Kampot Continues

Kampot turned out to be a great up-and-coming center for the arts in Cambodia. It seems to actually be very inclusive of the Cambodian people, something not always so easy to find here strangely.
Lauren wrote about some of our findings on the organization's blog. Lauren will show her art and possibly her student's art from the village at Lightbox gallery next year.

lightbox gallery, Kampot

August 14, 2014

Rented a different moto to head out to some caves nearby. phnom chnork. after several wrong turns and lots of bumpy country roads we gave up on finding the target caves but settled on some other ones that turned out to be really cool. unfortunately, the caves we ended up at were guarded jealously by a couple of "children of the corn"-esque cambodian boys. One was incessently selling us on his guided tour which we denied about a dozen times, following us around the roads, chasing us on his motorbike.

The second, equally as creepy and irritating, (glue sniffer?) followed us into the cave and told us we had to buy a ticket. "One dollar each. not for me, for government." I pretended not to understand him but L was feeling fairly creeped out and thought it wise to pay him and clear out. So we did and the money went into his wallet. I asked for a ticket so that I could come back later but the government of this cave didn't have tickets. Just wallets into which your money goes.

We were feeling pretty lousy so we ate dinner and bought some fruit and water and went hiding in our room for the rest of the night.

The caves at Phnom Chnork were actually really cool before creepy guy showed up... felt like we were on the set of an Indiana Jones film :)

August 15, 2014 Chris's solo adventure to Bokor Mountain

With one last day in Kampot I decided to ride up to Bokor again, while L stayed in Kampot to edit photos and catch up on work. I left in the morning, filled up on gas (1.25 liter tank) and proceeded up the glorious jungle mountain. No clouds to be found at the summit this time, only the cool air and the deep green smells of the jungle. 

I stopped at the old French casino to pay a visit to the asian squat toilets and headed back down to the giant buddha statue. Two minutes after I began my descent the engine sputtered, fired up, and sputtered again. No gas. 

Having a broken gas gauge and a small tank, this possibility was present in my mind and at that moment it became real. Not able to come up with a better solution, I pulled over, shifted into neutral, got a running start, and said a prayer to whichever god controls gravity. 

As it turns out, a fellow can make it from the top of Bokor to the bottom without once putting a foot down, about a 45 minute coast. A strategically placed roadside gas station sat at the very bottom of the descent sold me a liter of gas from the nationally accepted volume measure, a glass coca-cola bottle.

Chris, just having arrived back from coasting down the mountain :) 

We took a nice walk at sunset across the "old bridge" (which looks like 4 different bridges photoshopped into one) and caught the beautiful procession of two dozen dilapidated fishing boats returning home after a day at sea.  We made our way back to Kat's house to have dinner with her ex-pat friends- sort of a potluck of Khmer street food. Got to see some folks we met at the bar a few days back, all of whom are involved in some kind of forward-thinking humanitarian or environmental project and enjoying the laid-back pace of Kampot.

"Old bridge" 

Boats coming in the riverside town of Kampot from a day in the Gulf of Thailand