On early Monday morning, we left the island of Koh Rong by ferry and finally arrived back in Sihanoukville, from where a minibus took us to Kampot for about two hours. On the way there, we met a young Englishman named Mike. A funny guy with, as we would discover throughout the day, a great love for beer. He not only took us to an affordable hostel, but also took us on a boat tour in the evening. It took us downstream, from where we could first enjoy the sunset and then the fireflies that were native there. Some of you may think it was totally romantic.
Anyway, we had forgotten to put on mosquito repellent and after nightfall, we were almost eaten alive by the little critters. With completely bitten legs, we finally returned to the starting point and came back to the hostel to have some of the drinks favored by Mike. A Canadian named Hanna joined us. While we were following the fifth defeat of the Schalke season on the laptop at the same time, we agreed to use the next day to explore the Bokor Highlands, which were right next to the city, with rented scooters. Since Hanna and Mike had never ridden a scooter before, we were designated as the drivers of the two scooters and both were instructed not to have an accident. In fact, when traveling in this region, you often see Western tourists with large abrasions on many different parts of their bodies, which are caused by these frequent accidents with scooters. As experienced scooter pilots, we were more than capable of handling this task. So we first left the city and then followed a one-hour, steep and winding road to the summit. Past waterfalls and pompous Buddha statues, we finally reached the high plateau, where the weather and temperatures were much more uncomfortable than before.
Although we had already been warned about it, Michael and Mike forgot to bring a sweater, which they bitterly regretted when they got to the top. Since none of us had eaten anything since breakfast, we first stopped at a huge, ostentatious hotel built by the Chinese to strengthen ourselves there. We had to wait there longer because it had started raining in the meantime. When the rain finally stopped, we continued along the road to an old, abandoned casino from the French colonial era. It looked like it had come out of a horror film and it was a eerie feeling to walk through those old walls. But the view from the roof of the building was simply breathtaking. It was quite close to the edge of a cliff about 1000 meters high. Although this height could only be seen in short time windows due to the clouds, the detour was still worth it for those few moments. The way back down to the valley was a lot of fun. At least for the scooter on which the two people sat who had remembered their sweaters. Micha and Mike initially had enough to do with the cold and could only enjoy the descent once we broke through the cloud cover again. In the end, all four of us survived the scooter trip and as a reward there were a few cold ones in the evening...well, you know. The next day we drove to the town of Kep, which was about 30 kilometers away (haha! finally some cities that can be pronounced), where a beach was promised to us and it is known for its crab dishes. Sand and sea were there, but the beach didn't really invite us to swim, so we just drove along the coast until we reached a national park where there was nothing to see besides the road and trees. So we decided, although we won't see another beach for the next few weeks until we reach the west coast of Myanmar, to slowly make our way back to Kampot and have something to eat at the next opportunity. However, since the situation we found there somewhat spoiled our mood, and maybe Mike's favorite drink had its own effect, instead of a crab, we ordered our daily portion of fried noodles with chicken (which, by the way, taste completely different in every restaurant). However, they did not set the world record in fast cooking there either. That's it for Kep.
All in all, our conclusion is that Kampot and its mountains are definitely worth a visit, but you can leave out Kep and, for example, continue to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.
