While ralaxing on the beach at Sianouk Ville was nice, it started to feel like Cos da la Cambodia and it was time to head off down the coast to Kampot where there is not much but a pretty provincial capital, a few pepper plantations and lots of fresh crab. I met up with a great Norwegian couple, Inge and Vaski and we became firm friend when we instantaneously agreed to pay double for our share taxi - the norm in Cambodia is 6 passengers and 1 driver in a sedan and the driving is scary enough. You are also fined by the police for this (you as the passengers are expected to pay these fines...) but we were shortly joined by Trevor from Manchester who is a travelling anomaly and deserves a mention....
Trevor is a 39 year old, wiry, chain-smoking Mancunian who has been travelling for 7 months and is a connoisseur of beer, prostitutes and massages, as he will soon tell you. He has been to India, Sri Lanka etc and recently came from Thailand where he saw the country - 3 weeks in Bangkok with his new girlfriend, eating some "good Western food" - Mac Donalds (for the first 8 days), Pizza Hut and Burger King. He then went to Siam Reip (Ankor) didn't see any temples. Why travel you ask? Because it is cheap, the beer is even cheaper and he is looking for love and might try yoga.... Trev invited himself out to dinner on our first night with the words "I could murder some sweet and sour chicken!" when Inge, Vaski and I mentioned that we should try a Chinese-Khmer restaurant that specialised in crab and then complained that he didn't know how we could eat such things. He is only in Kampot as his credit card was lost/stolen and was waiting for a new one. Oi va voi! 
The next day we set off to Bokor National Park which includes the Elephant Mountains and is the site of a French Hill Station built in the 1920's as a retreat for the rich of Phnom Penh. The small town consisted of a hotel and casino perched on a cliff above the jungle, a bank and post office and church. Apparently people used to gamble away all their money at the casino and if the bank couldn't help (or your preys weren't being answered) they used to throw themselves off the hotel terrace over the cliff into the jungle! The hill station then fell into ruin in the early 70's and was the battle site between the Khmer Rough and the Vietnamese. The buildings are now covered in moss and lichen, are incredibly eary and mist flows round the mountain top adding to the effect.
Bumping along in the back of the bukkie (with 14 people in total - and you thought mini bus taxis were bad!) - we soon became friends with Zoe from Newcastle and Mark a drama teacher who is helping disabled Cambodians, and decided to set off to Rabbit Island the next day. It is an extremely beautiful island with no water, electricity or Westerners just you, the beach, a grass hut and friendly cow roaming the beach - Survivor Cambodia! After 2 nights Zoe and I decided to vote ourselves off the island and headed to Kep for a night of luxury, as we had hot showers! It was then on to Phnom Penh accompanied by Roland Keeting in the bus - his number one group of fans is the entire Cambodian nation - were I explored more of the city, including the Genocide Museum and the Killing Fields but lay low waiting for my visa to Vietnam as I had picked up a bug as a souvenir from the island, but such are the joys of travelling!
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