Busy, busy, busy, to quote the great Kurt Vonnegut.
Starting with yesterday evening when we took another walk into town to go to the night market. Passing en route via a massive society wedding with what must’ve been four or five hundred guests; all the women dressed up to the nines in amazing gladrags (though some of the chaps could have made a bit more effort, frankly), cars and tuk tuks and scooters turning a little nowheresville side street into a Hollywood event.
Then to the market itself which proved to be small and, truth be told, a bit dull – just the usual array of counterfeit clothing and bling watches. But we had a nice time wandering around, then dinner from a market stall, then back courtesy of possibly the most cheerful tuk tuk driver in Cambodia, who sang to himself most of the way back to our bungalowtel.
Then up this morning and our hire bike is here, to ride out onto the mad roads of Cambodia, which swiftly deteriorate into incredibly dusty dirt track pothole nightmares, for half an hour or so on our way to the cave temple out of town. Which proves to be quietly awe-inspiring, with people praying and music playing, while children scamper around and giggle, and the actual cave towers high and noble. And also excessively challenging! Virle simply says I don’t like the look of it and refuses to go further than the first chamber; I attempt a bit more exploration but pretty soon give up and come back. There are fissures in the rock leading off in all directions, no obvious ‘way to go’, and even insofar as you can make any progress, it’s hard going and as much scrambling and scrabbling as climbing. It looks and feels like the kind of place you could get lost, and never seen again…
After that back on the bike and off to another cave temple. Billed as less exciting and dramatic than the first but I think we both actually prefer it. It’s modest, and calm, and in its own quiet way genuinely holy somehow. Apparently people lived here 5000 to 3000 BC. It’s easy to believe.
Then back to town for another excellent lunch at the cafe we discovered yesterday, before setting off for our trip to the salt flats, when – cazart! A flat! Long and boring story short – including the bit where they tried to charge us extra for maintaining their bikes so badly that we’d had the audacity to get a puncture – we rode off on a replacement death-trap to visit the salt flats. Which didn’t sound that exciting – but you take what you can get when you’re staying in Kampot – but in the event proved to be really striking, and resulted in many photos I was very happy with.
Now we’ve decided to eat in this evening. We could go into town on the bike, but I’m genuinely afeared to ride the bloody thing. One of the mirrors won’t stay where it’s put; it has to all intents and purposes no back brake; and given the general state of it I have no confidence in its lights, or anything else. Quite apart from the fact that the first time I turned it off, it took us fivce minutes to get it unlocked again, and more by luck than judgement – it behaved quite differently the next time. And the one dinner we had here on our first night, though a bit pricey, was actually very nice, so it could be worse.
And there’s another honey moon floating low over the river, and non-Cambodian music on the soundtrack, so what’s not to like. Now if you’ll excuse me, the menu’s just arrived…