It’s been a long few days! I’ve had 36 hours of travel to finally reach my first destination. I’d be lying if I said my travel time was easy, it was very much a challenge and I was sooo glad to get to my hotel just to be able to lie down and have a proper sleep after not having a bed for the last two nights. I spent my first night in Phnom Penh as that’s where my flight arrived in to and I couldn’t face anymore travelling after! There was a 7/11 across the street from where I was staying so I headed to grab some water and snacks to see me through the evening before putting a film on and crashing. I must have slept for a solid 11 hours, I was shattered.

Next day I was up and travelling again, much shorter journey this time though. I headed to the bus station via tuktuk (I remember how much I loved getting tuktuks last time I was in SE Asia and was so happy to be able to use these as one of my main forms of transport again), I was getting a bus from Phnom Penh to Kampot which was about three and a half hours, and it seemed a bit more beareable as I knew it was going to be the last bit of travelling for a little bit!

I got to my accommodation in the late afternoon and it was super quirky. Jungle feel on the river and had a real outdoorsy vibe to it. I was planning on doing some work exchange here for a few weeks in return for free bed and board and it started really well, met a few cool people who I went to the gym with and we worked and ate together and pretty much spent most of our days together. However, I definitely think it needs to be spoken about around the reality of travelling though and managing expectations. We were staying in what I can probably only describe as a shed (not joking) with outdoor showers and toilets and as much as I am okay with that vibe, I was struggling, I think because I was feeling poorly from all the travel and still getting used to be here.

I went to the bathroom one evening and a frog jumped out of nowhere and I did not know what to do with myself! And then the next day I had to share my shower with two lizards, one was on the wall and I was okay ith that, but then one fell on my head when I was washing my hair and it was absolutely terrifying! To top it, later in the evening went to put my flip flops on and was massacred by an entourage of red fire ants, all my feet were bitten, red, itchy and sore. This goes along with the unbelievable amount of mosquito bites I’ve gotten in just a week or so.

I ended up leaving my first hostel earlier than planned, I had a really great time but because it is just finishing up low season in Cambodia and because it’s slightly out of town on the river, there wasn’t much of a vibe here. Although it was nice for the first few days to chill out and get over my jetlag, acclimatise and just not really do too much, I was now ready to get going with a little more pace. I headed to a new hostel closer to town and after just a few hours in, had met a bunch of really cool people and we did the quiz night together.

I’m not gonna lie, I am traveller without much pace, I love just taking it slow in order to avoid burnout and will happily not go exploring everyday. After I arrived at my new hostel I felt so much more chilled out and less on edge, I could so tell that I’d made the right decision when I slept for 12 hours my first night, and it was so good! I ventured into town and grabbed a coffee and had a walk along the beach / river front (there’s sand, but it’s not sea!) before heading back to my hostel for a chilled evening, including Khmer curry (banging) and a pink dragonfruit smoothie. I wanted to do some onward planning as obviously my dates for being in places had changed a bit now that I wasn’t doing work exchange for a period of time.

By this point, I thought I’d be getting over the jet lag, but it is still rinsing me! I’m still not getting to sleep until about 3am local time (9pm UK time) and not waking up until around midday (6am UK). It’s hard because it’s like half of my day gone by the time I wake up. So today I ventured into town to see the Seahorse statue and to explore some of the locality a little more. I grabbed a coffee (of course) and let me just say, iced coffee out here is increds. I am no connoisseur but it’s decent and it’s a little slice of home. I had a wander for a few hours and then headed back to the hostel I’m staying at for taco night with live music. It did not disappoint! I love having local food when I’m travelling but having something a little more western really did bring a bit of joy.

Next up was a trip to Bokor Mountain and National Park, the day started super early! Me and a German guy I met shared a tuktuk to go and had the best time. We started heading up and en route saw so many gibbons and monkeys on the sides of the roads just in the wild living their best life, it was so cool to see them just in their own environment. We then walked a stretch of the route to see some of the wildlife and saw so many insects that I had never seen before in my life! We also saw some snakes which we were told were mostly poisonous (scary!), before jumping back in the tuktuk to get to some of the old abandoned palaces and to the first big monument. We headed up further to Popokvil Waterfall and spent some here trekking through the rivers to see some awesome views of the two-tiered beauty! Last stop was the top of Bokor Mountain, where the visibility was low, so many clouds you actually couldn’t see down, so the edges of the mountains looked like cliffs of death because you were definitely falling quite a significant way! We visited the mountain temples and then began the fairly long descent back to ground level.

Whilst in Kampot I also headed out of town and visited the Pepper Farms and Salt Fields and countryside and caves surrounding the town, which was stunning! First up was Secret Lake, followed by La Plantation where we got to do a tour of the peper farms and then try some of the Kampot Pepper, which tasted insane (I genuinely just thought pepper was pepper until I tried so many varieties. We tried black peppercorns coated in sea salt which tasted incredible! From here we visited the sea salt fields which were awesome, we learnt about the harvesting of it and met some locals. Last stop was the cave temples which were a little spooky I’m not gonna lie, they were really dark, filled with bats and turning to see shrines and eyes staring at you was slightly weird.

After spending the day with a local it really opened my eyes, Micki was a truly wonderful human. He lives in Kampot and he was talking about his experiences and was really helpful in understanding the different parts of where we were. He said that he’d never travelled Cambodia other than going to Phnom Penh to visit friends and family and it was in that moment I felt really humbled, I was taking out months of time to travel around all of South East Asia and he had never even travelled most of his own country, when I think about even me in the UK, I’ve been to loads of it and so freely, without even thinking about it. It was really nice to be able to spend the day with a local and learn so much more about the history of where I was.

I also did a day trip to Kep whilst here. Kep is a smaller fishing / crab village to the east of Kampot and is only half an hour or so away, I was debating staying overnight but it didn’t really warrant it. We managed to get a group of us together so headed off for the day and explored some of Kep National Park, the beach, the famous crab statue as well as the crab markets! It was a really fun day and great to advneture with people rather than solo some of the time. On some of my inbetween days I just took some time to hangout by the pool with other travellers I’d met and explore the different parts of the town. It’s amazing what you come across going off the beaten track just a little bit. I’ve already met so many incredible people on just my first stop of many across South East Asia and it’s made me so excited for the rest of my adventure.

I have one more day here which is going to be chilled vibes and doing some boring backpacker stuff like washing and packing up again. Next up is visiting the islands of Koh Rong Samloem and Koh Rong! See ya there, Mads x

My recommendations for Kampot include:

• A visit to Bokor National Park, I booked with Get Your Guide and had the best day
• A trip to the Pepper Farms, Salt Fields and surrounding areas, I did this with a local and paid $7.50 (30,000 Riel) however you can book with a range of different organisations
• Hostel: Karma Traders Kampot. Really good vibes, clean, lots of evening actvities and entertainment and a good crowd. The hostel also had a rooftop bar and a swimming pool which was a massive bonus! Dorm beds start from around £3 per night