How to spend a quiet weekend in rural Cambodia

LoveTEFL Cambodia intern Lauren takes advantage of a quiet weekend during her time teaching English in Cambodia by journeying to rural Kampot.

We have just arrived back in Phnom Penh after a memorable weekend in Kampot – a picturesque, small town located on the south coast of the country. It’s full of natural beauty with the famous Bokor mountain just a few miles away and a river running through the middle of the town.

We had three full days here to explore. We had high expectations of Kampot before arriving after hearing fellow travellers experiences we had met in Phnom Penh. It didn’t disappoint. On our first day we arrived with a few of the other interns and decided to ask a tuk tuk driver to be an unofficial guide and take us around the town and beyond for a few hours so we could explore. We visited salt plains which were truly spectacular, and after the traffic in Phnom Penh, we all appreciated even more the tranquillity and the fact we seemed to be the only people for miles and miles. Our view of high rise buildings at the school were swapped for mountain ranges that enclosed the plains and was an impressive back drop.

Our next stop was to local fishing villages that were strangely situated off a main highway with wooden huts that housed small communities. Our (unofficial) tour guide explained how the fishermen risked their lives to provide for their families and if they accidently entered Vietnamese or Thai waters would be shot at and all of their catch confiscated. Our visit was short as we felt that we may be imposing but we were all grateful for the slight insight into the fishermen’s lives. To finish the day off, we headed back into town and drank a few Angkor beers and took advantage of the French influence on the local cuisine with eating crepes whilst watching the sunset over the river.

The following two days, we rented scooters and drove up Bokor mountain which took a good two hours to get to the summit. Waterfalls, panoramic views over Kampot and vast empty roads to speed up were the highlight of the mountain. A serious amount of concentration was needed to ride down when the temperamental SE Asia weather came into full force, with torrential rain hitting us, making visibility non-existent and the roads suicidal. All the interns agreed that it was a challenge that definitely came with a huge dose of adrenaline and most of the interns rented scooters the following day.

A relaxing day was needed to finish off the weekend so we all made our way to Arcadia, which was a hostel on the edge of the Mekong River that had water sports and wooden structures that they had built with the purpose for the most daring of travellers to jump in from. Some of us decided to kayak for a few miles down the river where we found secluded beaches, and little communities dotted along the river the further we travelled. We all found ourselves lying in a hammock taking in the views of the countryside at some point, exhausted and planning ahead for the next school week.