So we wake up, pack our bags, grab some breakfast and hop on our bus. It was a short, but rainy ride to the sleepy fishing village of Kep. Once we got there (aka a couple of tourist agencies and the beach), we started our search for accommodations. After several hours of shenanigans (including exploring the 'town' a bit) we dropped our bags and headed for the crab market (pretty much the reason we came to Kep). Kep is well known for its seafood, and its pretty much just a little fishing village, with a couple of hostels, and couple of tourist agencies, lots of hammocks strung up under large platforms, and the crab market. So, the crab market. A line of semi-shacks line the water, with freshly skewered and grilled squid and fish at the front of each shop. Most of the places looked pretty similar, so we just picked one, and grabbed some chairs facing the water (sigh, a bit too late to catch the sunset). We ordered a plate of fried crabs with fresh green pepper (from the nearby plantation), a grilled fish (really have no idea what kind, but it had teeth, so my guess is piranha! but that's probably wrong ha), some grilled squid, and of course noodles for good measure. The crabs were about hand-size, and absolutely delicious, especially when complemented with the pepper. The squid was, well, a bit chewy, but in a great sauce. It even came with the eyeballs, which we of course avoided. The fish was absolutley delicious--white, fatty, tender--and we ate it ravenously, crispy skin and all. Stuffed to the brim, we paid our $15 tab (yowzah) and headed back to our hostel. At first glance the room looked fine, but upon second glance it was rather disgusting. The floor wasn't even swept, there was a cockroach on the floor (we later killed a huge spider), the trashcan was full, the bathroom was super smelly and mildewy (most bathrooms around here are more like shower-rooms...there's a toilet, sink, a showerhead, and a drain in the floor. no bath, door or anything to separate the shower area). There was a chopstick in the drain that you had to wiggle around so the water would go down. And there were holes in the 'sheet'. Needless to say, it was the only night we were gonna stay there. We crawled into our sleepsacks, too grossed out to lie on the sheets, and passed out.
Oct 20: Pepper farm, caves and flat fucking tires
We started the morning with our first Vietnamese coffee of the trip (yes!) and some eggs and baguette (since Cambodia was a French colony, everything is served with baguette and the older generation speaks French). We rented a moto, filled her up with gas, and headed 25k down the highway to the caves. We drove to a little town outside Kep, where some large limestone formations could been seen slightly out of town. We assumed this is where the caves were, and despite the lack of signage, we decided to turn down a dirt road heading towards the formations. While driving towards them, we are pointed by several children in the right direction, who then began to follow us. We arrived with a posse of 3 children and a young woman, who introduced us to a tour guide. We followed the guide, along with our newly acquired posse, who showed us all the formations while speaking in almost unison (aka tongue of dragon, or elephant, or alligator, etc). We understood about 25% or so of what the guide was saying...haha. He showed us a few Buddhas, but unfortunately, most of the caves had too much water to walk around in. A bit disappointed, we decided to climb to the top of the formations, which we assumed would be a rather leisureley stroll. wrong. It was pretty much rock climbing through the jungle, and we were a teensy bit afraid of falling to our deaths before we made it to the top. Luckily, there was no falling to our deaths, and we made it to the top, completely sweaty and scratched up, enjoyed the view for a few mins, and then climbed down. Phil was literally drenched in sweat, so we decided it was a good time for a moto-ride to cool ourselves off. We stopped in the town for some lunch. We walked up to this lady's table (it had some dried noodles on it) and pointed to the noodles. She, in turn, pointed to her pots of boiling liquid and said something we didn't understand. So we hung around for a few minutes (after which she started setting up her food stand--pulling out display cabinets with more noodles, pulling some whole chickens out of her boiling water and chopping them up, etc.). Long story short, we had a couple of bowls of delicious noodle soup for $2 (our cheapest meal in Cambodia so far, jesus it's expensive here) and headed on our way to the pepper plantation. That's when DIASTER STRUCK. We got a flat tire. Luckily, we were very close to a repair shop (maybe 100 yards or so). Apparently moto tires are just like bike tires, so the guy just took out the inner tube, patched the whole for 50 cents and we were on our way (oh, and phil scared the shit out of the little cambodian baby hanging around--apparently they are not used to beards, so she was crying for a lot of the time we were there, poor thing). We headed down the dirt road to the pepper plantation, which was surprisingly small. There were maybe 50 or so pepper plants, growing about 15 feet tall on a pole. Apparently, this is some of the most famous pepper in the world (seriously, it just got it's own geographical indication, just like champage! http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2010/0623/As-Champagne-is-to-France-Kampot-pepper-is-to-Cambodia) We sampled some green pepper straight off the vine (and after only 3 or 4 peppercorns, our throats were burning for 15 minutes!) and checked out some of the other fruit trees growing nearby. Then we decided to take another road back (we were informed that it should lead us back to the road we came from) and that's when DISASTER STRUCK AGAIN. Ugh, flat tires. We were much further this time--no buildings even in sight. Luckily, we were only 10-15 min pushing of the moto to the next repair shop (they actually pretty common i guess, like every 1-2 km on some roads), where the guy replaced our stupid inner tube for $3, and we were on our way again. We motoed our way back to Kep, and grabbed our bags so we could switch hostels. We found a suitable place, which was much closer to town, much cleaner, and since it is off season we even got hot water (!) for the cheap rate ($5 for both of us). Afterwards, headed back to the crab market for dinner, where we enjoyed almost the exact same meal (substituting the squid for some shrimp), and paid (holy jesus) $19, went back to the hostel and passed out.
Oct 21- Rabbit Island
So we get up and eat some soup, then hit the boat for Rabbit Island around 9am (20 minute boat ride), a small island off the coast of Kep. Our companions on our trip are 2 other couples, one from Holland and one from Canada (Montreal- important to note that only the guy spoke English very well). We get to the island and hop off, rent some snorkeling masks and set off trekking around the island with our new Canadian friends. The scenery was pretty amazing, as we were generally walking along the beach and occasionally taking a shortcut past a long peninsula. There are fishing nets (which we found out later were not for fish but for seaweed, maybe) on just about every available beach, which made finding one worth stopping it fairly difficult. It was also quite rocky most of the time, so it was hard to find a good spot for snorkeling also. Eventually we did spot a nice peninsula off in the distance, and started to make our way there. We were walking along the beach until we were essentially wading through the ocean so we decided to cut a path ourselves. First we ran into some really spiky bushes that scratched our legs and attached to our shirts, but these were the lesser of dangers. At this point I (Phil) am bringing up the rear, so I'll tell my side of the story. I'm walking along and get caught on a bush with thorns, so am about 20 feet behind everyone. I walk up and see the Canadian girl and Steph walk up this step next to a tree. Steph (fairly calmly) comments, "Oh they're ants. There's ants on the tree. Oh I lost my flip flop. Babe can you get my flip flop?" About the time Steph asks me for her footwear, the Canadian girl starts screaming. It wasn't just ordinary screaming, it was the blood chilling variety. It was the kind that made me think there was some sort of bloodthirsty, half spider, half monkey, half zombie attacking this woman. But there wasn't, she was just covered by these ants, on her legs and under her shirt, biting the heck out of her. Steph was attacked too, but was FAR more composed. Ant attack out of the way, we made our way to the beach and Steph and I immediately set about getting our snorkeling under way. It was pretty bad. Mostly we just saw grass, although I think I saw one tinyfish also, but mostly just grass. Kind of boring. Eventually we went back and met up with the Canadian guy in the shallows. At about this time, our Holland friends came out and us five lounged in the shallow water for probably about 45 minutes. About this time, the Canadian's girfriend walked out and started yelling feverishly at her boyfriend in French. Now I don't speak a word of french, but I could definitely tell he was getting his ass chewed.* It was time for us to leave. The Canadians hired a boat around the island, but the Hollanders joined us to finish our trek around the island. Back at where we were dropped off (at this point around 2:30), we were hungry and desperately needed a beer. Beer in hand, we had fond memories of our beer on the Great Wall, since it was nearly as refreshing. For the next hour and a half, we sat, ate and chatted with the Hollanders and the Canadian guy (the girlfriend mostly just sat and looked pissed). We boarded the boat (with some pause as we forgot our tickets) and headed back to Kep. Sunburned, tired, and lacking electricity at our hostel, we decided it was the perfect time for some much needed hammock relaxation. After some blogging, a meal, and a shower, we are now off to bed. All in all, a good day on the island.*A footnote just to expand on why we think the Canadian girl was pissed. First, she had a horrible day the day before hiking on some mountain by Kampot, and got a dead fish put in her laundry (seriously) by the previous hostel owner that they chewed out for ripping them off. Second, she hates boats and was just forced to sit on a boat. Third, she had just been attacked by ants (or maybe an invisible half-spider-half-monkey-half-
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