Kampot, Cambodia

I said "charming"and "quaint", right? As it happens, once you get into the middle of the town and further up the river, it actually is! Imagine my surprise. The roundabouts here have statues in the middle because the majority of the residents are illiterate and can't read street signs so the just say "the 2000" or "the fishermen". It makes it easier for tourists too, most of them can't read Cambodian either. A goodly number of shops and hotels are owned by expats who know that the tourist rush is coming, so they got in on the ground floor. It's only a matter of time before this place gets overrun with camera waving mapmonkeys, all looking for the ice cream shop (which is here, it's run by a Canadian wearing a Lethbridge Pilsner shirt, something only Canadians of a certain vintage would recognise). there's not a whole lot to say about Kampot except that there is a fierce rivalry with nearby Kep, a fantastic rib restaurant run by a Brit with the ubiquitous Asian wife, and the hotel we stay at is a little out of the way, but they know that, so they offer rides to and from the centre of town, which is a very nice touch. The whole town is quite small, and doesn't take very long to explore the main sights, but again there are loads of trekking jaunts, tours and boat trips either just down the river or all the way to the nearby caves, again filled with Buddha icons. This is a thing here, I guess, caves filled with Buddhas. I am struggling to talk about the trip here and about the town itself, but it's more of a laid back stop before the chaos of Phnom Penh. There's not much else to report. Nice, quiet, relaxed and slow paced. That's it, really.