A day in Kampot....

                  Sorry Toronto and Wolverhampton, but you are only runners-up in the friendly smiles

Sunset on the Kampot river.......

contest. The winner so far appears to be Cambodia. First day here, staying in the river town of Kampot. & already been lost several times.  People have actually approached me to offer assistance, not just the omnipresent motor bike taxi wallah, hustling to earn a $2 fare.
         Kampot has a similar feel to it as the nearby Vietnamese towns of the Delta. Crossing the political border has not improved the weather situation--still frequent and heavy rain storms. Kampot is very much a backpacker town of choice, although one European guy who operates a riverside bar, stated that tourist arrivals here are definitely slow-- we know that a major group, the young travellers from the UK have been whacked with the 20% pound decline since Brexit.
              Had been bracing myself for an attack of the mosquitoes in these hot, humid river-side towns, but nil/nada a bug bite to report, as yet. Long may it be so.
              Not much really to see in Kampot apart from an appreciation of it wide river. I did a walk

Celebrating the local salt industry....

this morning in a square, along both banks utilising the narrow old metal bridge (motor cycles only) out and the wider concrete modern bridge for my return to the town.
           Currency. Cambodia interestingly operates a parallel currency system--the local riel along with the $US. As in Vietnam, there are no coins in circulation in Cambodia. Prices for westerners in supermarkets, at hotels or for taxis etc., are quoted in $US. The rate for the Cambodian riel is 4000= $1US and apparently this level has been 100% solid since it was set up 20 years ago. Offer the inexact number of $US value notes and

Jack fruit courtesy of the Party.....

changes are given in riels. All very perplexing, as one is handed a handful of paper and one can only feel open to the giving of incorrect change to the hapless tourist. One has to be careful not to get lumbered with too much Cambodian paper because the currency is not able to be converted/traded once outside the borders of Cambodia.
           Just after dark last night along side the river, my super acute money eyes spotted in the deep gloom, a lonely $100 US bill sitting on the foot-path. Quick as a flash I picked it up, figuring that probably some unlucky back-packer had dropped it and would

Beautiful wall tableau....

soon be phoning mum to forward more money. The bill felt OK and looked good, but this morning, in the light of day I saw in tiny mice print the words "Cambodian counterfeit" printed on the corner of the note. I related this to the European owner of a coffee bar and he told me that such $US bills could be bought in the local market. Lesson for me: accept only small denomination US bills.                

           Further to my last blog entry on the classes of expatriates that one sees in S.E. Asia, there is one more that I have observed. These I will call pension refugees. Western people who feel that at 60 years of age that they can no longer afford to live in their native country because the cost of living has outstripped the spending power of their pensions and accumulated capital. They have determined that the countries of S.E. Asia represent refuge where the cost of living is considerable lower than in North America or W. Europe. I spoke to one of these individuals in Kampot and he cited $20 for a tooth extraction, $200 for a dental implant performed by a US trained Cambodian dentist. Further, a very comfortable hotel suite can be rented for $20/day, likely much lower, if a long term arrangement is negotiated. Not the place or time to get into a full review of this issue, but offered only as an example of how some folks are tackling their life issues.