Day 109 – Kampot
Full day trip around Kampot, Cambodia
Today we met the brother of the tour guide we had booked from Trip Advisor. As the day went on, we found out that the original tour guide, had stopped giving tours a while ago, and was now working in
Phnom Penh. That being said, we left Ta Eng Guesthouse on time in the younger brother’s Remork Moto (tuk tuk).
The tour of Kampot included a few different attractions, the first of which is the Cambodia Natural Salt Production Exhibition Centre a.k.a. Salt Fields. It wasn’t the salt season when we were there in October, but we watched a short documentary on the salt production process for $2 USD / $2.84 AUD per person. The fee includes a small bag of Kampot Salt. As short and cheap as the documentary was, we wouldn’t have minded to skip it in retrospect.
Workers on the fields seen later that day
We then drove down some super super dusty roads to a Pepper Farm, La Plantation. As the name suggests, the pepper farm is run by a French couple and they provide free tours in English and French. The Presentation and tour took around 40 minutes. The experience was really good, with a very professional set up. First they gather a group of people, and then go through the apparently world famous Kampot Pepper, which has been protected/trademarked (like Champagne or Scotch) so can only be produced in this region.
Super super dusty roads
It was interesting to find out about the process and it was surprising to learn about the wide variety of pepper and the unique flavours that we got to taste during the presentation. After the presentation we walked with the presenter through the pepper fields, which was nice. After the tour we were taken back to the main hut, where we weren’t pressured to buy some Kampot Pepper. Even though the tour was free, the pepper was super expensive, so we declined.
Then we went back on the dusty road to the Secret Lake. The Secret Lake is a nice large body of water, but our tour guide told us we couldn’t swim in it, and it was way too hot under the midday Cambodian sun anyway. We decided to eat lunch at Khmer Root Cafe, which appeared to be a popular destination for people coming from La Plantation.
The Secret Lake
We then went to the Elephant Cave, where a 10ish year old boy with limited English took us on a tour. We tried to question him, to make sure he was still in school, but he didn’t seem to understand us, as he continued to point out the various rock formations that look like different animals. We gave the boy $1 USD / $1.42 AUD, which he took and rode off with on his bicycle. The guide told us the boy would only be working for some extra cash after school.
The final destination on our tour was a Fishing Village. I don’t know if it was just where our guide took us or not, but we just went to the side of the river, with around 4 boats and a few people preparing to go fishing. From our experience, this is something we would miss if we came back to Kampot, but it may have just been where our guide took us.
After the full day tour we were dropped off back at the guest house. The full day tour cost us $26 USD / $36.98 AUD plus a small tip.
We walked back into town for dinner, and saw sunset cruises that go and watch the fire flies. If we get a chance, this is something we will definitely try tomorrow.
Famous Durian Roundabout Boat Cruises along the Prek Kampong Kandal
Travelled October 2018