Prachum Ben:

Last week was the Prachum Ben festival (deads´ceremony) in Cambodia. I took advantage of these few days off to visit the South of Cambodia. I went by bus to Sihanoukville (4 hours from Phonm Penh) where I spent a day and a half on the beach of some desert islands surrounded by turquoise water and colorful corals under a magnificent sun ... Quite enjoyable I must say ! Then I moved to Kampot to meet some friends from Phnom Penh: the road between Sihanoukville and Kampot is absolutely wonderful, the cambodgian countryside is delightful. We then went by motorcycle to Kep (30 kms from Kampot) to eat some fish on the seaside and later on to swim in a river. The following day - raining that one - we rented a 4-wheels car to go to the Bokor natural park, a tropical forest on a mountain with on top a former hill station from the time of the french colonies with a casino, a church, an hotel and some other buildings completely decayed by the time and the war. On the way back we stopped at Takeo where we took a speed boat through the flooded land to visit some pagodas from the pre-Angkor times.