious. 

  Off we went on our bicycles trying to ride like locals and not worry about anything hitting us! It’s not very busy here so it wasn’t too bad. Down the lane way near our place across the bridge and into the little town of Kampot. First thing we see is a crowd of motorbikes and cycles converging on the school. Not celebrating Christmas means schools and everything else is open. We cycled gently along Riverside Dr and took in the sights. The old bridge now blocked off, locals under palm trees catching the breezes off the river, men playing cards, old boats lined up with signs displaying sunsets cruises, offical looking buildings and the one we like best. The Cambodian Olympic Aquatic centre funded in 2008 by the Cambodian Olympic Committee, the International Olympic Committee and by Daimler Chrylser. Such sponsorship! It consisted of a unfinished building and big fence and two canoes. Not sure if the river itself is used for swimming!  

 We gently cycled around the town getting the idea of merging at intersections but never really stopping. To stop means no one will ever let you in and you’d sit there all day! So we became quite good. Steve bought a t shirt with elephants on it and we enjoyed our daily fruit shake. Yum. 

  Back to the guest house and met up with Pete and El exchanging one present before heading out to Green House. Down country lanes following the river a right turn took us closer to the river and anticipation grew. It was so bumpy. So dusty. Then round the corner and  into a little oasis. Very laid back timber style house overlooking the river and mountains and instantly we started to relax. 

 
    

 Out with the Santa hats. A few photos a few bottles of lovely French Rose. Great food several dishes using the local pepper in various colours and even the delicious local honey. More presents. I received a little necklace from Pete with my name written on it  made by a friend. El gave me a 4 hour pamper at the local women’s only spa. So tomorrow we go together as Peter gave her one as well. Pampering on the banks of the river in timber huts. Sounds delightful. Not sure about the naked swim at the end as it could be too much for my future daughter in law. But she is reassuringly encouraging telling me I look very good ( but I know next to her I would look a fright) oh well I’ll just relax and enjoy.  

 
  
  
Lunch turned into a long affair punctuated with a swim in the river, another glass and lots of chat about the wedding. Better to get it planned whilst we are here so we know what to expect. We all agreed that they being a fairly low key couple where we were sitting would be an ideal place to have the wedding. The back drop against the forested mountains is gorgeous. We discussed logistics and even talked to Sabine the French owner of Greenhouse. So we think we have a plan. 

  Sitting under the trees in the balmy night air was a lovely way to spend Christmas. Hopefully some will be able to travel to this poor country and enjoy the simple charms it offers. 

Kampot is very well known for its delicious pepper and we set off today talking about the dishes we wanted to try with pepper in it.

Our driver picked us up at 11 and off we went to Kampot about 2 and a half hours away.

Driving through the outskirts of PP and into the countryside of Cambodia reminded me of the drive from Hanoi to Halong Bay.

Crumbling buildings, piles of rubble, plastic bags , dogs, scooters, bikes often with whole families on board ( some of the little ones asleep ) trucks, little wooden spirit houses, feather dusters, school children always dressed neatly in blue skirts or long pants and white shirts but not always wearing shoes , women walking in their pyjamas suits, lots of little shops. ……. We passed it all.

Finally it became more countryside and more mountains in the distance. Pete and El love Kampot and kept telling us how lovely it was there compared to PP. I’m not convinced we’ll find it equal to our weekend getaway spots!

After a lot of epic driving going round trucks and little school kids on bikes and older kids two and three deep on motor cycles we arrived at Kampot.

First impressions : old, dusty, eclectic, faded. Later after we dropped our bags at our Guest House and headed into the small main area I revised this impression to fading charm, laid back ambiance , original, friendly, slow and waiting to be discovered.

Pete and El have been here a few times and are wanting to get in on the growing appeal for this little place. They , particularly El, want to open a guest house, restaurant bar. Yes after all the teacher training , Pete is considering moving on. He can’t afford to do it too soon so might have to keep living in PP during the week and teach then return to Kampot and help El set up the business they want to run. It’s still a way off because it’s harder than it seems to do. But they are keen and have been gathering ideas. El is smart and has been using her experience at managing Nick’s restaurant to build experience for their own business. Who knows what will happen.

As most of you know I am very particular and quite successful at selecting our holiday accomodation. Well this time I got it wrong. Nice place but wrong location! Too far from the action of Kampot. But Pete has hired a motor bike and Steve and I have the use of push bikes for the 10 min ride across the river into town.

For Christmas Eve dinner we went to Baraca run by friend of the kids. It was tapas night. Great fun. Great food and lovely cocktails. Followed by a walk along the river which twinkled with Christmas lights I could feel the effect this place has on people.

El had to work so Pete and his friend Nick picked us up in a tuk tuk and we headed off for Riverside. This area is probably more touristy than where we are staying but it has lots of bars and little shops and great views across the mighty Mekong River. 

We settled in a bar on the second floor of an old style building and watched the sunset drinking cocktails. ( poor El at work!)

We then moved onto dinner. Pete suggested a little place with fantastic ribs but Nick the restauranter stepped in and said it was Christmas and he thought we should step it up! No red plastic chairs tonight!

He also knows a few people in the restaurant business in PP so quickly got on the phone and got a table at Chinese House. 

A quick tuk tuk ride took us further up river to a beautiful oldFrench  style villa – all slightly crumbling but stylish, exotic and aging all at once. Nick was greeted by the chef, a young woman from South Africa and the owner a man also from SA. We skipped the gorgeous downstairs bar and went up to the fantastic dining room. 

Great place,  great food,  lovely surroundings and Pete and Nick to keep us entertained. 

  

     I had the best duck dish I’ve had in a while. Thank you Nick for taking us here. Again poor El at work keeping Nicks bar going! 

We went back to Che Culo after dinner and had s nightcap with El before walking a few blocks home. 

A lovely night. 

Tomorrow Kampot. 

We went in a tuk tuk not really knowing what to expect. It was sad. Gut wrenchingly sad. To think this sort of killing, by Pol Pot, went on largely ignored by the world is terrible. 

Pete took us there with his favourite tuk driver through crowded streets which gave way to bumpy country style lanes past lovely Cambodian people living so poorly. Then we reached gates opening to a field which housed a simple path around what looked liked garden and in the centre stood a tall stupa filled with skulls. 

We walked along the  little path with our audio guiding us around past graves and a killing tree. The audio contained stories from survivors and their families about the atrocities that were committed in these people – by their own countrymen. 

Pictures tell the story:

I woke to the sound of birds, not drills and Jack hammers but still couldn’t sleep,  so set off for a walk. Now walking here is like a sport. Dodge the cars, avoid the motorcycles, twists around bicycles and tuk tuk drivers who all move along like in a well choreographed ballet. Great to watch as you walk along trying not to trip on uneven gutters, bits of stray concrete building materials,  sleeping dogs and people selling things from carts. So interesting to watch but then try crossing a road. I got the hang of it, just like I did in China a few years ago. Step out and walk steadily , don’t stop, don’t increase the speed of walking and .you just might get across. Well I got the hang of it and walked for ages. I got to Riverside and a saw few large monuments.

   

  It’s a big city but without the extreme pollution of Beijing or the brassiness of Shanghai or the cleanliness of Singapore. It’s got it’s own unique “Asianness” and has it’s nicer areas. 

Living here is a mixture of easy and hard. As one guy from Pete’s AFL team put it – the difficult things in Australia are easy here and the easy things at home are difficult here. He had started an IT business. To register his business took several months here but at home it would be done online in a day. But he started anyway and no problem here ! At home he’d be fined for starting with out official registration. 

   

  

 Well my walk took me past the monuments and the statues, past the stench of a small creek, past the new Sofitel through the Hutongs of  PP. – like in Beijing these are little alleyways where whole families live in little houses ( I use the term loosely). I wandered for over an hour till I. Realised I needed to get back for Pete’s pickup so just jumped into a tuk tuk. They are on easy option. I was delivered back for $2 

A lovely tropical breakfast in our pretty courtyard and we were ready for Pete’s pick up with his favourite tuk tuk driver OJ.  

  
 

We made our way down two blocks from our Hotel to Che Culo the bar restaurant Peters friend Nick owns. It’s a pretty cosmopolitan place with a very mixed crowd. This night there were a group of local well heeled Khmer people spending lots of money , a tattooed group of lesbians, several tables of expat types and our party of about 20. They were a friendly bunch. The majority were mates of Petes from the AFL club he plays for here. Really nice bunch all with interesting stories / jobs of what brought them to Phnom Penh. One included a funny guy known as G who writes thrillers set in Surry Hills. 

Then there were the girlfriends El has made. Mostly Australians doing jobs like NGO work, teaching, journalism and one has her own successful food tours of PP business. 

Pete and El were happy. El looked gorgeous and their friends were ready to party. 

   
   

 
  

The feeling you get at the Temples of Siem Reap cannot be underestimated. It’s an awe inspiring place and we thoroughly enjoyed our many hours spent there today. 

We started early – up at 4.30 and on the road by 5.  The weather was cool in our air conditioned tuk tuk! We had to use our newly purchased kroma to keep us warm on the 1/2 hr drive out to the Temples. 

The hotel provided us with a picnic breakfast and with our guide Sok’s help we found a spot along with hundreds of others to view the sun rise over the largest and probably the most famous of the Temples, Ankor Wat. 

    
Our guide a lovely gentle father of 5 boys and one adopted baby girl was full of interesting stories and good ideas for getting the most out of a trip to the amazing site. 

We moved off and visited the first of the temples deciding wisely , to leave Ankor Wat itself to the end. 

The pace was good and the feeling gentle and hushed as we moved around the partly restored Temples. 

   
    
    
    

There were hundreds of saffron robed monks ranging from about 7 years old up. Quite a spectacular show. It was a day of blessing for the monk and nuns and they were all out in force. 

It didn’t bother us in any way as the area is huge and we really only saw this gathering when we returned to our tuk tuk to drive to the next temple. The one made famous by Angelina Jolie and Tomb raiders. It has started restoration but has  a long way to go. It’s the one with gnarling tree roots pushing through the building knocking over stonework. 
   
 
I loved this temple. It had a very eerie feel to it. 

   
   
We stopped for lunch before arriving at the grand Ankor Wat temple. What a place it is. 

We climbed yet more steep steps.  All the way to heaven! 

El had her fortune told by one of the young monks. Not sure she loved what she heard…… But ……

Then as we walked out towards the tuk tuk we crossed the moat and Peter and El stopped and walked to the edge. We kept walking and and fifteen minutes later a very excited Pete and El arrive to tell us he had proposed and El had accepted. How lucky are we to be with them to share the love. 

 

   

We returned to the hotel tired, dusty but very excited. 

A night to celebrate. 

We started our day at the National Museum which is a modern gallery, very well organised and labelled for tourists. Typical of the type of service you are given here,  the hotel sold us the tickets and rang for a car from the museum to pick us up. Within 10 mins a van arrived and off we went to start our tour. 

We walked through the four main galleries and got a history of the Khmer Civilisation, the Khmer Kings , Buddhism and of course the Temples or Wats of Cambodia. Really interesting and a great introduction to our visit to Ankor Wat this afternoon. 

We walked back into town and felt very pleased that ‘winter’ has continued today and the weather is very pleasant. No hotter than Brisbane! 

We escaped the noise and motorcycles by having lunch at Genevieve’s a well run restaurant near our hotel. It is named after an Australian woman who gave much to the people of Cambodia. Such tasty food. 

I had green mango salad with chicken Yum. Steve and El tried Lok Lac a local beef dish served with an egg and Pete had spicy beef salad. All delicious. 

   
 
After lunch time for a siesta before heading with our tuk tuk driver out to the Wats for sunset. We timed our visit to get to the ticket office by just before 4 to buy a ticket for this afternoon and tomorrow. When we arrived it seems the rules changed and the office now opens at 5. We waited and got first tickets and were off and away. We got out there to discover hundreds of people attending what looked like a political rally. So busy! People also having picnics and laying in hammocks looking very relaxed. 

   
    
 
We walked up the hill to view the sunset with monks in saffron robes, locals with children, and a cast of assorted tourists some with a distinct aroma of BO. Some people should never wear polyester. 

The stone work at the top of the steep stairway climb was crumbling but quite atmospheric. 

   
    
 
So it was back to town and a visit to the Cambodian craft market where everything is hand made from recycled materials. Some beautiful things and we all found a few little gifts for Christmas. It was set in a lovely garden where we sat and enjoyed a beer whist watching some children put on a cultural show. 

   
    
 
By now we were tired and ready for dinner so walked back towards our hotel and the Night Markets an area full of stalls and outdoor eating. We shared a few simple dishes before heading home to bed. 

We have a 4.30 wake up so we’re out at Ankor Wat for sunrise. 

Siem Reap is proving to be a great place for a holiday. Put it on your list. 

We decided on a late breakfast followed by a swim in the roof top pool. Always a good way to start a sight seeing day. 

Then some more tripping around.  The streets along the river are full of little shops and stalls, everyone trying to make a living : some selling fresh sugar cane juice, wooden items at such a low cost it seems mean not to buy something! And the sculptures along the river walk are whimsical and fun. Elephants, crocodiles, Buddhas , feather dusters and little wooden cages I thought were for birds but are little spirit cages. The Cambodians are wonderfully superstitious. 

Pete has some wonderful stories to tell of people he’s met and the tales they’ve told him. This includes the funny children in his class who apparently as well as calling him Teacher Peter have lots of other little names for him. Seems he’s quite popular with the children.