Kampot, Cambobabs and a daily visit to the hospital.

Kampot has been my favourite place in Cambodia. It is a beautiful riverside town with restaurants, proper gift shops and little bars, most with fairy lights on at night along its bank and has a view of Bokor Mountain in the distance. If I were ever to come back to Cambodia, I think Kampot would be the destination. Its a fairly quiet place, but was a welcome break from the hectic streets of Phnom Penh. We stayed in the brand new Mad Monkey hostel, which was only 4 weeks old. The rooms were really nice for the $5 you were paying and the people even nicer so I would definitely recommend it. 

Boker Mountain is one of the main attractions in Kampot, it is a national park with waterfalls and a fantastic view over the surrounding area. We were told by so many people that the best way to see it is to rent mopeds and take the 45 minute drive to the top. As Kampot was so quiet we thought it would be the perfect place to try our hand at driving them - how hard could it be? 

After paying for the rental, and giving our passports in, we sat on our bikes and had to ask the lady how you used it!! The panicked look on her face said it all, she thought she was never getting these back on one piece! Off we went (at a snails pace) back to our hostel to get some things for our day up the mountain. Feeling not so confident, me and Leanne pushed ours off of the sloped driveway and straightened them up to leave. Off we went, and the next thing we hear is a bang and Lisa was on the floor. It was raining and the road had the worst gravel on it so her knee really took a beating. Without being too graphic, her words were "LOOK AT MY KNEE, OH MY GOD MY KNEE IS FALLING OFF". God, I wish I hadn't looked at her knee, the blood was pouring and a large flap of skin was almost not attached. She is so lucky that it happened there as the men that ran the hostel were straight on it with iodine and antiseptic. I hadn't realised how squeemish I was until this happened, my vision went and I thought I was going to faint on the spot. I had to sit on the floor and while they were offering Lisa sugary drinks for her shock I was secretly wishing they'd give one to me! Off we went to the hospital and luckily it is a brand new one so the standard was really great. All bandaged up we heading home to relax. We went back every day and now, 7 stiches later, the knee is looking like a knee again. Very proud of how Lisa dealt with all this and she was a very brave little soldier!  

The next day, we thought going up the mountain would be a little too much for Lis to walk on so we decided to take a Tuk Tuk to the 'rapids' instead. It was quite underwhelming but it is apparently the place to be for the locals. There are little huts with hammocks in and they go down to the river for picnics and a day out and apparently go for a swim although i'm not sure you'd ever make it out as the current was so fast.

We had more time before Lisa's appointment at the hospital so we decided to go and see the caves, thinking it would be a small cave you walked into, looked inside then left, but no, we ended up full on caving with the help of two small guides who cant have been any older than about 7 or 8 and one small torch. Now, I have been caving a few time in Wales and love it but there, we had proper equipment, a hard helmet, proper shoes and our own head torches but here all we had was some rubbish slip om shoes and a dress. Not the most sensible way to do it, but fun anyway! We ended up coming out at the top of the rock face and making our way down through the overgrown jungle. This probably wasnt great for the knee as Lisa got told off for walking on it by the doctor (we didn't mention we'd been climbing through tiny, dark and wet caves all afternoon).  

The day we finally made it up the mountain (in a car with a driver), it was definitely worth it. We saw a lot but also think we might now be cursed...

We came across and abandoned church which was creepy enough but we decided to go inside. After looking around we quickly wanted to get out but not before I decided to go up to the alter and touch the ripped and falling apart bible. After the girls shouted at me, we walked outside to find that the nice blue sky had turned grey and this thick layer of fog was coming over the church towards us - freaky, right? 

We found another abanodoned building and freaked ourselves out walking around that but found the balcony with an amazing view of the sea and Rabbit Island. Unfortunately, we couldn't see much because  of the fog (as the girls kept reminding me was my fault for touching the bible). Bokor Mountain is worth a trip but I do think doing it on bikes would be the best way, just try to avoid the gravel. 

The best part of our time here was visiting Cambobabs English school. The teachers and pupils were so welcoming to us and made it am absolute pleasure to be there. The school was set up a few years ago as a charity project to teach English to local children of all ages and they have a very talented few teachers who actually learnt English at the same school!  It is a free school for them to attend and they have 3 evening classes per day teaching at all levels. After we spent some time chatting to the teachers and some of the pupils who wanted to practice their conversation skills, the classes began. Leanne started in the youngest class where she taught them the names of Vegetables and myself and Lisa taught the middle level some sentences where we had to include their six new pieces of vocabulary: swim, use chopsticks, do a cartwheel, fly a kite, make a sandwich and play the guitar. For the final two hours, all three of us taught the upper level by doing a roleplay of a conversation about going to the beach. You would not believe how difficult it is to explain some words, like 'should' which comes so naturally to us or 'lifeguard' without speaking Khmer. 

The school was fantastic, all of the pupils seem to love going and the project is only getting bigger. They are trying to raise $30,000 to build another classroom and a library as they have a growing number of pupils. It was a great experience for us, but also it helps the children so much too to hear the accent and pronunciation of English people so if you feel like doing some volunteering or even donating some books for their new library then Cambobabs should be on the list!! 

After a few days in Kampot, we decided to move on to the sleepy beach town of Kep, just a short ride away. Kep was not for me, its is famed for its seafood and chilled vibe but it was a little too quiet for me. I tried some fresh steamed crab for the first time (wont be eating that again in a hurry) and sat by the sea for a while but there really was very little to do and not even a decent beach to chill on. Kep came with the worst room we have had yet, none of us slept well as things were falling on us, the roof seemed like it was going to blow off and i'm sure something was crawling around in our bed. We were all awake when we checked the time at 3.30am and all wish the night would just end!! Safe to say we were glad to get on our minibus that morning.

And, now here we are, a new country and a new hostel. The up side: we have little pods for beds, so not seeing the other 10 people in the room makes you feel a bit better. The downside: its an eco-friendly hostel that only has the aircon on a few hours a night.

Things are looking up, Lisa's stitches will be out tomorrow and then we are on the road travelling to the top of Vietnam with many stop off's and a huge list fun things to do on the way.