Kampot and Kep

Kampot, with its wide river and its French colonial architecture, is a relaxed, charming town with a flare of old "grandeur". It reminds me a bit of Battambang, but more developed. Over the past six to eight years, Kampot has become a favourite tourist stopover, and so resorts by the Praek Tuek Chuh river and quirky Western-style cafes have mushroomed around catering for the incoming flood of white-skinned globetrotters.

Our home in Kampot, the Samong guesthouse

 As most of the other southern Cambodian towns we visited, Kampot doesn't have grand, remarkable monuments –the huge durian topping one of the roundabouts is... well, original. The restored, colourful buildings from the French Protectorate age are nice too. There’s a disappointing little museum with panels explaining the history of the city and a handful of uninteresting sculptures.

The interesting sights are actually outside Kampot: the surrounding mountains and lake, its mysterious caves carved out over the years by the rain, its quirky animal figures sculpted into the limestone. 

The "elephant" cave

And of course, there is the salt marshes and the pepper fields -the Kampot pepper is actually of great quality and exported all over the world. The pepper farms can be visited free of charge and the visit usually includes a brief tour -now I know the difference between the black, red and white pepper and which one goes well with what type of food.

Volunteers sorting out pepper grains

As for the salt marshes, one can simply rent a scooter and pull over at the fields to watch the workers separating the crystals from the water and raking them up into little piles. All under the blazing sun. 

Picking up the salt at the marshes

40 km away from Kampot is the neighbouring town of Kep, which boasts a lush natural park and a beautiful coastline. Although the beach bears no comparison to the heavenly Koh Rong or Koh Rong Samloem's, it's still nice and the atmosphere is really peaceful. Along the seashore, gazebos can be rented for the day. We saw several Cambodian families gathered together for a homely meal... and the ensuing collective nap on the hammocks provided.

Siesta time beside the beach

Cheeky monkey being cheeky

But in my view, the best thing about Kep is... the Crab Market! The feast of delicious grilled fish and seafood is a pleasure for the senses. The crab ritual goes like this: you cherry-pick the freshly fished crab straight from the cage, then off it goes into the frying pan, seasoned with Kampot green pepper a-plenty. Simply mouth-watering!

Crabs: straight from the sea to the wok

The White Lady, decently wrapped up by the locals