Kampot

Kampot is a charming riverside city in southern Cambodia, known for its French colonial architecture, laid-back atmosphere, beautiful surrounding nature, durian fruit and pepper plantations.

We spent the first day exploring the city on our own, drinking a durian coffee (was not really our taste… 😅), doing some workout 😂 and enjoying the swimming pool at our hostel 😎

The day after, we rented bicycles from our hostel and went up north to do a canoe tour on a portion of the Tuek Chhu River 🛶 It took us about 1,5 hours to complete the Green loop. The river is surrounded by lots of palm trees and few charming guesthouses are located along the way. The scenery is really nice, but the water is unfortunately extremely polluted with a lot of trash in some area so we did not want to extend our tour.
In the evening, we went for a free walking tour, run by a Canadian guy living in Kampot for about 8 years now. He showed us a few remaining French architectural houses, explained how the city drastically changed over the past 20 years as there were no roads few years back, and shared interesting anecdotes and stories, among others the meaning of the spirit houses.

Spirit houses are small shrines placed outside almost all homes and businesses to appease and honor spirits. They are often constructed as miniature roofed structures with figurines. These houses are believed to provide a home for spirits, ensuring their well-being and preventing them from causing harm. People often leave offerings of food, flowers, and incense at spirit houses to show respect and ensure the spirits' well-being 😃 The idea behind the offerings is to have friendly spirits gather to enjoy the food and drinks while helping to keep the more malicious spirits away. Some spirit houses are really cute 🥰

After the tour, we had dinner at the food market in the city center. We had a Khmer curry and some Indian food and it was one of our best meals in Cambodia 😍

Kampot is also worldwide famous for its high-quality pepper. The “champagne of peppers” can only grow on a specific area in Cambodia and following certain standards. The region's rich soil, together with the tropical climate and proximity to the sea, create optimal conditions for pepper cultivation.
On our last day, we rented a scooter 🛵 and visited the farm “La Plantation”, owned by a French/Belgian couple. We learned how the pepper grows and the different ways to get either green, white, black or red peppercorns. Similar to the tea, the different pepper sorts/colors come from the same tree but are being harvested at different stages or are following different drying processes.
After having a delicious lunch consisting of eggplant Lok Lak with green Kampot pepper (of course! 😅), we drove further south to the city Kep, famous this time for its crab 🦀
We spent few hours on the beach and headed then towards the crab market to eat fried crabs and shrimps. First time we ate a whole crab, including the legs, the pincers and the head. It was a bit crispy 😂 but very good though!

Side info: Cambodia’s national currency is the Cambodian Riel, however the US Dollar is also officially accepted and can be used everywhere, it is even possible to withdraw $ directly from ATMs. $1 = 4000 Riels.Baca lagi