Stray - Sihanoukville to Kampot

With Sihanoukville behind us we moved eastward to Kampot, our small group changing again. This time we left behind Norwegians, Christian and Mats, with Canadian Chelsea as we and Freddie (22 year old law graduate from Bristol who joined us in Siem Reap) continued on the bus.

We found Kampot half asleep as we drove in and it never really woke up. Old decaying French colonial buildings lined the streets as dogs and tuk tuks lazily wandered the wide empty roads. The Preaek Tuek Chhu River flowed silently through the town on its way out to the Gulf of Thailand. It was a pleasant contrast to the sleaze we encountered in Sihanoukville.

In the evening we took a boat cruise up the river to view fireflies in the trees lining the riverbank away from the town. It was an auspicious start when our boat started to trail oil and black smoke 10 minutes after leaving the dock, which left us sat in the middle of the river whilst the boat's engineer stood waist deep in the engine compartment tinkering and talking on his mobile phone. Despite the language barrier it was quite clear that we were not going anywhere fast. Fortunately another boat arrived surprisingly quickly for 'Cambodian Time' to continue taking us upriver (translates to 'it'll be here when it's here and not a minute sooner', applying to food, transport and many other things). After this we quickly left the electric halo of the town's lights and were immersed into night, lit only by the moon, which silhouetted the riverbank's trees. Coming to a halt and the noise of the boat's engine cut, we sat in silence and watched the reddish white glow of fireflies twinkle and float between the trees.Read more