So after an amazing Literary Lunch at Chinese House with Jung Cheng and Madeleine Thien, which consisted of quail and duck salad, seared quail breast, miso soup with silken tofu, black king fish and marinated squid followed by white chocolate mille feuille and passionfruit sorbet…ah! what a delight! we then headed by kamikaze taxi to Kampot. Reminiscent of a nine hour drive we had in India in 2011 from Mumbai to Goa.
The road was pretty good actually with just a few potholes which the driver expertly avoided, even if it meant heading towards ongoing traffic for a while.
Once we got out of Phnom Penh and further out into the countryside it was beautifully green with coconut palms and rice fields and gorgeous bright coloured housing on stilts. Lots of little red roosters strutting their stuff along the road verges. We called them Mick! After the man!
Welcomed to Kampot by a dugong sculpture and then passed the famous Durian roundabout to get to Mea Culpa, our new home for the next 6 nights.
Let the fun begin!
Settled in and then headed next door to the Lotus Pond Villa where a lot of the Festival action is happening.
The first act we saw was the master charpai player, Master Kong Nay, who is a local hero, and his son. A really unusual instrument accompanied by singing the likes of which I have never heard before. The local Cambodians obviously knew what he was saying and there was much laughter and clapping.
Beautiful atmosphere. Beautiful evening. We have arrived!
Looks so interesting, Jane. Am loving this adventure you and Sally are having.