Cambodian snapshot: Kampot

 

One of my difficulties during my Cambodia trip was deciding where I would spend Christmas. All I knew for sure was that I was not going to spend my Christmas on a bus, nor did I want to spend it in the party beach town of Sihanoukville. So I looked into places that were a short bus ride away and eventually found myself in the small French colonial town of Kampot. I'm not going to say that there was an extraordinary amount of things to see there. However, the few riverfront blocks of old architecture, a funky piecemeal bridge, a waterfront walkway and a lovely evening river cruise made for a quiet and relaxing Christmas. The most important thing was found, an Internet cafe where they hooked up a webcam and let me spend three hours sharing the holiday with my family. It turns out that at one point Kampot was famous for its pepper, my guide book even claimed that it was "a favoured choice in Parisian restaurants during the heyday of IndoChina." So what to do but try the local delicacy for my Christmas meal - crab with pepper. That turned into a bit more of an adventure then I expected as I watched the sunset and attempted to attack the shell of my crabs with only a pair of chopsticks. Perhaps it was a good thing that I was alone for that part of my Christmas. By the end of the day I felt like I had gotten exactly what I wanted for Christmas, a quiet relaxing place to spend the day with just a touch of adventure.