Kampot

Got a share Taxi to Kampot which is about 150km east of Sihanokville. The car was a 1980s camary and we had 8 adults in it plus a kid. The driver had a passenger had a passenger on both sides of him. I was squished into a corner on the back seat. Was only for 2 hours so was bearable. Got to Kampot before lunch so checked into a guesthouse and hired a Honda Dream out and took it out into the country side decided to check out some caves.

Some Young Cambodian dudes offered to guide me though some caves. There was some nice climbs and crawls in the first one which we exited alot higher up than where we started. Some nice views on the climb back down the hillside. Then they drove me on my bike to another cave which had a 7th century temple in it, was well preserved thanks to the cave apart from a stalactite that had grown though the roof. Was also some bats in the cave. Donated some cash to a monk on the way out and he blessed me. One of the guys offered to take me to some more caves and the beach, so I did that, the next caves were in a temple complex, a couple of kids guided us around was a dag.
From there I rode to the coast and checked out Kep a small seaside town, alot of Cambodians were there as it was long weekend dude to A nationwide Buddhist festival. From there we went to Kampong Trach were there was another cave system this time in a karst formation. An old monk showed us around via candle light. The middle of the hill was open to the sky was a sight to see. Started to piss down while we were there so had to ride the 40 odd km back to town in pouring rain, hurts the eyes and face when you lack a helmet. Dropped my guide off at his village on the way back, got into town about 6pm and got lost as it was getting dark, the streets were about 30cm under water which made the many pot holes very hard to see almost went over my handle bars a few time. Found my guest house after about half and hour of riding around.

Next day took a tour up to Bokor Hill Station which is main reason tourists come to Kampot. There was 9 of us plus a driver and a guide on a 4x4 with bench seats. The road up to the station through the national park was bad. Took a good 2 hours to do 15km. We got stuck twice and had to towed out once, the potholes made my arse very sore. But the view from our first stop worth it. Could see Sihanokville and well into Vietnam. after checking out the black palace an old abandoned french manor we hiked up to the main part of the hill station and the Bokor Hill Palace (old French Hotel). Where we had lunch and a look round was crazy how delapilated it had got in the 40 years of abandonment. Two battles had taken place on the hill, once with Free Khmer and the French and once with the Khmer Rough and the Vietnamese. Wicked 360 degree views from the roof of the hotel. There was also many smaller buildings around the hotel including a catholic church, police station and a water tower. After checking out the station we headed to A two tier waterfall, I went for a swim but everyone else piked out. The ride home was much the same as on the way up, cept we saw a nice sunset and some cool animals, including pig tailed Macaks (monkeys), a Common Palm Civet and a squirrel.