Kampot

In the movie of my life, Les Manguiers, is exactly how I pictured the place my character retreats to when she finally writes the book that will change her life (and the world, haha). Les Manguiers is a guesthouse in an absolutely stunning place. Situated down a pot holed, swampy dirt track (which more than once almost tipped the Tuk Tuk over), past some coconut-headed, raggedy and slightly sinister scarecrows, very similar to Mighty Boosh’s Milky Joe, Les Manguiers sits, tucked away on the river bank. It consists of the main guesthouse and many little bungalows scattered around an open bar and cooking area. A lovely French family runs it. It’s peacefully idyllic and beautiful. The road to reach it is a nightmare. As it still rains heavily every day it’s almost a muddy river. But the result at the end is well worth the ride.

Kampot, in which Les Manguiers is placed, is a strange town. It’s extremely quiet, with many deserted French colonial buildings sitting in amongst the normal functioning buildings as if they have been forgotten or are no longer seen. It has the feel of a ghost town. On the riverfront there is a strip of good looking bars but on a Friday night it was completely deserted.

Elle’s uncle had done some music composition for an organisation called Epic Arts and had spent some time at the Epic Arts Centre in Kampot. Epic Arts works with disabled young people and the severely autistic in creative arts such as dance, film, painting and media. When we arrived in Kampot we went to the Epic Arts Café which was run by deaf people. Then a friend of her uncles met us and took us to the centre where we met some of the students and they showed us the latest dance they are working on. It’s a combination of traditional Khmer dancing, the monkey dance, and hip-hop. They were amazing and very talented. The dancers were deaf and they choreographed the dance between them, feeling the vibrations through the floor to stay in time. It was very impressive and really good to talk with them.

On Saturday we decided to do a bike ride and trek to a secluded waterfall. The length of the bike ride and "short walk" kept extending the more that we enquired but our guide assured us you didn’t have to be super fit. We asked about footwear, he said trainers were okay, but walking boots were better... We replied with, "What about sandals?" He said as long as they were strapped to your foot that was fine. However, it didn’t turn out to be fine. The bike ride was long and, although beautiful, I was concentrating on not passing out 95% of the time. The last bit was on a sand track so impossibly hard to move on. He also travelled at quite a pace. After the bike ride we stopped for a rice lunch and a swim in the rapids as it was so hot and we were exhausted.

The trek part was up vertical rocks holding on to vines in an ab-sailing fashion. At one point Charlotte grabbed me because she heard a snake moving about in the bush behind us and started yelling, "Quick, move", at which point I thought I was about to fall to my death. Sandals defiantly weren’t good enough and as it started to rain on the way back I was slipping and sliding all over the place. My sandals also broke when we arrived at the waterfall. All the straps came off and the base had come completely away from the top. To get back our guide fixed a small piece of elastic to the shoe to strap it to my foot.

The waterfall was incredible though. It was in a little secluded pool with tree roots winding down from the sides. I managed to swim under it, even though the force made it quite hard to get close. I think it made the journey worth it...