Two Days exploring Water Parks and Ruins!
Kampot Cambodia is a small but pretty, peaceful and tranquil city in the south of Cambodia. It is located around 4 hours from the capital city of Phnom Penh and is easily reached by bus transfer.
I think I paid around $18 (USD) to get a 3-hour minibus from the port at Sihanoukville (Avoid like the plague) direct to Kampot. This included a Hostel drop off.
It should 100% be a place to have on your Cambodian bucket list. Although not as known as some of Cambodia’s other cities, its countryside city vibe leaves you with some beautiful sights and things to do!
Where To Stay In Kampot
The backpacking scene in Kampot province is great and leaves you with lots of choices for really cheap but decent hostels. You have your chain brand hostels such as Mad Monkey, where you will find great fusion food and a party no doubt.
Alongside other independent and family-owned hostels such as Karma Traders, which is where I would send you if you were to ask my opinion!
Have a look at booking.com & Hostel World to compare Hostel Prices and options for Kampot.
Karma Traders Kampot
A rooftop bar with $3 USD cocktails, cheese toasties, $2 joints and Family meals each night. What more could you want? Its pool is a central area between the main house dorm rooms and the converted container dorms outside.
BBQ’s and live music daily, we opted to stay in Kampot an extra few days just to relax in this hostel. Make sure to grab one of their cheese toasties too!
Karma Traders is also home to a tattoo studio! Bike rental is also available for around $4 a day.
Price: $5 USD per person per night
What To Do In Kampot
Arcadia Waterpark
Day passes for the adventurous ones amongst us is a must. Or for those immune to mosquitos or the absolute thrill seekers/adrenaline junkies, you can stay at the backpacker hostel attached and get access to the water park for free.
Day Pass: $4 USD
Turns out health and safety concerns and just general knowledge that if someone was to get hurt, it would be me, meant that I backed out of most rides and stuck to the lazy river rings.
Adam’s childhood adult dreams collided and trying to get him to leave took us a good 2 hours. Its a fun place to go, but from the waiver, you sign at the beginning to release Arcadia of all responsibility should you get injured, it waved a few red flags for me and made me question how many people have got injured here before…
Bokor National Park
If you wanted to learn how to ride a scooter, this is the place I would send you! In comparison to Kampot’s dusty, pothole and sheer blindingly dangerous roads, the minute you enter the national park, its road quality rivals that of freshly laid M25 Motorway surface.
Odd.
Scooter the 1.45/2 hour perfectly winding roads up to the top and stop along the way at some of the below spots on route! Its beautiful scenic views accompany you the entire way up and it’s a beautiful escape from city life.
This was one of my favourite days in Cambodia and it is well worth the day trip even if what’s at the top isn’t quite what you were expecting.
*Make sure you have a full tank of petrol as from memory there aren’t any petrol stations once you start to head up.
Ruins and Ruined Ruins
There is the worst eyesore of a Chinese hotel Casino that resembles an Art Deco version of The Wizard of Oz Green city Castle monstrosity thing that sits within the park.
It’s so out of place it ruins the whole area of the National park. It also is a foreshadow to the amount of Chinese influence that is upon the Cambodian government.
All you have to do it look at Sihanoukville before and after photos to realise its a development nightmare. Once you drive past the Hideous mammoth casino, you come across greenery until the eye can see. Far in the distance, you can see the above church.
Buzzing for a haunted ruin adventure, we set off in the direction of this church in the distance. Park up on the side of the road and climb the small hill to reach the church.
As expected it was covered in Graffiti, but even creepily, crosses and Jesus still hang on the walls. It makes so for some cool pictures and just as we were leaving, the Instagram “influencers” turned up, kitted out with outfit changes and drones.
Just behind the church, there is a rubble natural staircase that takes you about 50M higher than the church and has some incredible views.
Bokor Hill Station
This was without a doubt the image that made us decide to explore Bokor National Park. Lured in with ruins and floors to explore abandoned levels of mystery, once we left the church and headed in this direction, you can understand our confusion and annoyance when we were presented with this…
A completely ruined ruin. They should have left it alone, because yet again another development ruined any tourist attraction they naturally had that didn’t go with any of its natural surroundings. Having biked this whole way we were naturally disappointed that our mysterious haunted adventure was cut short.
However, once back at Karma Traders, a few other backpackers had gone into this hotel. They said it was Area 51 mixed in with North Korea vibes. A hotel full of staff but absolutely zero guests…..Not a single soul.
We later learned on the rumour mill that the whole park is a bit of a money pit/stash holder for the Cambodian government and a lot of potentially, somewhat illegal business goes on here… it would explain a lot, to be honest!
Popokvil waterfall
Entrance fee $2 USD, but oddly this includes a free bottle of water and a meal voucher. You are also not allowed to waive the bottle of water and food and get in free – You can’t blame us for trying.
In rainy season this waterfall would be stunning. Without rain, it is still impressive, but more of a trickle than gushing falls. We spent around 20 minutes here trying to figure out how to get to the bottom. Then we decided it was too hot and jumped back on our bikes to explore the park some more.
Durian Roundabout of Fruity Dreams
Probably the only durian fruit you will ever be happy to see! Right in the center of Kampot, you will find this! Minus the horrendous smell of actual durian fruits its fun but also a tad scary roundabout to try and navigate on a scooter.
Ecran Noodles and Dumplings
The best dumpling and noodle place you will find in Cambodia and I am not even being slightly dramatic. Such a good price and large portions meant we came here probably every evening for dinner! There is also an amazing food cart out the front that sells mouth-watering banana and Nutella crepes for $1 USD. Winning all around for everybody involved.
Cambodia is a beautiful country. I spent a total of a month exploring the cities and provinces. If I am being honest, 30 days was way too long.
You could happily explore Cambodia in two weeks. However, regardless of how long you have to explore, Kampot, Phnom Penh, Siem Reap & the Koh Rong Islands need to be on your list of Cambodian destinations to visit.
