Since we’d hopped off we had a new guide: Monsieur Coco. A lovely Cambodian man with great English but a tendency to ramble on and repeat himself multiple times. On the way he described to us two potential plans for the day, it took him about half an hour to say we could drive out and see the salt and pepper farms, something Kampot is famed for, or we could go see some waterfalls.
Instead our group decided to do neither. Me and Christina couldn’t really afford to pay to go on either trip without a group so were left with exploring Kampot. It was actually a really nice town, though I still wasn’t feeling 100% so wasn’t up to exploring too much. We searched in vain for a bakery Christina had seen on the way in for about an hour before we stumbled upon it. It turned out to be disappointing but I ordered bread and butter pudding which was decent. It’s a traditional English dessert but this was the first time I’ve had it! In Asia.
Dusk was beginning to settle over the small town of Kampot as we made our way towards the river. Coco, our guide, had walked us around the town showing us certain monuments such as the Durian statue, a statue of a bowl of fruit weirdly enough. There were Lychee’s, Guava’s, and something else that I quite simply couldn’t get my head around, I’m pretty sure whatever it was I was mixing it up with the Lychee’s. The Durian stood in the middle, larger than the rest about three metres in height. Thankfully it wasn’t real, issuing it’s sewage-like smell at a larger than normal scale, otherwise I think we’d all be dead.
He also stopped us at an insect stall where we tried local delicacies like frog and grasshopper. The frog was not what I expected, small and whole, bones ‘n’ all! As you can imagine it was crunchy but was interestingly tasty. It was nice of him to do that as without him exerting a little bit of pressure on us to do it, I’m not sure I would have.
We walked along the path next to the riverbank, watching the water run slowly and smoothly looking like glass, reflecting the setting sun and the old bridge like a mirror, it was refreshing to feel the river suck some of the heat out of the day. Our final destination was a riverboat that would take us to see some fireflies. Fireflies are something I’d only ever dreamt of seeing, they’re such amazing and beautiful creatures, on the surface anyway. They are flies afterall.
The riverboat arrived, looking slightly like a barge and with a confusing design. The deck and stairs looked detachable from the boat, confusing Christina as to whether or not we were actually on the boat. We got some great seats, grabbed a couple of beers, and enjoyed chatting about where we’d been, and finding out about the countries and travels of the other people in our group.
As we’d been drifting for twenty minutes or so the sun was way into it’s downward cycle, throwing beautiful shadows and bringing out dusky colours I never knew existed in the nature around us. To our left were a large spine of hills running paralell to the boat. The sun was setting behind them, throwing them into a deep silhouette. A seemingly perfect backdrop.
We ordered some local food on the boat which turned out to be less than average, but we were too busy looking around us to really pay attention. When it had gotten fully dark we stopped next to a group of trees, the boat shut off it’s engine and all the lights we’re put out. We waited expectantly. For myself I was expecting bulbous bugs emitting bright lights you couldn’t possibly miss. I admit it, Hollywood got to me. The reality was like looking at a large christmas tree, lacking in lights, and then said lights lacking in power. After I got over my initial disappointment I could appreciate the beauty of such a natural phenomenon, although in my heart of hearts I hope I see better fireflies in my lifetime, if they do exist.
The Searcher 