Five months in Cambodia: Kep

One week before leaving Cambodia, I went to on a road trip to Kep with four very nice people. I was happy Joanna was going to drive the car, until she turned the key in the engine. I was fooled by her mild manners and calm exterior, it turned out she releases all her inner frustrations by speeding on dirt roads and scaring fragile friends in the back seat. We almost hit an elephant on our way to Kep, it was just taddling along on the road, but it fortunately went well. A lucky boy was riding it home. On our way we stopped at a nice place to explore some caves.

The outside of the caves

Laska and I in a cave. Finally my $1 flashlight came in handy!

Kep was a very calm, very green place. There weren't a lot of tourists there, not a lot of people at all, so it felt a bit magic to be walking around there all by ourselves. We lived at Tree Top Bungalows, which was really pretty. There were some large, scary looking lizards there, I was a bit nervous they would come nibble on me at night, but I don't think they did. Maybe they didn't consider me nibble-worthy, I'm not sure.

The bungalows!

The view. Life was good.

The beautiful surroundings brought out the poet in Laska.

I had a tiny bit of food poisoning the first day, so I wasn't feeling so fresh the next day at breakfast. (But come to think of it, only having it once during 5 months isn't too bad, I thought it might be more!) I was trying to eat an omelett, but I didn't have much apetite.

The sweet people working there got worried about me, and asked if there was anything else I wanted. When I asked if they had anything simple, like some fruit, they gave me a whole bunch of bananas and refused to take any money for them. I was touched! The others were going to Rabbit Island by boat, and I decided to go with them, even though I wasn't feeling too good. Then the hotel owner gave me a lift all the way down to the main road on his scooter, so that I didn't have to walk all the way. When I came down I thanked him profoundly in bad Khmer, I think he understood.

I sat down on a bench to wait for the others who walked down, next to me there was a guy selling durian fruit from a cart. He smiled at me, and I smiled back. It was very warm and quiet, I could just hear the wind rustling through the trees. I could smell a hint of the ocean in the air. It struck me that in a week, I would leave all this. I would return to my home, which was very dear to me, but so very different from all I could see from this bench I was sitting on. I teared up, and felt such a strong gratitude towards these wonderful people, this street, this sleepy little town. It was the perfect place to visit my last week in the country. The others came down, and we found a tuk-tuk.

Me in a tuk-tuk, smiling, not vomiting. Joanna The Crazy Driver in the middle and Laska The Cutie on the left. Joanna's arm is always like that, I really should ask her why some day.