Kampot day 4 & 5

It rained for most of the day today! I did an 1 & 1/2 hour yoga class in the morning at the hostel. Yoga is something I'd love to do more consistently, as every time I do it I forgot how much I enjoy it, but then I also forget how unbalanced and how weak my core is aha. I grabbed a late breakfast/ early lunch at the vegan cafe I'd been to previously. I was so hungry I forgot to take a photo, but had some delicious bao buns with sesame tofu, avocado, cabbage and chilli jam in!
I had a super lazy afternoon, then went for a walk when I thought the weather had cleared up. It hadn't, I got pretty rained on.
The next day I went back to Epic arts cafe next door for breakfast, then headed for a spa day at a retreat connected to the vegan cafe I'd been going to.
It's a part of the Banteay Srey Project, a social enterprise that employs rural Cambodian women. They run the cafe, a spa and homestay and an ecovillage, and profit goes back into the local communities.
I actually shared my tuk tuk there with the founder of the project, a Canadian lady who's been living in Cambodia the last 14 years. Much to my delight we were joined by her golden retriever, and three 7 week old kittens she was fostering in the tuk tuk.
Once we got there, had a delicious vegan lunch. I then got to change into a lovely patterned cloth is the only way I can describe it.
I made a Khmer body mask out of natural roots and herbs, grinding it down in postal and mortar.
A huge pot of water was then filled with more herbs and placed on a large open fire behind a small brick house. The lid was then put on, a hole in the pot was connected to a pipe, then any gaps between the lid and pot and pipe, we filled with clay to stop the steam was escaping.
The herbal steam itself was lovely, in combination with the homemade body scrub, there was a symphony of smells going around.
After showering all the lovely smells off, I then got a foot scrub, head massage and cupping on my back (which I'd never done before).
The afternoon was finished off with a lovely dip in a spring pool.
Was a lovely relaxing day :)Read more