Day 12 - Kampot

Considering that we were going to have a quiet day relaxing, we actually did quite a bit today. We woke up early and had a stroll down to the nearby 'Blissful Guesthouse' where Ali ate some Heinz baked beans which I think were very much appreciated. I'd read about some caves nearby so we decided to check them out after breakfast.

Sometimes you do stupid things when you're traveling, I guess hiring a motorbike wasn't the most sensible thing to do on the Cambodian roads, but it was fun none the less. It did occur to me that the bike may not be in great working order when the lady giving it to me failed to start the engine and get it into gear, but I did my best and despite a few dodgy gear changes and dodging between cows and pot-holes. At the caves we were greeted by some of the local kids, who can't have been much older than 10 and offered to be our 'guides'. Actually, they did a pretty good job and spoke amazing English considering they ditch school everyday to come to the caves and make a couple of dollars. And the caves were pretty good, actually the best I've seen. Huge bats flew around in the larger, open caves, and we crawled through tiny cracks in the rocks, which reminded me that I do actually suffer slightly from claustrophobia, bring back memories of the film 'The descent'. Good fun though - mum, your head torch came in very handy! The kids jumped around on flip-flops or bare foot like monkeys, zooming ahead of us, while Ali and I awkwardly stumbled and slipped as we tackled the rather demanding paths in our 70 pound asics trainers... We were the only people there, which was great, and we were encouraged to visit another cave a few kilometres away in which stood a 7th century temple, which had been preserved inside the cave away from the weather for 1400 years. The only problem was that to get there we had to trudge through a load of muddy rice fields. We returned to the guesthouse triumphant but covered in mud.

Tonight we went out for a meal. We've just walked home a mile or so in torrential rain from a riverside restaurant, built on stilts over the water. Ali got some dodgy soup with bits of 'chicken' floating about in it, and I got a plate full of, well, Ali described it as 'Caesar' dog food. Thanks Lonely Planet. An early start tomorrow as we jump in the back of a jeep to visit Bokor Hill Station. Apparently there's a free-legged tiger that roams the hills there nicknamed Tripod - very exciting..!