Whoever has recently had a problem in Cambodia was probably talking about Kampot and Kep. To say this weekend was an experience is an understatement. Cathy and I decided to head back south to visit the towns of Kampot and Kep. Kampot is best known for its famous black pepper, which is still widely available in Cambodia. Kep used to be a popular resort town for the French and Cambodian elite until the 1960s but is starting to build up again.
We stayed in Kampot at this seemingly beautiful guesthouse resort type place called Utopia. The scenery, mountains views, and lakefront were absolutely beautiful. The outside of our bungalow was very cute and cozy but the inside was a different story. There was a bat in our room (yes, I understand we are living in their space, but still) and there were blood stains on my sheets and our towels… now this can be controlled. The Western owners were very nice though, I must admit.
On the Saturday we visited Bokor Mountain where you can see stunning panoramic views over Cambodia and Vietnam from the mountain tops. The motorbike ride up the mountain was AWESOME and incredibly fun with the winding roads, breathtaking views and wind blowing in your hair. About half way up the mountain it started to get overcast and before we even knew it, we were surrounded by fog.
We couldn’t see two meters in front of us. After spending an hour driving to the top to see the beautiful site of Cambodia and Vietnam below, this was just hilarious to all of us. That’s Mother Nature for you!
About five minutes after we began our trip down the mountain, it began to rain. It wasn’t that light, cute, refreshing pitter patter rain, it was that “I’m Mother Nature and I’m going to make this rain hurt” type of rain. We were soaked… from head to foot just soaked!!!
After this we went to see the Kompong Trach caves with their ancient ruins and did some splunking (thanks Mom for this new word!!!). They were awesome!!! It was quite scary because you couldn’t see a thing, we were the only ones there, and there were no signs, no directions and no instruction of any kind. There were also lots of bats, dripping water, etc… It was everything the ROM’s bat cave made it out to be… but better! It was hard to take pictures, mostly because I couldn’t really see what I was looking at, but I tried.
After our day filled with exciting moto adventures, our drivers must have decided amoungst themselves that our price for the day had gone up. Umm… we negotiated a price before we left, organizing all of our daily activities and times. Why was this happening? We said no sternly, confirmed the details for tomorrow and began to walk away. They tried to tell us again it had gone up and we just kept walking. Little did we know this was going to be the ongoing theme of the weekend.
On Sunday we visited Kep’s main beach. There were a few other Westerner’s around, but not many so we were skeptical of setting up camp and spending the rest of our morning and afternoon there. We eventually strategically sat beside other Western women and went for a swim. We only lasted about half an hour because the reaction from the locals was dreadful. A crowd had started to form around us on the sidewalk along the beach, and people were taking pictures and videotaping us. A Western man said it was just because they couldn’t believe we were trying to tan, but I wasn’t convinced. We packed up our stuff and left, immediately! We found this hotel with a private pool that overlooked the ocean. The staff told us that if we ordered lunch we wouldn’t have to pay to use the pool so we were relieved and thrilled to be in such a beautiful, private place. When we went to leave, we paid for our lunch bill and as we were about to leave there was lots of discussion going on between the waitresses. She wrote something down and handed it to us…. an $8 charge for using the pool. The waitress tried to get us to pay and when she realized we wouldn’t budge, shuffled us over to the reception Manager (who told us we could use it for free if we ordered lunch). When we explained we wouldn’t be paying the $8, she said, “Well then sisters, what can you pay me?” Ummm… nothing! She wanted us to settle for $4 but we refused and said at most we will pay $1 each. She obviously wasn’t satisfied with this but we used the same tactic we had used with our moto drivers the day before. We left our money and walked away.
Getting annoyed now with what was happening, we walked back to our meeting spot with our moto drivers huffing and puffing a bit at what had just happened. Our drivers dropped us off, and guess what… they asked for more money! It was almost unbelievable the dishonesty that was going on in this place. In Phnom Penh and everywhere else I have been, you negotiate a price before you start, and that price is honoured no matter what. There are no ifs, ands or buts… no exceptions. You discuss the price, you know what you are getting yourself into, it is honoured by all parties involved, and you go. There is a respectful way of doing things and it works for everyone. In Kampot and Kep it seemed to be the opposite. They were negotiating prices to trap you in and then demanding a higher price. It was almost unbelievable. I also want to add that we were already incredibly overpaying our moto drivers, and for lunch. To put this into perspective, we paid $5 each to take a bus from Phnom Penh to Kampot. We paid our moto drivers $13 on Saturday and $10 on Sunday EACH to drive us around. For them to ask for $5 more is just outrageous, especially when the average wage per day in Kampot is $5. So, we used the same tactic as before. We gave him the agreed upon price and walked away.
The last bus left Kampot at 12:30pm that afternoon so we decided to get a private taxi. We agreed upon the price of $40 for just Cathy and me to get a private ride in a car back to Phnom Penh. This was organized through our guesthouse for us so we thought it would be trustworthy. The driver came to pick us up, we confirmed the details once again, got in the very comfy and air conditioned Toyota and we went on our way. If something seems too good to be true, it is. Things weren’t as they seemed to be, ONCE AGAIN! We drove into Kampot, stopped at a gas station, our driver changed and four Cambodians tried to get in. I will also mention at this point that we were in a five person car. Obviously we had a huge problem with this so they said they would knock $5 off our price. Umm.. NO! We got out, grabbed our bags from the trunk, and walked away. We walked to this travel place that wasn’t interested in really helping us, but said they had a friend who could take us. Sure enough, it was the same driver as before. In a bit of a rage, we got on the phone with our hostel who said they couldn’t find anyone else but they would talk to the driver and negotiate something for us. The driver spent an hour and a half trying to get us to pay $35 for being squished in the back. After some help from our guesthouse, we eventually agreed that we would pay $30 for the whole back seat and two Cambodian women would share the passenger seat for $5 each. When the taxi came back to pick us up, there was the whole back row for us, two Cambodian men in the passenger seat, and then the driver and a Cambodian woman in the driver seat. I wish I could say I was surprised but I honestly wasn’t. I realize this might not have been the safest thing to do but at this point we were absolutely fed up with the dishonesty of everyone we encountered and just wanted to get home.
We did make it home in excellent time and the drive was quite enjoyable, for us anyways. We paid our $30 for the back seat and there was no changing of the price… thank goodness! When we got into Phnom Penh, we were unfortunately caught in a traffic jam because of a very serious motorbike accident. By the looks of their injuries, I would be shocked if they died from the moto accident. My guess is that they were gunshot wounds and the reactions from the Cambodians helped support this thought.
This weekend was a huge eye opening experience for me. Over the last two months I have been getting very comfortable in Phnom Penh and Cambodia in general with traveling around, communicating with the people, taking the buses, Tuk Tuk’s and moto’s, etc… I love this country and the people I have met are all wonderful people. Kampot and Kep are the only places I have ever run into trouble like this, but everything about this weekend reminded me that Cambodia is a dangerous place, there is a lot of crime, corruption and violence, and that I can never let my guard down.
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