We were on our way from Cambodian paradise back to the mainland again. We headed on another local boat which took us back to shore and when we got off, the minibus hugged the coast line until we arrived in Kampot. This was a recommendation which came so highly from the other group that we were with, including the two girls from South America, so we thought we would give it a go as well.
The main attraction here was ‘Arcadia’ Hostel for backpackers, full review and link on the previous page. As soon as you see photos you will probably recognize it. The big waterslide that shoots you straight into the river, the float to ping you right up into the air before splatting you back down on the water again. Literally a splat. Do you understand the name of this part now? We stayed in Kampot for five days approximately. We didn’t actually stay at ‘Arcadia’ since it has to be booked in advance, which we didn’t realise. We stayed at ‘Monkey Republic’ Hostel, which was still really nice. (Full reviews of both hostels and links are on my ‘Hostel Reviews’ page). Anyway, the others from ‘the group’ pre-booked ‘Arcadia’, so we spent most of the days there just playing around in the river. The food was good and we could play pool! What more could you ask for?
A huge bruise from the death slide as you smack into the river’s surface, oh yes, me please. The slide is not a legal slide, well it definitely wouldn’t be if it were anywhere else in the world. It wasn’t until two days later when I woke up and I thought I had been bitten by some poisonous insect as most of my thigh on my right leg was purple. That purple which is verging on black but its not quite black just yet. It was so gross but the slide was so worth it. You had to give it a go once at least, and if you are mad you can go on it again, like I did.
We did a couple of activities all together here during the day. We all hired mopeds so we could convoy around together. I was pretty confident on one so Nia hoped on the back of mine and the rest of the boys got them as well.
Someone had found a paintballing ground close by, so we thought, why the hell not? It was interesting, definitely wouldn’t fit in with any government guidelines, AT ALL. If it were in the UK it would have been non-existent. When we arrived the Cambodian man greeted us in his little English that he had, we were probably the first people who had been there for a few days. He handed us a beer, a paintball gun and off we went.
Of course, boys v girls was the first round we played so the boys could show off just how good and manly they were at these male sports. It’s funny.. because they lost. We ended up also playing games of one on one, which was brutal – we were paired up by the others in the group based on which two would make a good match for them to watch. We still didn’t come out with as many bruises from this activity as we had from the death slide of Arcadia.
We also decided it would be a good idea to find an abandoned hotel, on the day the weather was quite possibility the worst we had had on the trip so far. We started heading up this mountain just outside of Kampot, we convoyed with about six different mopeds this day. We entertained into this National Park entrance from what it looked like. There were two guards just sat there and as we drove past just started laughing. “English tourists” they probably thought to themselves, little did I know it was probably because we were mental for even thinking about heading up this mountain in this weather.
As we started to climb this mountain it was getting more and more white.. fogger and fogger. Rain started streaming but we decided to go a bit further. Then all of a sudden one of us came off their moped round a bend, he was ok, a few scraps and a sore head but he was fine. We decided it was still ok to head a bit further. God knows why looking back on it now. We were freezing cold. Winter, England cold, to the very core. But we made it. And as you could have guessed it was very un-impressive.
It was cool, just not for the journey we had. It actually turned out to be an abandoned casino/hotel. All the structure was there but nothing inside, creepy but cool. After we had the best look around we could in the fog, it was time to head back down the mountain. Very, very slowly. We dried off back at the hostel after a cold shower – we were staying in hostels, we just accepted there wouldn’t be hot showers all the time. Then it was definitely time for a beer. So we all met up again and headed back out to a bar, which I don’t even remember the name of.
Myself and Nia decided we wanted to go and see a Pepper farm on the last day. This didn’t interest anyone else in ‘the group’ so we went on our own. It may not sound overly exciting, but it was actually very informative when we got there. Although we both thought we were going to a Bell Pepper farm, capsicums if you will for my Aussie friends. But it was the type of Pepper you grind onto your food. Opps. Still a nice day out and to be just the two of us for a little while. On the way home though we wished we had the convoy. We hit a huge dip in the road and the tyre burst, in the middle of absolutely, nowhere. We went to a Pepper farm for God’s sake, so of course there didn’t just happen to be a bike shop close by. We stepped off the bike and both just stared at it, back at ourselves then back at the bike, not that this did anything at all.
Suddenly a Cambodian man started walking towards us out of his house. “Oh my god, we are going to get robbed. Quickly, hide all your money, hide your phone”. We couldn’t do anything, we just froze. He edged even closer to us and we both had the same idea of just running and ditching the bike.. but then the shop we rented them from had our passports. Oh, f***, what are we going to do? He got closer and just spoke in Cambodian. We apologised for not understanding, we were in rural Cambodia there wasn’t a chance we were going to be able to understand one another. Sign language though is a universal language. Not the real sign language but the ‘I’m going to fling my arms and point to things until you understand what I’m saying’ sign language.
He then grabbed the bike with a follow me gesture. Still worried at this point, but what choice did we have but to follow this random stranger? A child then flew out of the house towards him – oh a family man that makes me feel a little more comfortable. He then walked the bike to the other side of the house, which he we weren’t able to see before, and into his little covered area, or ‘garage’ space, and started to mend the tyre for us.
What? No questions asked. He just started doing it with a huge smile on his face. He was so happy to help us, these random English strangers who equally we could have been just as dangerous and what I was thinking he was just five minutes ago. I cannot believe I just thought all this about this man! What a way to make us feel so guilty. I could tell Nia was thinking the exact same as well.
In about twenty minutes the bike was fixed and he was handing it back to us. “We have to give him some money”, we both telepathically said to each other (you get this way when travelling with your best friend). I got my purse out to signal to him hoping for him to say how much he wanted. There’s me thinking “ok it will probably be around twenty dollars”, it wouldn’t be enough for the help he has just given us, but it would probably be around this amount. Then he held his index finger up. One?
One what? One hundred? Wow ok we have just been ripped off. I looked at Nia, eyes-wide, ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS! But ok he has helped us a great deal, I suppose we have no choice. I put some notes in my hand, having no idea what was in there, as the Cambodian currency just continually confused us every day. He reached out his hand to mine and grabbed a dollar. One dollar. One dollar. One dollar? That was all he wanted? No way. After much deliberating of us wanting to give him more and him not accepting the money, we settled on five dollars. Him and his child had huge smiles on their faces, they then waved us off from their lovely little home. I do hope he got something nice with that, a special meal they hadn’t had in ages or spent it on a feast of food for the week. I will never know.
Our time in Kampot came to an end the next day and we decided it was time to move on.
LEAH HANCOX 