Phnom Penh to Kampot

Breakfast this morning was not the usual mixture of continental breakfast items and local fare but instead, we were offered a menu with mainly Cambodian dishes.  We could have elected to have their take on an English breakfast or French bread, pastries and deserts but instead we opted to go local.  The choices were mainly curries or rice and noodle dishes that, in the west, we would be more used to seeing on a dinner menu but here, it’s what starts the day.  The local speciality is a rice noodle dish with a pounded, yellow fish and coconut broth.  We both decided we would go with this and were not disappointed when it arrived a the table – a beautifully presented dish decorated with edible flowers from the water hyacinth and the flower from a local bean.  There were condiments to add too: chilli (flakes and fresh), pickled baby cucumber and Cambodian kimchi.  All in all a very agreeable start to the day, washed down with a tea infused with Pandan leaves and a sweet lime juice.

After breakfast we were off to see the royal palace.  The King was in residence as the royal standard was flying but he did not make an appearance for us!  This is the only place we have hade to wear a face mask on this trip and then, only inside the buildings.  We learnt about the symbolism around the architecture of the buildings and the deeply embodied Buddhist influence in the colours used as well as the protective sculptures. The stories from Buddhist teachings come around time and again over here from sculpture to murals, carvings to architecture. Vishnu, Rama, Sita, Ganesh, the Naga and many reincarnated forms all appear regularly. This has been a revisiting of some of the things we learnt about Buddha when we went to see where he gained his enlightenment, under the Bannon tree, in Varanassi.

The king here is elected, unlike all other kingdoms, although not anybody can apply for the job!  The job of electing is done by nine senior statesmen and they have to make their choice from anybody who is descended from two distinct royal lines and they have to be male and over 30.

Within the palace grounds we saw the throne building, where important dignitaries are met and the moon building, which was built to entertain the King at dusk, where the room could be lit by the moon.  To facilitate this, it was built with no sides on the upper level but it is also used as a place from which the King can address the people in the street below, much the same as our royal family use the balcony at Buckingham Palace.  Apparently the King will often throw small gifts from the building, into the crowd and it is said to be very auspicious if you catch one.

The Silver Pagoda was next on the list and this was still within the 17 hectare grounds of the royal palace.  It is so named because the entire floor is tiled with silver, mainly from melted down silver coins given as gifts to the monastery.  Most of the floor is now covered to protect it but there was an area uncovered so that you could see what it would have looked like.  Not the most practical of floor coverings!

From the royal palace complex we head towards the central market – we have elected to swap our planned itinerary in the National museum for a tour of the market where our guide showed us around the food stalls, explained what the various fruits, vegetables and herbs were that we did not recognise and also told us how they were cooked or what they were used for.  There was a surprising lack of bugs at the market but there was an abundance of fresh fruit and veg stalls as well as many fish stalls selling the catch from the nearby river.  The variety of fish on the stalls is seriously impressive and as for the size of the prawns; they would put some of our lobsters to shame!

After taking photos and making notes to see if we can ever find the ingredients at home, we headed back to the hotel via a quick stop at the monastery on the hill in the middle of Phnom Penh.  This monastery was named after the widow who founded it, her name was Penh and she ordered the monastery to built on top of a mound of earth. This was the highest point for miles around as everywhere was flat, as it is in much of Cambodia.  Eventually, as the city grew up around the monastery, it took it’s name from the woman who founded it and the mound the monastery sat on: Phnom in Kmher means ‘hill’ so this is Penh’s Hill in English or Phnom Penh in Kmher.

We went back to the hotel to check out and were on the road for the next 3.5 hours to our next destination of Kampot. We arrived at the hotel and were a little disappointed to have come from our balcony suite in the last hotel, to a slightly aging, former French colonial restoration.  The contrast in the rooms is marked but it is the first time we have been disappointed with Trailfinders’ choice of accommodation.  Unfortunately we are here for three nights but I am sure the very accommodating and friendly staff will make up for any room deficiencies.

The evening stroll takes us towards the river in Kampot and to a bar we had read about in the Cambodia guide called Rikitikitavi (the mongoose from the Jungle Book!).  Happy hour was 5-7pm, so it was Pinã Coladas and Margaritas in double measure for both of us!  We got chatting to a couple who had been holidaying for five weeks, starting in Thailand and still had several months to go.  I can’t imagine what that sort of freedom must be like at the moment!

Kampot is known by high end chefs around the World as the place from which to obtain their pepper; organic and producing the best oils to flavour food both during and after cooking.  The couple we were speaking to had been to one of the pepper farms today and were saying that the visit we notionally had on our itinerary was to a bit of a big corporate farm catering for tourism. They told of a much smaller farm up the road that was run by a Scotsman and his Cambodian wife and which was known to one of the best farms for their production practices.  We elected to take the advice along with the recommendation to take a tuk tuk because the road to the farm was in a really poor state.

We ended the night having iced coffee in a corner restaurant/cafe that looked like it was frequented by the locals.  However, after a bit of time spent there observing the world go by, it was apparent that quite a number of western men would take their Cambodian “wives” their for a late supper!  It seems we were at ‘that’ end of town and the quaint French Quarter was probably a little more like the Pigalle district in Paris only more overt!