one of the coolest places on earth. Our tuk-tuk driver took us way out of town, down a road that had hardly any buildings, cars or people. Our turn went down a hill into the thick jungle in the middle of the night.
A pleasant surprise at the end of the trail was a nice bar active with drinking festivities, card games, pool, darts and ping pong.
The
bar/restaurant was made entirely of wood, high over top of the river,
but at this point we weren't exactly sure where the river was because it
was so dark. When we woke up the next morning, we walked out of our bedroom and saw the massive river right below our balcony; the view was unbelievable.
There were endless things to do at this place.
A floating dock in the middle of the wide river had a built up platform to dive and jump off of.
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| For a magazine ad |
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| Starfish HIIYAAA |
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| 10 outta 10 Dive |
The shoreline was coated in sandy beach with a rope swing,
The Blob,
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| Gettin' blobbed...BELLY FLOP |
Russian swing, tubes and another platform right out of the restaurant to do flips/jumps off of. Also in the back they had beach volleyball, and a workout area. The only thing missing was a horse shoe pit.
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| Russian swing...can you spot it? |
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| Designated flipping zone |
This place was paradise! Drink beer, float swim, jump, flip all day long and at night you chill out with bar games and good tunes with other fun seekers.
After a couple of days at Arcadia we needed to head back into town for our week long tour of Kampot arranged by yet another Mad Monkey Hostel.
This tour included 4 nights accomodation (Mad Monkey once again), pool use, 4 days of touring the area, motorbike rentals, free breakfasts, a couple of lunches and many, many free drinks.
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| Mad Monkey Security - Dave |
Kamikaze Kraze - Day 1 of the Tour
On day 1, we hopped onto a large tuk-tuk and were joined by 4 other people, including our tour guide and drinking buddy, Daniel.
We were heading 20 minutes away to Kep Beach, drinking beers and happy juice all the way there.
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| bucket-o-booze |
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| Kep Beach |
We stopped at a restaurant for a fresh seafood meal which included the famous Kep crab, shrimp, squid, fish and rice.
After munching, we went to the beach to drink some more, catch some rays and go for a swim.
A short visit at the beach and then we were heading to Gibbon Valley Animal Sanctuary. We took a bumpy ride through dirt roads in a jeep, with a crazy Tasmanian driver.
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| Tasmaniaaaaa |
We expected that there were going to be tons of Gibbons and wildlife roaming around,
but were surprised when there was only one pet macaque.
So, she got all of our love and attention for the evening. She was a wild thang,
jumping on everyone, grabbing at the items in our pockets,
and even drinking our beers. We probably spent an hour just watching and playing around with her, until we were forced to move on.
Day 2 - Moto-touring around Kampot
Our tour group was a little bit bigger today, and we were joined by 3 more English girls. Most of the people in the tour group had never been on a motorbike before, and unfortunately one girl wiped out pretty hard before leaving the hostel and she had to go to the hospital. After making sure she was all taken care of, we set out for the tour.
First stop was the salt fields:
they fill the fields with salt water and let it dry out in the sun, leaving large grains of salt which they pick up, clean and sell across the globe.
This was a pretty short stop, but again, unfortunately, we had another crash before getting to the fields...
Turning onto a dirt road, pulling hard on the throttle, hitting a curb, and ninja rolling caused these wounds. So, the bike had to be returned quickly so that we could carry on with our tour, and hopefully have no more crashes. Tough guy!
Next up, we went to a pepper plantation:
Kampot pepper is world class pepper, grown on shaded vines in the countryside. Red pepper, white pepper and black pepper all of which were very tasty.
This place was off the grid - meaning they sorted each grain of pepper by hand,
used an old bicycle as a backup pump and cooked with a solar cooker and grew their own delicious fruits.
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| Much Safer! |
Not to mention its spectacular countryside look and feel.
Now onto the temple caves near Vietnam border: One of the last strongholds of the Khmer Rouge with temples dating over 1000 years.
Getting to the caves was a lot of fun, driving through windy and bumpy dirt roads.
We stopped for a traditional Vietnamese lunch, where we danced and sang karaoke with the local kids.
Our guide through the caves/temple was the group of local children (who we were singing with) who knew everything about these caves and were a lot of fun to spend time with.
Because of the dry season we were unable to swim in the caves as the water level was far too low.
Of course we had to have just onnnne more small crash...
annnnd then another .. rookies.
But that was the last one... today!
After the day of touring, we came back to the hostel and enjoyed some cheap pizza, live music, beers, and card games. What a perfect ending to a great day, wouldn't you say?!
Day 3: Boozy Boat Cruise
All of the beers you can handle, unlimited sun, and more time than you know what to do with put together with some great friends and music on a boat and a lazy river was just what the doctor ordered today.
We stopped at a private beach for a break from the boat.
or two.
as you can see...
We all certainly took advantage of every part of this combination.
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| just catching some rays ;) |
Our captain today was missing a leg and some of his hand - and still managed to look after this rowdy group. Cheers to him!
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| Boatman |
We worked up a good appetite after this one so after landing the boat, that night we all went out for dinner and hung out at the hostel.
Day 4: Motorbiking up Bokor Mountain
Today, our massive scooter crew biked up Bokor mountain and did some sight seeing.
Even this one hopped back onto a motorbike and rode all day.
An excellent drive winding up the mountain to get an amazing view higher than the birds, of the surrounding area, all the way to the coast.
We drove to the old french colonial abandoned buildings and a casino.
A little bit of gambling and a great lunch on top of the mountain before going to the
mediation rocks looking over the jungle.
The Meditation Rocks were a long drive on a smooth road to a very calm and peaceful place looking over everything.
Although this was the end of the Kamikaze Kraze it was only the beginning of a legacy left with some of our new mates! We met amazing people and did some amazing things - it was definitely time and money well spent in Kampot.
After our week long tour we took a couple of days to relax before bidding farewell to Cambodia and making way to Vietnam.
Our final days in Cambodia consisted of:
Going back to the crab market to experience it like a local. Buying a KG of fresh crab pulled directly out of the sea just for us.
Taking our crab to the other side of the market to some cooks, who steamed all of our crabs for us for $1.
We then bought a bottle of homemade dipping sauce from another woman. Took our food to another stall to buy drinks and sit down cracking crabs for a couple of hours. This was one of our favorite experiences.
After our two hour feast we watched a couple of garbage eating monkeys for a moment
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| Taking our garbbb |
and took our full tummies to the beach and lazed 'till the sunset.
Kampot was definately the highlight of our time in Cambodia, we had so much fun and experienced some great adventure and culture.
Vietnam coming in hotttt.
Thanks Amanda for featuring Mad Monkey Hostels :) May we share some photos on our Instagram and Twitter? We'll make sure we tag you as the photo owners. What is your Twitter + Instagram handle btw?
ReplyDeleteMaria, Social Media Manager of mad monkey hostels dot com