Kampot Travel Notes

Kampot is located in the southwest of Cambodia, across the sea from Phu Quoc Island in Vietnam, and about 150 kilometers away from Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Before the road was built, it took about two hours to drive there. Now that the road is being built, it takes at least three hours to get there.

If you don’t have an in-depth study of Cambodia, you will generally not pay attention to this unexpected place.

Starting from Phnom Penh, avoid Highway 3 which is being renovated, and drive along Highway 2 through Takeo Province and into Kep City.

Stop in Whitehorse City for a while and find the local seafood market. There is a dazzling array of seafood here. You can buy it now and eat it, or you can buy it and have it processed by the restaurant next to it.

There is a row of restaurants on the seaside, all of which are stilt houses built on the edge of the beach. Outside the window is the sea, with several islands scattered in the distance, and green shadows can be vaguely seen.

Looking at the water, facing the wind, listening to the waves, the dishes ordered were served one by one.

Freshly grilled squid dipped in lime spicy sauce, the taste is sour and unique;

Boiled sea shrimp with some soy sauce and shredded green onion, the taste is sweet and delicious;

Green Pepper-fried crab is a local specialty - heat beef in a cold pot, sauté shredded ginger and scallions, add local green pepper, clean and chopped crabs, stir-fry, add oyster sauce, and reduce the juice over high heat. The locals like to add some sugar. If you like spicy food, add the local special fragrant chili pepper when frying the ginger and green onion, which will make people eat more happily.

After eating and resting for a while, it only takes 20 minutes to drive from Kep to Kampot. Along the way along the seaside, we also saw several swallow houses built by local people.

The entire house has no windows on all sides, only one opening for swallows to enter and exit, and rows of small holes for exhaust. Because swiftlets like relatively humid and dark environments.

I used to think that swallow houses were used to raise swallows. Later I learned that the swallows cannot be raised, so the only way is to artificially provide an environment that satisfies the swiftlets. By playing recordings of swallows’ chirps, the swiftlets that like to live in groups can hear the calls of their companions when they pass by and enter the swiftlet house to build nests.

The swallow house is not built immediately after the nest is built, but is picked after the little swallows grow up and fly away. In this way, swallows will return to the same place repeatedly to lay eggs and give birth to babies. If the swallow house has not been taken away when you come back next time, the swallows will build another layer on top, and the more they build, the more they will build. This is the same as the habits of swallows in the halls of rural homes.

When I arrived in Kampot, the most profound impression was the city’s iconic building, the Big Durian.

Because of Kampot’s unique geographical environment, it is backed by mountains and the sea, has no typhoons throughout the year, and has abundant rain and sunshine. It is unique in terms of geographical conditions and climate temperature.

The pepper produced here is the best in the world. It is spicy and has an endless aftertaste. It is really the favorite of European elite diners.

The durian produced here is as good as Musang King. It is sweet, glutinous and mellow, and lingers on your taste buds. It is worthy of being the holy product of durian gourmets.

In addition, there are mangosteen, rambutan, fragrant coconut, palm and so on. . .

Kampot urban area is said to be a provincial capital city, but it is actually smaller than many small towns in China.

There are no particularly well-known world tourist attractions here, only the mottled French colonial history left on the French architecture;

There are only rows of Phoenix trees stretching silently along the roadside. ;

Only the blue sky is reflected on the river entering the sea, and the waves are still and wide. . .

The entire town is always in a daze of time stagnating, and there is a kind of tranquility that is half-year-old.

Golden-haired and blue-eyed foreigners can be seen everywhere here. They are accustomed to whispering in groups of three or a few, or sitting quietly and looking at the sky with a cup of coffee or two bottles of beer.

If you take your partner with you and abandon your worries, wander in the colorful shadows of the trees beside the Ganda River, linger in the slight smoke of coffee, beer, fruit and delicacies, and blend into this laziness, Cleanse your mind and purify your mind, then you will be worthy of living like a dream and take half a day to relax.