The town of Kampot in the deep South of Cambodia is an absolute delight. It boasts a number of good cafes and bars along the waterfront, most foreign managed with their own degree of Khmer eccentricity. The French feel is still present here, and as the town opens up more and more western backed businesses are investing.

The main local street in the evening is dubbed Fruitshake Street, famous for its ice cream and dessert offerings. The Riverfront also boasts a disco half way along, where the young locals of the town turn up on their mopeds, show off and try to impress the girls. Inevitably a large fight breaks out which will run down the waterfront and back for an hour or so. (I started to feel a little homesick)

It produces a magazine ‘The Kampot Survival Guide’ which offers a firm tongue in cheek view of living in the town. Back packers are referred to as snails, or pregnant if you carry two packs. It also deals with cases of stump envy in the begging community, and the reassurance that public toilets are everywhere, and they do mean everywhere. The guide even offers a 25c discount coupon to offer beggars instead of a full donation. It is not surprising there is a sense of humour here, one bar is managed by a semi naked Norwegian who consumption of err herbal products is legend. Fortunately he has some more sober bar staff. When I left he was discoursing about his career in table tennis, with a very C movie on the very same subject on the large TV screen.

In fitting with this oddball town we passed a rather entertaining building and were surprised to find it was the Prison, I have stayed in less inviting guesthouses. Outside, yes outside, were the prisoners, wearing a fitting blue pyjama type uniform. A couple of them pulling up a plant or two with the rest sitting around relaxing.

30 kms down the road is Kep, which is also slowly being rediscovered although most of the main business comes in from Phnom Penh at the weekends. A number of ruined mansions lie along the seafront, squatted by local families, with bullet and shell holes still very prominent. One still has its gardens maintained although the building itself is in ruins, with clear evidence of executions having taken place within its walls. It has the feeling of a post apocalyptic movie. In another, formerly owned by the police chief, the torture instruments are still visible on the walls.

The journey back to Siem Reap took around 10 hours on roads that are in a dreadful state. This was not helped by each village playing host to a wedding. The larger the wedding, the more the gazebo protruded into the road, the longer the tailback.

********* John is is on sabbatical from American Express working for the Cambodian Orphan Fund. He is currently very board with Cambodian popmusik. Join the Cambodian Orphan Fund on Facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cambodia-Orphan-Fund/155118976226?ref=ts