Day 22 - It rains, it shines.

15:45
I sleep MUCH better, and feel actually refreshed when I wake. The weather on the other hand, is deep in the doldrums. I can hear the sound of the rain pounding down, even over the A/C in my room. There’s some low, grumbling thunder in the distance, which fairly quickly becomes loud, banging thunder nearby. We’re both packed up and checked out by 09:15, and on the pier waiting for our 09:30 boat. The rain, if anything, intensifies. There’s a small hut under which most of the passengers are cowering. Felix and I brave the rain. Initially. 09:30 comes and goes, and some dude who looks like he might have something to do with the boat company says it’ll be late, maybe 10-15 minutes. It ultimately arrives over 20 minutes late, by which time Felix and I have joined the cowering crowds. We finally leave around 10:00. Our connecting bus departs at 11:00, and the boat ride is due to take 45 minutes. Could be sketchy.

Needn’t have worried. The boat is substantially faster than the one we took over a few days ago. It hoons along, and we dock just after 10:30. We grab our bags, have a very quick pitstop at 7/11 and the bathroom, and head for the bus office. Well, REALLY needn’t have worried. Our bus is NOT at 11:00. That’s the Phnom Penh bus. Ours is at 11:30. We park at a nearby café for a cold drink.

Getting underway at 11:30, it’s soon evident that this bus isn’t quite as comfy as some of our previous chariots. As we drive through a heavy rain storm, it starts to leak on my shoulder. I spot several other places where water is leaking. How reassuring. About an hour out of Sihanoukville, we join a ‘road’ that is to be our companion for most of the remainder of the trip. It’s a washboard. A van shaking, filling rattling, bladder bouncing washboard. It very much reminds me of some of less roady roads in Africa. It’s quite exhausting. Happily, our driver ranks relatively low on the loony scale. I watch a movie, and soon enough, we’re arriving into Kampot.

Our hotel is beautiful. Just outside the city centre, with a beautiful pool, and some amazing gardens. The rooms looks close to brand new, are very comfy and well appointed. Not a bad way to spend a few days. We have a cooling dip, sit very briefly in the blazing sunshine, make some vague plans to eat seafood later, and I retire to my room, with strong nap intentions.

22:15
BANGING nap. I set an alarm for 18:00, and it wakes me up. I turn it off, roll over and go straight back to sleep. Unheard of. Fortunately, I wake up about 35 minutes later. Felix and I head out at 19:30, and aim for downtown Kampot. We’re both ready for a seafood feast, so head to Kampot’s best reviewed pheeesh restaurant - the aptly named Kampot Seafood. An avalanche of food arrives. I’ve barely eaten the past couple of days, but am still slightly overwhelmed. I start with a seabass ceviché - spanking fresh seabass, plenty of citrus, some mango for sweetness. Delicious. Felix has a seabass carpaccio with Kampot green pepper. We both expect the pepper to challenge the flavour of the fish, but it works perfectly. We each have a seafood platter for our main course. Mine includes slipper lobster, some squid and some swordfish. Felix’s is a festival of shellfish - pippies, mussels, scallops, razor clams and some oysters. Just sensational. My swordfish is a teensy bit overcooked, but otherwise, everything is cooked perfectly, and served with some delicious dipping sauces. I find myself guessing that this will become our most expensive meal of the trip, but the damage is a shade over $50. Not cheap by any Cambodian measure, but it feels like a steal.

Walking back to our hotel, we pass a bar where a westerner that looks to be in his 60s or 70s sat surrounded by local Khmer girls, the average age of whom seems to be 17. We spend the 12 minute walk back to Emerald Residence discussing the various rights and wrongs, ethical or otherwise, of huge age gaps in relationships. A jaunty conversational topic with which to draw our day to a close. Czytaj więcej