Kampot and a new friend.

We met a nice young man in Kampot town. Kampot is a quiet river town with no allusions or pretense. The only nearby attractions are its famous pepper plantation – Kampot pepper is a national treasure, a few caves, the river itself, and the fact that the Khmer Rouge hid out in the hills near here as recently as 12 years ago. There has not been much tourism here yet, but perhaps its just a matter of time. The region is very beautiful with lush jagged mountains rising up from the fertile rice fields, it is gorgeous.

Our first morning led us to breakfast at Bokor Mountain Lodge, the most civilized Western establishment in town. Fronted by round tables with curved slope-backed benches of a heavily varnished wood like mahogany, the setting by the river invites a ponderous morning beverage.

Across the street in front of the river sat a gaggle of tuktuk drivers huddled about two tuktuks. I dropped over and inquired as to the day rate for exploring the caves and a pepper plantation. One young man perked right up with solid English, “I can take you to the caves, the pepper plantation. Would you like to go to Kep or Rabbit Island?” “No,” I told him, we are moving there after tomorrow. He was not only the most enthusiastic, but the only one of this gang who seemed to want the job. He seemed hungry for work and quite friendly. Mr. Van Doen became the next of our ‘driver-friends’, younger than all the previous ones and more interested in getting to know us.

We headed out of town an hour later and stopped for some water. I offered to buy him a cold drink and he accepted a Coke with no ceremony. We headed out once we established which caves we wanted to see, there were three to choose from. His tuk was a bit low on the shocks and a bit underpowered on the pull, but he wore no helmet and could trade comments and bits of Khmer language help as we rolled along. We chose the nearest caves which were unique for having a temple relic inside, purported to be from pre-Angkor period. He also mentioned that this cave was near to his house.

While ambling through the rice fields up to the base of the mountains, Van Doen told us about the Khmer Rouge guerillas that had lived just two mountains behind this one. They used to come down to fight on Saturdays, they felt this was a lucky day for battling. We were trailed by four younger kids (flashlight guides for the caves) who immediately took Bodhi under their wings. He was delighted to have some kids to run with. We made our way up to the caves and enjoyed the stalactites that resembled various animals, here a crocodile, there an elephant, etc. We were then led into a separate entrance for passing through the mountain for the intrepid spelunkers. I was wearing only sandals, Amee and Bodhi demurred at the initial double overhead scramble descent with the only light one shined in your eyes by the 10 year old guide. I started and found myself halfway down, halfway up and not willing to finish either direction, stuck really, too steep, too slippery to continue and not sure how to get out. I made it out and we left the area, not until some deliberation had finished on what to pay the four helpers and how the kitty would be split up.

Van Doen asked us if we’d like to take lunch at his family house nearby. We were delighted to accept. Here was incomparable countryside and an invitation for a genuine Khmer country lunch. He tried to phone ahead to his father to slaughter a chicken for us, but couldn’t get through. We drove to a nearby pathway where he parked the tuktuk and we walked across one of those thin lanes between the rice paddies. He pointed in the near distance and said ‘that my house.’ We passed one grass-roofed structure, a neighbor he shouted ‘hello’ to. We came around a bend through some trees and entered a small courtyard with some chickens, dogs and haybales about. We rounded the house and in the rear yard found members of his family, his mother, who greeted us with shining eyes and delight, his sister with a baby on her hip, just finishing lunch of what appeared to be rice with something on it, a handful of other kids under age 6 and some pigs nosing about for scraps.

A table was set up and some plastic chairs brought out. His father helped, though remained mostly inside the main house, a brother or younger male figure hovered on the periphery. I realized that we were likely the first Westerners he had ever treated to this privilege, I wondered why. On the way out of the caves, Van Doen had told me about his life, that he was learning English, that he wanted to go to university to learn computers, that he would like to be a driver as an additional job. He couldn’t afford University yet, it was $230 per year, I thought of how little money that was and wondered if I could help.

We were served a delicious fish soup over rice. The fishes were very little silver fish which we’ve since seen the boys catching in the river from the bridges in town. There was not much meat on them but lots of flavor and the soup was loaded with morning glory greens. We were very grateful for this experience. After, Van Doen explained that the small house had been even smaller but that he had worked selling vegetables to earn more money to improve the house. Tarps where rice and small green beans lay drying around the courtyard. He told us that the family could now grow enough rice to get through the year and would dry it now and store it inside the house. Van Doen told us about his father, that he had had to leave the area due to Khmer Rouge, to live in Phnom Penh so they would not kill him and take his land. He had returned after 1996 and had to start over on this piece of land.

After lunch we brought out the Cambodian hackeysack and Van Doen’s father came bounding out of the hut wearing sneakers and ready to rock. Bodhi joined in and we had our best game yet, it went on for a very long time! We invited Van Doen to visit us in Kep with his fiancé – this would be a bit different relationship, more as friends, not working for us. We await his visit in a day or so.

Photos by Amee Evans Godwin - more photos here!