July 15th, 2014
July 15…on the move
Well, very slow start to the day…knowing full well we don’t have to be anywhere until 2-2:15pm to catch the VIP minibus to Kampot. They are going to pick us up at our hotel….which is nice because then we don’t have to try to find the bus depot. 😳
Sure as can be, they are right on time and we are the first ones on. Always an adventure to see what they do with luggage. Since is it a minibus (glorified name for a full size van), there is no place to put luggage, not like in a coach where there is storage under or over. So the stack beside the driver starts to grow. And with us being the first stop, guess what, ours is on the very bottom. We drove around the area picking up travelers. There was about 8 people by the time all this occurred and we were thinking “sweet!” We can spread out, get comfy. Hahahahahahahaha! Nope, we then stopped at the bus depot and filled that puppy up to the brim wih 16 or 17 people. Could have gotten a couple more people in if they had flipped out the extra stow away seats in the aisle…..but thankfully they didn’t do that. At the stroke of 2:45pm we were out of the station just as promised. They must have done this once or twice before eh? 😉😉
Here is our sweet ride!
Troy loves the minibus selfie…..so I had to torture him with it again. Sometimes we ask others to take it for us (actually how we met Jackie and Bruce in Laos 2 years ago). But since we were the first ones on, we (I) resort to the selfie.
The ride took 3hr and 15 minutes. So very close to the actual estimate of 3 hours we were told. I am very impressed! Not much to note on the ride, very flat countryside, rural farming pretty much. We came across a massive collection of trucks that were loaded to the gills with people. If I had to guess I would say there was a factory shift that was just being released and these were folks riding home. Love their efficiency….
We pull into Kampot and I can already say I like it better than Phnom Penh. So much smaller and quieter. WAY more our speed. As the driver opens the side door, there is a gathering of men maybe 6-8 that are anxiously unloading all the luggage. They carry it inside the depot and I’m like, ” UH!!” But then they let us off and I see what the system is. These are Tuk Tuk drivers who eagerly want to know where we are going? Can they drive us etc etc. Here we go….so we get a driver to agree to $2 (down from $3) to take us to our hotel (The Natural Bungalows). Then he starts to hard sell us on other tours. “We will see”I say.
It was a very short ride to the hotel, but certainly too far to walk with our 15K backpacks plus camera bags etc. so good enough deal for $2. Once we got to the hotel, we did agree to have him come back the next day to take us on a tour of the countryside. It was going to be $25 for the whole day….sounds reasonable enough.
The hotel is a very neat place. Quiet and right on the river. I don’t have pictures yet, bcz I keep forgetting my camera, but I will take some. The view from the restaurant is stunning. It’s right on the river.
We walked around a bit trying to find a place called the Rusty Keyhole which had been recommended. But it was closed once we found it, so we went to a place right beside it that serves local food. I gave the Lok Lak another go. With pork this time. Also very very tasty, but honestly, either I didn’t get pork or the pork here is just as chewy as beef. 😳😳
We came back to the hotel and had ice cream out on the pier/wharf restaurant. What a lovely end to the day.
