We arrived at our lovely little bungalow in Kep after a decent coach trip from Phnomh Penh where we had a half empty coach, free water and a croissant! After settling in, we set off to explore the crab market Kep is famous for. It is as smelly and chaotic as you would expect but we sat at a little bar next to it for some seafood. It was quite lovely but why do we always seem to pick the restaurant next to the one with the chainsaw or drill going full pelt as soon as we sit down? The town of Kep is a little local seaside place where we were well stared at for being what felt like the only westerners but also welcomed with big smiles when we spoke to anyone. We walked along the promenade and saw the large mermaid and a few days later the big blue crab that it’s famous for.

The next day, we went for a walk in the National Park just behind our accommodation. As usual, we weren’t early and so it was quite a sweaty walk but it had lovely viewpoints and monkeys to keep us amused on the way. Callum had a good play about with his drone and so felt we’d earnt a lie by the pool before another one of the many spectacular thunder storms we’ve had here.

We hired another moped the following day from a nice man at the next hotel and set off for a very bumpy ride (even though we’d been told it was a good road) to see a cave. We arrived and again got well stared at and entered what looked like a very little cave. It had taken us an hour to get there and unfortunately the cave was a bit flooded. After some discussion, I took my shoes off to wade through to see if it was worth Callum doing the same. It absolutely was! It opened up to what was basically a karst mountain that the middle had fallen through and inside was a Buddhist temple. It was slightly flooded and we were the only ones there – it was spectacular and quite spiritual even for us heathens. Another highlight of the day, was Callum’s haircut. On the way we’d passed a little barber that looked clean so decided to call in on the way back . He sat confidently in the chair explaining with sign language just a little bit off all over .The young barber then pretty much scalped the side of Callum’s head . I’m not sure which of them was more scared by the shriek to stop. With the help of Google translate, we got there in the end but let’s say his hair won’t need cutting til the spring. The plus side was it was supposed to cost £1 and he even tried to refuse the tip!

After a bit of an argument with a tuktuk driver, the next day we changed location to stay just outside Kampot, a small town on the river about 10 miles away on yet another awful road. We stayed in a basic little wooden bungalow in the mangroves with a river view. I know that sounds like mosquito hell but it was actually very quaint with very few mosquitos. We had free kayaks there and so kayaked through the mangroves just before sunset which was rather lovely. It was a small homestay accommodation and the people there were so kind bringing us homegrown fruit and water as soon as we entered the communal areas. We hired a bike and drove to an abandoned town in the mountains. It had been started by the French before Cambodia gained independence as a holiday retreat high in the mountain with a more temperate climate before being abandoned with Cambodian independence. It was gorgeous drive with very little traffic but lots of monkeys. As usual, there was a big Buddha as well as a dilapidated temple and some fabulous viewpoints but it also felt a bit like a perfect filming location for the Walking Dead. Interesting but with a slightly creepy vibe.

Our lovely homestay had organised our onward travel to the island of Koh Rong Samloen. Unfortunately, that meant the minivan from hell for 3 hours. If we had known, we would have definitely taken the dilapidated train we had heard of instead. All seemed well for the first 20 minutes and then it took 2 hours to cover what had to be less than 10 km. The road (if it could even be called that) was so potholed we literally left our seats. Callum was squashed in the back holding onto the luggage and the rest of us wished we could have walked as it would have been so much quicker, cooler and more pleasant. It was eventually worth it when we arrived from our boat however and found the small island was really pretty .

We were were staying in the main resort bit of the island as it had a pool but we also enjoyed walking across it to visit 2 other beaches that had much less development- only beach huts with intermittent electricity. Those beaches were picture perfect and didn’t have the trash that was sadly washed up onto the beach we had from the big Chinese development of Sihoukanville where our boat had come from. The island itself is already being developed and the Chinese have essentially built a dual carriage way through the middle ready for work to begin once agreements have been made locally. It was really sad to see the deforestation. On one of our walks, we also saw a huge dead tarantula on the track. Callum took a picture with my hand as reference to the size but after poking it with a stick it reared up with red fangs ready to bite. Don’t think either of us have ever moved so fast!

We went off on a boat trip whilst we were on the island too. We snorkelled in water with bright green coral which we’d never seen before and then fished catching some of the fish we’d just swum with ☹️. Callum caught 6 to my 1. We went to a viewpoint for sunset with beers we’d won by catching our fish and had lovely chats with our fellow fishers. We then swam with the bio luminescent plankton. Having never done this before, we didn’t know really what to expect but we got into the water with warnings not go too far from the boat. They turned off all the lights and we swam in the pitch black. As we moved, it was like there was gold dust all around us – the more we moved, the more the plankton sparkled. It really was very special.

A 10 hour night bus is next all the way to Siem Reap. Fingers crossed the roads are better than our last experience!