Yep, we sure did LL. And, I wish I'd booked Riki tiki tavi as you suggested.

A long day of travelling to get to Kampot, and the first real hotel fail.

We have a private car ($30) pick us up at 11.00 and take us back to Siem Reap airport (2.5 hours) for our flight to Sihanoukville. The car's a clapped out Camry, no working seat belts in the back, (although the driver had one) a dodgy boot lid, and strangely he wore a dust mask on his face. After 10 minutes we stopped to get gas (LPG), he tied the boot down with a rope then asked if he could borrow $10 (apparently forgot his money, hmm). He drove fast, although how fast we'll never know, as the speedo didn't work.

We barrelled through the countryside, sharing the road with every vehicle you can imagine. Battambang province is a major food production area for Cambodia, so lots of agricultural machinery going slowly with lines of faster vehicles jockeying to overtake. The driver spent most of the time juggling calls between his 3 phones. About 30 minutes from Siem Reap we stopped at a roadside food stall because he wanted to go to the toilet. For sale were deep fried snakes, grilled frogs on a skewer, many grilled small birds and fried rats. I bought a Coke. He came back from the bathroom with a handful of cooked beetle/larvae type things and offered them to me. Knowing where he'd just been, I declined.

With a few hours to kill at the new but very ordinary domestic terminal, we lucked in meeting a young Norwegian backpacker. She was researching the garment industry in Cambodia for an organisation that promotes green initiatives and fair practices.
The 3 hours passed quickly.

After an uneventful 55 minute flight, we are met by a driver who took us to Kampot Manor. The owner of KM organised this for us. The drive took 90 minutes, cost $35, and the car had working seat belts, yay.

We arrive at 7.00 pm, to find there is no food (although it states there is a restaurant on their website). The sole person around is the young Cambodian man checking us in. We get to our room which is full of insects, garishly decorated with flouro orange ceiling roses and cornices, pale orange curtains and brown/orange walls. I had read reviews on booking.com which were very positive with a score of 8.9, I knew the place was 1.6 km from the downtown, and of course the photos looked good. We asked for and got insect spray, and of course the bed was soon covered in dead bodies.

I pleaded for help getting food as we're too shagged to go out, and there was nothing in the immediate area. I was handed a brochure for a service that delivers food from a number of restaurants for $2. It was at that moment the credit on my phone ran out, so young Cambodian man lent me his. The guy who runs the delivery service has broken his leg (apparently several weeks ago, so why carry the brochure....)

Then the owner turns up, a nice Aussie guy who offers to order a pizza and pick it up for us. Saved, almost. Nice Aussie guy is David, he delivers the pizza to our room, and asks, "has young Cambodian man told you about the wedding ?" Err, no.
The house next door is hosting a wedding party tomorrow, the marquee was set up, but in the dark we didn't see it. Here's the rub, David tells us that it is mandated in Cambodian law, that weddings MUST be advertised loudly at 5.00 am.

They started at 4.30 am, and it was ear splitting, no chance of sleep after then, and it continued until we went out at 9.00 am, probably much longer. I can handle 10 minutes of loud Cambodian music, 4.5 hours was mind numbing. David then told us the worst noise would be from 9 pm till midnight, and maybe another morning, good grief !

If that's not enough, he went on to explain that the restaurant is not open because he can't source a reliable chef, young Cambodian man is hopeless (D wanted to tie him up and chuck him off the balcony). D had been to Phnom Penh the day before to source plumbing fittings for the leaking bathrooms (ours turned out to be part of the problem) and came home to find YCM drunk at 3 pm. He continued to denigrate many aspects of the Cambodian people, talked about the roadworks next door (yikes) and the noisy neighbours behind.

Indeed the bathroom soon had water over the floor.

In his favour, breakfast was decent, the balcony had pleasant views to Bokor Hilltop, he organised a great tuk tuk driver to take us to a pepper plantation and when we returned at 1.30 pm we moved out.

Sorry to vent.

You're not venting, you're telling it as it is. And the best way to write about it, is as it's happening! Great to read, but perhaps not so great to be the ones its happening to. Loved it, Thanks for sharing.

We've had a few to many of these no seat belts in the back seat expeditions ourselves. It is a question I always ask in advance, but often there is no other choice.

Sorry about your hotel. Sounds ghastly! If I have the time I always check both booking.com and TA. But, as we all know, things can happen no matter what.

I'm still following and enjoying your ongoing travels, sartoric! Even the misadventures of the hotel make a great story (albeit, AFTER the fact!)-- part of the adventure/risk of travel.

Thanks for taking the time to post while traveling!

Seat belts? What are those? Lol. I've ridden in an awful lot of cars in Asia without them, after a while it's a surprise to find one that works. I rely on karma....

Nothing wrong with venting about a bad hotel. I write bad TA reviews to relieve my feelings - usually after I have found somewhere else, but sometimes while not sleeping.

Still following along. I hope Kampot itself was worth the horrible hotel and the sleeplessness!

Great travel writing always focuses on mishaps and miseries. You had it all in that place: noise, bugs, flood and no food/sleep. Wonderful Cambodian law.

Really enjoying this thread sartoric. Sorry to hear of your hotel experience. I can tolerate most things but sleep deprivation due to noise is not one of them (especially Cambodian pop music!).

Keep it coming. Your post are making me smile on a very grey, damp English winter's days and wishing I were back there.

Thanks for all your comments, it's encouraging to know people are reading.

Our tuk tuk driver is Rany - [email protected] or ph 092739695. He's a local guy, careful driver and has good English. We discussed where to go, he had many suggestions.

We start off in the salt pans, Rany explains the process and how now they use machinery to stir the salty mud, whilst previously it was done by cattle driven stirrers. Kampot sits on an estuary so there is water all around, it's very picturesque. We head out into the countryside en route to Starling Ridge Pepper plantation. This is a fertile and productive area, where all sorts of fruit, vegetables and herbs are grown, plus rice of course. Rany points out cashew nut trees, palm sugar trees, rows of newly planted cauliflower, fields of mint amongst many others.

This is a red dirt road and very bumpy, he jokes that the word POThole was coined in KamPOT. The scenery is beautiful, we take a route that circles Secret lake and is ringed by mountains, it's all very green and lush. Along the way children and adults smile, wave and call out hello. I wouldn't recommend this trip by tuk tuk for anyone who has back problems, and suggest if you do it, take something to shield you from the inevitable dust from passing traffic. A kramer works.

The pepper plantation is organic, they grow their vines on brick towers to enhance the plants yield. A stylish showroom offers samples of each of the three types of dried pepper, black, white and red. We had a small taste of vodka infused with red peppercorns, eye watering stuff. My favourite was the green peppercorns plucked straight off the vine. A juicy burst in the mouth.

Rany dropped us in town at Rikitikitavi where we enjoyed a fabulous lunch. I enquired about rooms there, but they were fully booked. The helpful owner did offer up several suggestions, so now we're ensconced at The Columns. It's a small boutique hotel opened in 2009 after conversion of 4 French colonial shophouses built in 1920. Lovely furnishings, stylish art, helpful staff, a delicious breakfast (the best spinach and cheese omelet I've ever had) and it's only a block from the riverfront where restaurants abound. Only $59 per night, bliss. I like Kampot. Website is www.the-columns.com. I felt bad about leaving David, the wedding was something he had no control over, but our comfort must come first.

Dinner was at Bokor Mountain Lodge restaurant on the river front. I had the first western meal of this trip, an excellent John Dory in batter with fries and coleslaw which cost only $4.50. DH had Lok lak, a local specialty of tender beef stir fried with black pepper, garlic, onion and soy sauce, served with rice and a lettuce tomato salad. The cutest little dog begged for scraps.

Next up, we head to Bokor Hill Station.

I like the sound of your new place a lot!

How hot and humid is it now, and is it the don't do anything but rest in the middle of the day type weather?

The pepper plantation sounds like the perfect type of activity to help slow things down, even if it's for a minute. Glad you found a more quiet place to stay; hope you left those issues at the last place behind.

much as we loved Rikitikitavi it was very noisy until the early hours from a karaoke bar across the river. Maybe were were unlucky but maybe, given your other experience, it was karma that it was full. the columns looks great!

julies, it's still hot but in the middle of today we were in a cooler place, albeit windy.

TP, the Cambodian wedding can pop up almost anywhere. I still feel bad about leaving Kampot Manor, but DH is so glad we did, I tend to agree with him....

Crellston, this place is so quiet, however they only serve breakfast, we've been back to RTT again for lunch.

Bokor Hill station is in the Bokor National Park, $2 per person entry fee. We paid $40 for an air conditioned car to take us there. We got a Mercedes Benz mini van, it was a Mercedes Benz in emblem only. The inside screamed cheap Korean import, again no seat belts, and with a high centre of gravity I worried about the tipping factor on many hairpins. It turned out fine.

It took about an hour to climb 1100 meters to the summit. The scenery and views are spectacular, the air was clean and fresh, the ruins of the French built hotel (which according to Wikipedia was never a casino) are interesting and make for great photos, and the other sites including a Catholic Church were also interesting. This was one of the strongholds of the Khmer Rouge, and artillery fire was traded between mountain top sites quite late in what Cambodians call the civil war.

My brother spent two years in Cambodia in the mid 90's. He was working for the Australian government and his job was interviewing people who had applied for refugee status to ascertain whether they were genuine or not. He has many stories from that time that are chilling. When I told him we were going there, he jokingly warned me to watch out for tigers and Khmer Rouge. Sadly, there are no tigers left now, not sad that there are no Khmer Rouge.

Tomorrow we take a slow boat to Kep, where I hope to eat crab with black pepper, crab with chilli, and barbecued crab......

Is the road up to Bokor NP paved now? When I was there in 2002 it was pretty much a track, but the NP was deserted - very atmospheric. Kep was only just getting on the tourist circuit, plenty of crumbling buildings, I imagine it's changed a lot.

Yes, thursdaysd, it's a two lane paved road and very good, apart from a few sections washed away by landslides. Will post about Kep when we get there tomorrow...

I'm still enjoying your adventure. Glad you had another lodging option!

Safe travels to Kep and enjoy those crabs.

Your new hotel looks awesome. And such a deal. We loved Cambodia but didn't see much besides Siem Reap and some rural areas nearby. Have been thinking of a return trip -- Are you taking anti-malarials?

Thanks for your replies.

Crosscheck we're not taking anti malarials, only lots of repellent and crossed fingers.


Last night we ate at a no name Cambodian BBQ place that is two streets down from RTT on the riverfront. Grilled beef skewers were tender and came with shredded pickled vegetables, we also ordered stir fried vegetables with cashews, and two beers. The cost was less than $5, delicious and cheap. To put this in context, we had lunch at Rikitikitavi, an excellent small meal of fresh spring rolls with noodles, vegetables and chicken, pork skewers with a lime dipping sauce, a spicy soup of chicken and oyster mushrooms plus I had a mojito and DH two beers. Cost was $20, I certainly didn't mind paying for either meal.

Today we had tickets on the crab shuttle to Kep. Email is [email protected], and they have a Facebook page. The cost was $9.50 pp for a one way ride. There were only 2 other passengers, so we took the small boat (about 6 meters) they also have a larger one. This was so much fun although it was quite choppy out in the gulf of Thailand, so we rocked and rolled, got drenched and laughed a lot. Raincoats are available - no one availed, and cold drinking water is provided. The owner Jerome has perfect English and pointed out lots of interesting things. Many fishing boats were out, he could tell us what they fishing for, like crabs, white mussels, shrimp or fish just by the style of boat. One passenger was going to Rabbit Island, so we dropped him off first. The trip took 2.5 hours, it would be 45 minutes less without the Rabbit Island stop, the scenery was stunning. We could see Phu Quoc Island (geez I bet the Cambodians were annoyed to lose that to Vietnam) and later mainland Vietnam.

Arriving in Kep was easy, a tuk tuk was waiting, the driver took the three of us to Le Ponton, which is about a 3 minute walk from the crab market for $3. We said good bye to the English guy, checked in, dumped our stuff, and hit the crab market....drool.

There are many restaurants lining the waterfront, some much more upmarket than others. We chose a Cambodian place called So Khaeng and enjoyed fried crab with strings of fresh green peppercorns and spring onions in a tasty sauce, plus boiled crab with a black pepper and lime dipping sauce. The meal came with rice, plus crab tools. Crab is slow food, so 4 beers were in order. Cost was $14, the staff were lovely, the view looking out over the gulf delightful.

Le Ponton consists of separate bungalows, with stylish pebbled bathrooms and furnishings including a four poster netted bed, a small terrace with tub chairs, beautiful garden and a pool with jacuzzi. There's an open air restaurant and upstairs a bar. The price for one night was $95, I'm sure I could have found something cheaper, but crabs were my aim here.

The sailing club is a 5 minute tuk tuk ride north of the crab market, and is a lovely spot to watch the sunset. It's quite upmarket with a beach theme decor, cushions on the chairs (I'm getting really over hard chairs) and 2 for the price of 1 cocktails between 5 and 7pm. Lots of expats and westerners were there, plus a Malaysian film crew making a holiday doco. It was cool to watch their drone film the two small catamarans, although with such a slight breeze they didn't go very far or fast. Salt and pepper squid and grilled sea bass were delicious. This recommendation came from the manager at The Columns in Kampot.

Sounds delicious!