Kampot Morning

Pepper plants being shade grown

Quality Control

It was up and walk-about before the heat got fiery. I crossed the river on the new bridge and quickly found FarmLink, a sort of Co-op that promotes the high quality peppercorn business and works with local farmers to do so.

Sampling the Black, red and white peppercorns was a treat, as well as learning how the three different peppers are harvested from the same plant. For black pepper, the green corns are picked from the branch and sun dried for a number of days. For the red, the farmer picks either the reddish or yellow corns, which are soaked in hot water for a period and then dried in the sun. The white pepper is the same as the red, but it has had the skin removed.

Clutching my precious cargo of peppercorns, I headed out across the rural side of the river to find Olly's, a guest house run by a Belgian guy who supposedly rents paddle boards. I did find Olly's, and I did have a lovely walk getting there, but alas, "All of the boards are broken."

I headed back down the river, past a small burned out villa, a casualty of the war. I easily found the approach to the "Old Bridge." This bridge was destroyed during fighting with the Khmer Rouge. It was originally built by the French. When the war damage was repaired, it was done with a mish-mash of methods and materials. Basically, the locals used whatever was at hand, including older bridge sections from elsewhere. The result was not pretty and is perilous walking due to its narrowness. In fact, after I walked it, I read that it was a "Death Trap" according to the Kampot Survival Guide.

The KSG is a hilarious quarterly is put out by the local Ex-Pats, or "Pot-Pats" as they call themselves. I admit to laughing my ass off whilst reading it and I recommend it to anyone thinking of traveling here: http://kampotsurvivalguide.blogspot.com