Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72772
I’d love to have a Kim Il Scary cut.
And greetings from Kampot. Long(ish) bus trip here, no pics as the windows were really grubby. Understandable as the last stretch of the road was dirt. Now watching the tv coverage of the Water Festival, interestingly no sign on the truly massive security in and around Phnom Penh today. It was quite impressive once you started to pay attention.
Gratuitous pic of the Durian Roundabout, will get better pics tomorrow of this crazy fruit inspired traffic circle.
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10th Nov 2019 1:38 pm
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72772
Morning folks, here’s a few pics from Kampot & area in SE Cambodia. Just a general wander around the town yesterday, fending off half hearted (mostly) advances from tuc-tuc drivers. Nice and warm, up to 30c and at last we’re getting full sunshine. I know I’m going to regret saying this but looks like the rainy season is over.
Pano shot of the Preaek Tuek Chhu river.
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Fair few restaurant “boats”, glad this one has a walk way as wouldn’t want to rely on the shuttle boat.
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And as promised, a better pic of the Durian Roundabout. We didn’t get across to it as it was pretty busy every time we were near so this is the best pic we have.
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And a couple of pics from the small lake/large pond just N of our guesthouse. Really nice wander around, even though it was getting a tad toastie.
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Today was a bit more of a tourist day, a trip to La Plantation pepper farm. We shelled out for ACed minibus there and back which was a good move as once off the tarmac, which was mostly tarmac, it was 10km of bumpy & dusty dirt roads. So good not having to wear a face mask and being cool.
Gratuitous pano from the main reception area for La Plantation. Lemon grass in the foreground.
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And officially the daftest looking fruit on the planet.
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First thing at the La Plantation tour was a cart trip pulled by a couple of water buffalo, named by us Harriett & Larry.
Harriett on left as we were being driven was deffo the boss. They seemed quite happy lugging a couple of western tourists around and even got a cooling spray down after 15 minutes.
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Here’s one of the other load of tourist coming the other way. For anyone thinking that it doesn’t look very comfy, they are spot on. The backside was deffo happy when the tour has finished.
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The highlight of the cart tour for H&L, the lake. Well they’re not called water buffalo for nothing, they loved it.
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Boots got a bit of a wash as well.
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Harriett was definitely not keen on starting up again, she could have stayed there all day.
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And back for lunch. Really nice, beef lok lak for SWMBO and fish amok for me. Scruuuuuuuumy.
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Kapokier kopok tree, some serious spikes on that bad boy!!
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And the pepper farming bit. All on posts and presently being harvested for green pepper corns.
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And final couple of pics. The rice here is starting to be harvested, by hand at first. I’d deffo want to be the dog in that pic.
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And the final pic, the railway tracks from Sihanoukville and Kampot back to Phnom Penh. We were going to use that railway but the timings, both days and times, were pretty useless so we’re going to use buses all the way to Bangkok in 2 weeks time. Alas poor Cambodian trains, it’s not to be.
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Fun and frolics tomorrow, boat trip in ex-fishing boat down to Kep, close to the Cambodia/Vietnam border. And back hopefully.
Last edited by DSL on 12th Nov 2019 3:18 pm. Edited 1 time in total
12th Nov 2019 1:50 pm
Pelyma
Member Since: 06 Jan 2005
Location: Patching, Sussex
Posts: 15496
The picture of the buffalo seems to be the equivalent of Disco Duncs D3 wading Bit rough of you eating H & L's kids though DS3 TDV6 HSE - Silver with Alpaca (old one) Gone
DS3 TDV6 HSE- Silver with Alpaca (new one) Gone
D4 HSE Lux - Montalcino Red Gone
Porsche Cayenne V8 Diesel S
12th Nov 2019 3:11 pm
ianm27
Member Since: 02 Jun 2016
Location: Hertfordshire
Posts: 2154
Great pics Del and glad to hear it's getting back to being toastie Did you not fancy joining H & L for a cool down ? Uncle Ray's spare wheel protector
Limo Tint
Blackvue front & rear dashcam
Cruise control switch pack
Bodsy's remote for FBH
12th Nov 2019 5:28 pm
stew 46
Member Since: 01 Dec 2011
Location: cornwall
Posts: 10146
DSL wrote:
Enjoy.
And don’t forget the pics.
-------------------------------------------------
if you cant hold on dont let go , it ill come in handy for something even if you never use it.
D3 SE 05,
110 s wagon 300 tdi SOLD
h top transit
crew cab transit
transit connect
ausa dumper, muck truck .
peljob 2.5 digger
06 L 200 crew cab
12th Nov 2019 5:39 pm
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72772
Looking good Stew.
No, didn’t fancy joining H&L considering what L was doing in the pool.
Last edited by DSL on 13th Nov 2019 12:15 pm. Edited 2 times in total
13th Nov 2019 1:50 am
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72772
Morning folks. As it’s approaching lunch time back home here’s a couple of pics to get the juices flowing.
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Will post more from Kep crab market after dinner. Pizza of course.
PS Or maybe not for pizza as the heavens have opened and we have to get through this to get to the bar area. Plus the pizza oven is outdoors. We’re now stuck in our room with no provisions apart from teabags.
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13th Nov 2019 12:13 pm
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72772
Right, where were we? Oh yes, Kep crab market.
Got there on the Crab Shuttle, an old fishing boat converted for carrying tourists. Here with our intrepid captain before heading back to Kampot.
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And one of the mods that is an addition, the original boats don’t have this level of luxury, the loo with a nautical view!
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Lots of small fishing boats on the way to Kep.
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And then tuc-tuc to the crab market. Lots of grilled sea food/fish but the crabs are at the sea front where they kept in baskets. You pick your crab, give it a cute name, book its seat on the flight home, then they cook it and you eat it.
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We passed on the crabs, stuck to the safe side and had some fish instead. Too much to choose from.
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But we still remember getting food poisoning in Hoi An from octopus so stuck to real fish.
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Bit of a hike back to the dock where we’d get the boat back. Most of the pavement was occupied by peeps with shade and mats marking the spaces being rented out. So it was back to mostly walking on the road.
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Honking big crab reminding you where you are.
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For the engineer types here, it’s all nice and simple. Why drill a hole in a boat when you can bolt a couple of long prop engines to the boat.
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Simples.
Gratuitous view of the mangroves on the way back. Mangroves as opposed to mangos.
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Then it go one way as the fishing fleet head out to see. Considering the rain that hit later, rather them than me.
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This is 10 boats all rafted together and heading out together.
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And back to Kampot and the downpour.
Today was just a bus ride to PP. The “fancy” bus was replaced with this less fancy one as the former had broken down first thing this morning. Better first thing than half way to PP.
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Bit of a basic bus but the seats were comfy and the AC worked. Plus it was pretty good on the dirt parts of the roads.
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And some great scenery on the way past. Great scenes of rice fields, coconut palms and jungle covered mountains. Classic Cambodia.
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14th Nov 2019 1:36 pm
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72772
A few pics from yesterday’s wandering around.
The view towards the Mekong from in front of the Royal Palace. We were going to see the Royal Palace yesterday but it was getting pretty hot (32c) and sunny and it has limited opening hours. Saying that we were going to see it this morning today but having a slobbing morning, and it’s 31c already so it might be a slobbing day.
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View of Wat Ounalom Monestary with Decho Meas Decho Yat statue in front. Try saying that with your teeth in!
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General wander down the river front, nice cooling breeze but lost the paved area so cut in a block. Bad move, no breeze and too hot so headed back to the front. Passed this lovely old Merc SL, how much? I thought it was quite reasonable but miscounted the 0s.
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We finally found out what business SWMBO’s Cambodian cousin went into, tuc-tuc transport on a big scale.
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Talking of tuc-tucs, loved this one.
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We’ve seen refrigerated cargo versions similar to this, plus saw one that was converted into a camper for two. It looked really good but I didn’t get a pic, not can I find a pic of anything like it on t’internet.
Some of the old colonial building, for sale or rent. Looked a bit hot up there, would hate to have a top story flat there.
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And back to the Mekong and Tonle Sap Rivers convergence. Note barge in background. Plimsol line, pah!
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Finally another nice flag pic. Always good when the sun is out and there’s a bit of a breeze.
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May get some pics today, or may not. We’re heading out for scoff eventually so they may just be food related.
16th Nov 2019 7:16 am
Gareth Site Moderator
Member Since: 07 Dec 2004
Location: Bramhall
Posts: 26698
Great pics Del. Hi from Thailand! It’s a bit hot here. Hope your getting the same temps. We had a bit of rain (drops the size of 50p coins!) yesterday. Rainy season seems to have passed now.
16th Nov 2019 11:28 am
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72772
Good to hear you got there ok, fingers crossed for weather.
Rain’s deffo over in Phnom Penh!
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Did I promise a food pic? Khmer beef salad, boooooootifully spicy and beef marinated rather than cooked. And 50c a beer!! To paraphrase Arnie, we’ll be back.
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We were going to eat one night at the Foreign Correspondents Club, which was open for business before we went to Kampot. Between now and then someone decided it needing renovating and it was being totally gutted. It’s a famous place from the Civil War times (Cambodian, not American, pre Khmer Rouge taking over) and was on our to do list.
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Bit of post dinner peeps and river traffic watching as the sun went down. This shows the highs and lows of the big barges that ply the Mekong, other rivers are available.
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And I don’t take pics of monks as a rule, but these chaps were too good to not to.
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Duck egg anyone?
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All under lots of flags.
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And lastly lots of peeps relaxing in front of the Royal Pallace. Food & toy vendors keeping peeps fed and amused, all peaceful and quiet as no tuc-tucs or touts.
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Hopefully will have one more pic tonight, of Terry, Terry the Pterodactyl. Well really he’s a very big bat, with about a 1ft wingspan, that likes the corridor outside our room. SWMBO saw it yesterday but it flew away from her & out the other way so I didn’t see it. She “thought” it was a bat, or a swallow, and was no where near as big, well half the size of Terry. Tonight I had to enter the corridor first, I’d planned to wind SWMBO up with a fake “oh my god” comment but she had anticipated that but not my silence after the OMG. She was not impressed when Terry flew over my head & out her way! But credit where credit is due, no girly screams were uttered. Nor from SWMBO either.
I’ll pop out every now and again with the phone in camera mode. If peeps don’t hear from me again it means I accidentally let Terry into our room and SWMBO was not amused
16th Nov 2019 12:50 pm
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72772
PS OK, I’m not going to win Wildlife Photographer of the Year but got these pics. He’s using a hatch in our corridor and can’t get close for a pic before he’s off. He’s deffo a big ‘un.
Meet Terry.
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16th Nov 2019 1:58 pm
ianm27
Member Since: 02 Jun 2016
Location: Hertfordshire
Posts: 2154
Great pics Del (except for Terry )
Speaking of Terry, I'm sure the locals have a great recipe for him Uncle Ray's spare wheel protector
Limo Tint
Blackvue front & rear dashcam
Cruise control switch pack
Bodsy's remote for FBH
16th Nov 2019 2:35 pm
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 72772
They wouldn’t dare!!! Well hopefully not where we eat.
And re pic, at great personal risk, mostly from SWMBO, I give you the WFotY 2019 winning pic.
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16th Nov 2019 3:56 pm
Gareth Site Moderator
Member Since: 07 Dec 2004
Location: Bramhall
Posts: 26698
Met this bad boy today, about the size of your hand !! 🕷
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
Bit rough of you eating H & L's kids though 
Did you not fancy joining H & L for a cool down ? 
