KAMPOT

9th - 12th July 2015

Kampot is an expats wet dream, and everywhere we went in this tiny town we found westerners who had come for a visit and never left. We could see why, it was a charming place with a river running through, and many buildings remaining from the French colonial times, albeit rather crumbly now. It also had a great cafe and bar scene, with expats from many countries setting up places - thank god as we were in need of an English breakfast.

On our first afternoon there we checked into a hotel called Vibola, which had AC to hopefully cool my ridiculous bites from Koh Rong enough that I could sleep. We had an interesting dinner that involved green noodles, shrimp, and a kind of spring roll. Then we went in search of a bar to hang out in and found Madi Bar, which promised live music. We pulled up a couple of bar stools and settled in for the night. At around 10 the band appeared - a bunch of middle aged white guys with an acoustic set up. What happened next was completely unexpected, but very welcome - they played some traditional folk songs and sea shanties. It was the absolute wrong time and place, the crowd was full of 20-30 somethings on a night out, but me and Will were ecstatic. However it left us feeling very home sick, Fralks you would have loved them, and Joe, Will said there were a few Fisherman's Friends tracks thrown in for you.

The next day involved an amazing and long breakfast at the Epic Arts Cafe before aimlessly wondering the streets of Kampot. We passed many a gorgeous building, but it got rather hot so we retreated back to the hotel for a swim. And an epic game of keepy uppy with a beach ball, our best score being 48. (Dan, you got to get practicing for Oz, oh and while you're at it, better get practising pool too!) We had a really cheap dinner at Ecran, a Chinese noodle place where they make the noodles fresh in front of you before dropping them straight into the pan of boiling hot water. The noodle soup was to die for. 

One of the few organised things to do in Kampot involves taking a boat tour at dusk to see the fire flies. We went along and spent a chilled evening on the boat with some French people, a Canadian girl and a Spanish girl that was now living in London. It was beautiful scenery floating up the river, and we were treated to a beautiful sunset. A few of the guys jumped off the boat to cool down, Will jumped off to take a piss. The fireflies were pretty shy that evening but we saw a few in the trees, and the whole thing had been so fun that it didn't matter too much. That evening we watched Murray get knocked out of Wimbledon on our flat screen TV in the room. Not the result we wanted but we had beers and cake.

On our final day in Kampot we had booked to go climbing with a company called Climbodia. What a name!!! We had another long breakfast, this time at Espresso, an Australian run cafe. We then rented a scooter in preparation for getting to the rock, as it is a little way out of town and there's no other affordable way of getting there. Renting it was amusing as neither of us have driven one before, but we didn't want to actually say that to the guy. So watching Will explain it had been a while since he's driven and could the guy please show us how to do it was hilarious. He seemed very confused, but showed us anyway, and Will went off for a little practise without me on the back first before collecting me. It then proceeded to tip it down, so we waited it out before setting off. We have noticed that people drive with no regard for the rules of the road in Cambodia, but also that they drive pretty slowly, so we followed suit and got there fine.

Climbodia is set up to be a beginners introduction to climbing, and involves some via ferreta routes through ancient caves, abseiling down a 'chimney' (that you later climb back up), a little bit of caving, and then the climbing. Climbodia is owned and run by David, a climber from Belgium. This is the first sports climbing site in the whole of Cambodia! His aim was to provide a fun day out for beginners, and whilst he does have some harder routes up to 7a+, most of the routes are 5s and 6s which suited us fine. We tried 3 routes, all of which were very interesting and different in their own right. The rock was extremely 3D, which was similar to what we were climbing in Thailand, although here it was vertical instead of overhanging which was very welcome on the arms!

The 1st route was a nice easy climb with the crux at the very top called Prima Donna. The rock had tonnes of handholds and footholds until you got to the top where they all dried out. It was a nice introduction to the other 2 climbs.

The 2nd route was 5c but you could carry on climbing past the first set of bolts to make it a 6a+, called Den E40. Once you were above the 5c bolts, you had to use a large stalagmite behind you, leaning against it with your back to 'chimney' yourself up to the crux, where you had to wriggle out of the chimney backwards to go up and over.

The 3rd route called Sunset Boulevard, a 6a was all about the chimney. It had a nice bouldery start and then a chimney up, I've never used that sort of technique before today and it was tough at first but then I got the hang out it and shimmied all the way up! It was tiring on the legs but when you make it over the top, the views were incredible. It was also really cool to practise a new technique.

We had dinner at a pizza place we had spotted the night before and chatted to a few expats who gave us some Phnom Pen recommendations, then it was time for an early night before our 7am bus tomorrow to the capital.