Kampot was one of those places that everyone we met said we absolutely HAD to visit. It has earned itself the same beloved reputation among backpackers as Pai – a chilled out river town with gorgeous mountain landscapes and endless ‘happy pizza’ restaurants, Kampot has it all. This leg of the trip also marked our return to the Mad Monkey, the chain of party hostels were it all began in Bangkok.

The bus into Kampot was one of the more stressful ones, with a reckless driver speeding along in the rain, in the dark, on very dodgy roads. A journey that should have taken 2 hours was more like 4 (no longer surprising at this point in the trip) and we spent the majority of it holding our breath and avoiding looking out the window. Nevertheless we arrived in one piece, very much ready to avoid the bar and jump straight into bed.

Salt Fields

We enjoyed a leisurely morning exploring the sleepy little town, lazing around the pool and hanging with some girls from Australia and New Zealand we had met in the hostel.

In the afternoon we headed out to the countryside to check out one of the many surrounding salt flats (Kampot is famous for its condiments, particularly its world renowned black pepper). We were a short tuk tuk ride away, and we negotiated with the driver to take us there and back with a quick stop to get out and have a wander. We didn’t see the huge hills of piled up salt that are sometimes there during harvest, but the mountain views alone were worth the journey out of town.

River Cruise

With Prek Tuek Chhou River being the star attraction of the town, one of the first things we booked when we got to the hostel was their nightly sunset river cruise. We boarded the boat with a lovely group of Mad Monkey volunteers and other backpackers, chatting and swapping travel stories. Once we’d made it out of the harbour we climbed up to the roof deck of the boat to sip beers and take in the glorious sunset.

The cruise offered the chance to use the hostel’s Stand Up Paddle Boards when the boat stopped in a wider section of the river. Despite it being pretty dark by this point, Annie and I jumped straight in from the boat. We were happily floating along on the boards when we spotted a very suspicious silhouette coming towards us. Both freaking out just a tiny bit, we did our best to paddle away from the creature, letting it pass us and getting back to the boat as quickly as we could. We’re still unsure what it was, but both thought it looked like the upturned wings of a stingray – which, upon googling later, we found definitely do live in the river and are deadly poisonous. When retelling this story it will, of course, be the time we were almost attacked by stingrays.

On the way back the boat stopped in a little grotto, to show us Kampot’s favourite tree, inhabited by fireflies. There was a bit of light interruption from other boats, but there were points where we could see them, flickering as though they were stars just visible through the branches.

Cambodian Concert

Earlier in the day we had caught wind of a concert setting up a little further along from the town and went to check it out when we got back. What we found was a full blown open air pop concert with stalls selling sweet treats and balloons, and a whole lot of sponsorship from a green tea brand. We were mesmerised by our first experience of Khmer pop and it took us a while to tear ourselves away!

Arcadia Waterpark

Long ago we’d seen videos on YouTube of the river water park at Arcadia Backpackers hostel. We cycled the 7km out of town to get there, an enjoyable but fairly strenuous journey in the heat. We had decided not to stay at this hostel as it was quite a way out of town, but we somewhat regretted it after we’d spent a day there and seen all that was on offer, from the water park to volleyball and table tennis. We spent the whole day there, largely relaxing in the hammocks and recovering from the bike ride, and trying to work ourselves up to some of the scarier looking water rides.

In the end the bravest we managed to go was the rope swing. Beforehand we were looking forward to the huge slide that threw you up in the air, but upon seeing it in real life, decided it was absolutely not for us. We instead amused ourselves on the smaller kiddie slide and floating around in rubber rings, a day well spent!

Bokor National Park

On our final day Annie, Mon & I hired scooters to explore Bokor National Park, around 30km outside of Kampot.

The roads, built by the Chinese for the large tourist resort recently opened in the park, were the best we’d driven on in Asia. We truly felt like we were on our own Top Gear challenge driving round the winding mountain roads, able to properly drive at speed for the first time with barely anyone else on the roads and no annoying pot holes. It was one of the most fun and exhilarating adventures we’d had!

We first visited Popokvil waterfall, stopping on the way to see the sitting Buddha halfway up the hill. The waterfall was running dry as rainy season had ended, but we were still able to see the impressive rock formations all the way down to the bottom of the falls.

Most of the other points of interest were on the other side of the park so we continued our drive, stopping at various viewpoints and an abandoned church. It was particularly foggy weather but this led to some of the best views – one viewpoint we found was surrounded by a sheer wall of cloud descending into the valley below. We felt like we were on top of the world!

We spent a long time looking for the famous abandoned casino in the National Park, and couldn’t understand why our maps were telling us we’d already passed it. After riding around for a while we concluded that there was only one building in the vicinity – a hotel, and we went to ask for directions at the reception. It turned out that our abandoned colonial casino had actually been turned into this (empty) colonial hotel and was no longer a casino, shame.

By this point we could hear thunder and the skies were looking threatening, so we started to make our descent down the mountain. At points we were actually driving through cloud, and the ride was even more thrilling with the threat of a storm behind us! Whilst none of the sights we’d seen in the park were particularly spectacular, we loved the chance to really test our new scooter skills and go for a proper mountain drive.

Beer Pong Fun

It wouldn’t be a stay in the Mad Monkey without a beer pong tournament, and our last night was no exception. Alpa and Rachel had just arrived in Kampot and got into the spirit straight away, smashing the tournament and winning a round of shots and those coveted Mad Monkey T-Shirts!

We’d had high expectations for Kampot and it absolutely did not disappoint. We adored the quiet, chilled out vibes of the place and everywhere you turned was a stunning vista to gaze at. This photo of the view from our favourite riverside restaurant speaks for itself, how could we not love it here?

Chloe x