Kampot and Kep: a wedding at an intersection, the sea, and a temple in a cave

From Phnom Penh we headed to the south of Cambodia, to the small town of Kampot, and by January 26, 2016, we had already checked in there. The town turned out to be calm, clean, and not dusty at all. The sidewalks are clear and pleasant to walk on, and there is less traffic on the streets than in the cities we had been to before, so crossing the road was easy. And at last we found normal Cambodian prices: in 2016 a bowl of soup and a big plate of rice with chicken cost $1 here.

An empty street by an old house with balconies covered in pink bougainvillea, with café tables at the entrance — A quiet street in Kampot

A wedding at an intersection

On our very first day we saw a wedding. Nobody spent long looking for a venue here: they simply blocked off an intersection, set up tables and a stage, decorated everything, and the celebration went on in the open air, right in the roadway. The streets in Kampot are laid out in a grid, and everyone just drove along the neighboring roads and intersections.

Alexandra in sunglasses and with a backpack stands by the white railing of a bridge over a river — On the bridge over the river

Kampot really is a very cozy little town.

The sea in Kep

On January 28 we rented a bike for three days. We rode it to the neighboring town of Kep, and there we finally saw the sea.

An empty sandy beach with abandoned flip-flops, and a calm sea beyond it — The sea in Kep

Right in the sea, just off the shore, stands a big crab sculpture.

A big blue crab sculpture on a platform in the middle of a gray sea — The crab sculpture in the sea

And on the shore there is a statue of a mermaid with a dolphin.

A sculpture of a mermaid lifting a dolphin, on a red pedestal by the sea under a blue sky — The mermaid with a dolphin statue

The waterfall that wasn't there

Then we rode around the small Kep National Park: it covers only about 11.5 square kilometers. We wanted to see the waterfall: on the board by the trail it pours down a rock face. But all we saw was a dry slope. It turned out that there is water here only in the rainy season, and even then not every day: the signs by the trail even list how many days the waterfall flowed in which year.

A board in the forest with a photo of a waterfall on a rock face and signs in Khmer and English — What the waterfall can look like, and what we saw

A dry rocky slope in the forest, overgrown with vines, with no water — What the waterfall can look like, and what we saw

From the park's viewpoint you can see the sea. As for wildlife, we only came across a green snake, but we were too scared to go up to it and take a picture.

A view from above through the leaves: a road and roofs among the trees, and the sea beyond — From the park's viewpoint

The Phnom Chhnork caves

On January 29 we went to the Phnom Chhnork caves and climbed around in them. Inside stands a brick temple built in the seventh century and dedicated to Shiva.