Going Off the Grid in Cambodia

Traveling in Cambodia is like going back in time to an exotic place overrun with motorcycles and small stalls/stores. We took the mini-bus to our “home-stay” in a new province with a stop for lunch along the way:

We crossed a bridge built in the 12th century…200 years before Columbus:

We were overnight guests of a local rural family. The house had solar powered lights and bed fans. The sleeping area was on the second floor and really quite comfortable. After you opened your mosquito netting it felt rather private (I haven’t seen a mosquito yet). I was cool enough that I didn’t need the bed fan. The first floor had a dirt floor, the dining area, and bathrooms (the toilet flushed manually with a pot of water). It worked well and we were treated like special guests with an ox cart ride before having a delicious dinner–pumpkin with minced pork, beef with red tree ants (Cambodians have taken the art of eating strange things to a whole new level), lemongrass with garlic, beef soup with potatoes, homegrown rice, mangoes and bananas.

After breakfast, we were on our way to the south–a seven-hour minibus ride. We stopped along the way at a local market selling bugs, etc. l tried the tarantula and surprise, surprise it tasted like bbq chips. There were other bugs and frogs but I passed on those delicacies:

When we arrived in Kampot, we did a walkabout in the market. We had some local fruit and tried a Durian. This is reported to be “bad/smelly” tasting. It tasted like cantaloupe. I found I disliked the texture more than the smell.

We are doing some local sightseeing and going to the beach the next few days. We stopped for a picture as a group in front of the Durian statute. We visited salt fields and a pepper farm–Kampot is famous for pepper. We finished our day with a swim in the Gulf of Thailand.