 |
| Piles of dried shrimp (Ha-gow in Cantonese) |
 |
| Grilled chicken on skewers |
 |
| Fresh King Coconuts |
So from temples to tummy aches we spent the day resting in bodhi villa, i lay on the bed listening to Gilles peterson's podcast with the famous reggae DJ Roddigan, being lulled to sleep by the sounds of Peter Tosh and Bob Marley. I'd decided to go on a coconut fast but the hunger pangs kept coming, come evening i'd given up and ordered a delicious plate of fresh veg. hummous and crispy baguette (which i fairly shared with mum). For pudding we had hot banana's in sago and coconut milk - it soothed my tummy and after a lovely chat with one of the long-term bartenders we went to sleep soundly. Actually the chat was very interesting - he spoke of leaving his mother for 10 years at 15 years old to go and find work and a more satisfying (financially) lifestyle - his reason for not going back to his mum was he couldn't keep intouch as she doesn't have a phone, internet and is illiterate (no letters)... He knew whereabouts his house was but could never remember the address - so after 10 years of the dissapearance of one of her 5 sons (considered a small amount of kids for a local cambodian family), she was stunned into silence on his return. Influenced majorly by his boss (a very cool, chill Aus. who spends his day running the hippie guest house, swimming in the Mekong, and smoking spliffs) he's off to Australia to see what he can find there. I couldn't help thinking the road ahead of him involved a lot more rough edges than he could foresee but I sent positive vibes for him.
 |
| Fresh crabs in a basket |
The natural light of the sun streamed through the open space lying infront of our bed above the river, and we woke - did our regular yoga routine, and had a scrumtious breakfast of muesli, yogurt and fruit on the dock with our feet dangling into the Mekong. The day before we'd gone on a little bike-ride through Kampot - it wasn't as quaint as we'd expected, but there were some beautiful touches that could be seen in the French quarter, the elaborate designes on the eaves of the buildings, the sweet french cafe's etc. It was a Friday, and a big night was planned at the Bodhi Villa due to the departure of their long-term bartender. We decided if we had to wake up the following day at 6am to get our bus to Phnom Penh, a little shut-eye would go a long way. So we packed up and waved goodbye to the 60's, rainforest style, hippie California guest house - those adjectives seem most suitable. We moved everything (again.) to Bokor mountain guest house in the heart of Kampot town - the room smelt a little and the view wasn't great but there was TV, wifi, AC, our OWN bathroom and soft beds so we had no complaints. However when the electricity chose to only burn out in our room - we got upgraded to the room opposite which smelt nice and had a nice view, so we were sorted!
We looked around at the 'old palace' and 'old buildings' that were all only 100 years old, just abandoned, ugly houses really which squatters had taken over.
We dawdled around in the room, packing, checking our emails, the usual. Then we got a little peckish - our bellies were still bloated (I soon discovered bowel movements is one of the first conversation most travellers have as everyone seems to experience either constipation or the runs - neither being particularly pleasant.)
We went back to the guesthouse we were originally going to stay at, Rikitikitavi - and ordered yogurt, chicken wraps and a wonton dish. With fresh apple pie and vanilla ice cream for pud! The spliff before dinner just made the food sparkle and burst in my mouth.The plan to watch a movie slightly failed and we crashed out comfortably.
 |
| Fresh Vs. Cooked crabs :o |
The morning after our Kep adventure, which we truly loved despite the grey clouds (it brightened up at times), we boarded our 7am bus. The bus we'd chosen to take so early because it would take the 'fast route' ended up arriving just after 12. Atleast we stopped on the way! Munching on boiled eggs with kampot pepper, and a fresh king coconut, we had no complaints. Unfortunately the public toilets aren't as well-kept as Hong Kong, but a toilet's a toilet - and when you're sitting for 3 hours on a bus bursting to go, anything will suffice.
We arrive in Pnom Penh, dump our stuff at our rather clubby hotel 'Number 9' (the manager looked like a pimp in a suit coming to greet us, lights flashed all round and the bartender was pacing back and forth trying to make eye contact and seduce you into buying a 'buy one get one free cocktail!') and we stretched into our body glove (yoga time!) I love that yoga orientates you, it brings you back and calms you down amidst whatever chaos exists at the time.
 |
| Notorious Kampot pepper crab |
We shared a little spliff by the tiny pool on the third floor, overlooking a busy Saturday in Phnom Penh, and headed off to 'quickly collect' our dresses from the beautiful French-Cambodian shop that had totally seduced us ,'Ambre' (definately reccomended!) Our vulnerability got the better of us and we ended up trying on multiple dresses and purchasing 4 more items (To be fair we had saved on transport and accomodation.)
 |
| Apple pie and ice cream! |
Our girly day wouldn't be intact without a delicious lunch (of peppered tuna, goats cheese salad and ginger/ soya halibut) and a trip to the hair salon! I've been obsessed with having some sort of radical change but went slightly safer (but still shorter!) with a meek side fringe. I had it straightened so combing through my seemingly thin, soft hair was all I did for the next few hours - allowing vanity to get the better of me. We returned to our room, got ready, and headed out to dinner with a yogi-friend of mums, Anna. When she turned up, all i saw was legs and blonde hair, a beautiful tall, blonde Russian woman who had amazingly had a child 6 months ago (you would never tell) pulled up in her big kundalini white four wheel drive. We felt suitable in our new dresses with our hair swishing back and forth. We were being taken to 'China house', i assumed this would mean plastic chairs and chopsticks but it was a very flashy two-floored resteraunt with beautiful modern art and dim orangy lighting. The women at the restaurant were all dressed to dine, long beautiful dresses and elegant hair pieces, we felt under-dressed! We were greeted with a shot of fresh gazpacho - followed by a salad, lamb skewers, lentil and avocado salad and for dessert, apple tempura with vanilla walnut ice cream! AH. They give you a taste of their rich dark hazlenut chocolate to top it all off. The wine slipped down, my temperature rose and the conversation lifted - it was a fabulous night. Sealed with a spliff, mum and I fell into deep sleep in our comfy beds (despite the room smelling like perming solution) for our last night in Phnom Penh.
Recipe of the day: Kampot black pepper crab
No comments:
Post a Comment