Cambodia's Most Underrated City 🇰🇭 Kampot is Amazing

A perfect day in Kampot, this is quickly becoming a popular city in Southern Cambodia for travelers and expats.
Much of the information about Cambodia was out of date with sadly many businesses closing so I'm going to make a bigger Kampot travel guide on my website next month. www.baconismagic.ca/Cambodia/Kampot
You can support my work at www.patreon.com/Ayngelina where I share tips that don't make it into videos and behind the scenes content.
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00:00 kampot Cambodia
02:11 Epic Arts Cafe
04:53 Durian Coffee
07:59 Bokor National Park
08:48 Yeay Mao
11:42 Kampot National Park Development
14:04 Bokor Hill Station
18:29 Sabai Beach
#kampot #Cambodia #khmerfood

[@eternitywithjesus777]

My goodness, the views are gorgeous! The skies are so blue❤

[@ayngelina]

I know! If we hadn’t booked a flight we would have stayed longer.

[@khmersong8592]

You are such an angel thank you for visiting Kampot ❤

[@ayngelina]

Thank you too!

[@sopheaktr]

Love your word on Starbucks ❤

[@ayngelina]

Thank you!

[@sukikom2259]

Agree with you on big corporations in a poor country. But, boy, this Starbucks has gotten the best location in the country. 😂

[@ayngelina]

I know!! I went inside just to have a look around and it was beautiful. But also empty except for a few tourists so that made me happy as the town has some great coffee shops.

[@iluv2_travel]

i wouldnt starbucks ANYWHERE! lol

[@sukikom2259]

Love your video about Kampot. So beautiful. Thanks for sharing. ❤

[@ayngelina]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@ibolyakovari922]

Szép helyre vittél ! 😊 üdvözöllek Budapestről ❤

[@EvanChorm-le6tn]

Cambodia is a protectorate not a colony, and it was never invaded by the French. The Cambodian King reached out to other pro-monarchy on Earth people from the Spaniards to later the French for military aid as well as allyship against the encroaching democratic-like Thais and Vietnamese. Hence why the Cambodians aren’t antagonistic towards the French like how the Thais and Vietnamese are. And it is pronounced “poat” in Khmer which is the Khmer word for corn 🌽, a grass-grown fruit. This Khmer word for corn is in turn related to words such as Boat and Boy (English), Beau (French), Bodhi (Sanskrit), Poe (Germanic), and Peau (Khmer for the Baby/the youngest sibling like the protagonist Kevin McCallister in Home Alone). Whereas “Kam” means “to come” in both Khmer (Austro-Asiatic) and Indo-European languages. Thus both words when compounded together means “The Coming Bodhi” which makes sense given the statue of the floating on a lotus flower Buddha as if He is the Christ walking on water and its location is by the sea. And if you’re obsessed with interpreting philosophical kingdom mythology and fairy (fate) tales like me, then you would know the significance of the idea of land and sea, for the land and sea (which are dualities in nature) give rise to the Trinity-born Poseidon aka Neptune who is known as the Dragon-King (Neich-a-Reich in Khmer) and is simultaneously the prophesied Chosen sovereign human God-King on Earth. It has nothing to do with your version of pot. Keep it PG. Thanks.

[@ayngelina]

Thank you for taking the time to leave such a thoughtful response! I’ve learned so much from you 😊

[@EvanChorm-le6tn]

Thank you for posting videos of the foods in Cambodia (Coming-Bodhi). I’m a fraternal twin Khmer (3-in-1 Chimera) raised in a Russian Jewish community in New York since infancy like Superman and many of the foods you posted are foreign to me. And I thought I knew all Cambodian food-apparently not. But it could also be new foods that were created by the merchant caste of Cambodia to make a living and profit. Or both! 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@ayngelina]

Oh wow what an interesting background. I’d heard from some people that much of the traditional food was lost during Khmer Rouge and that’s why it doesn’t have a bigger profile but there seems to be a resurgence in pride from the younger generation who wants to eat it.

[@EvanChorm-le6tn]

@@ayngelina I highly doubt 5 years can completely wipe out the memories of culinary art as well as an entire culture for that matter. Cambodians like any and many humans on Earth tend to sugarcoat and exaggerate. Like European feudal kingdoms, the majority of the Cambodian population comprised of peasants and business peddlers and merchants. Such people are the ones who joined the democratic Khmer Rouge. Chances are they don’t know their parents and grandparents were part of the KR or they do know and are playing victim of the KR. The ones who were targeted by the KR were royals and nobles. Not peasants and business merchants.

[@kosmo1001]

Kampot (កំពត) is a name and is not related to corn. Corn (ពោត) is spelled differently and pronounced slightly differently in Khmer. Oh, I believe Kampot is a type of fish (Puffer?).

[@timobrien4634]

Lovely video, thank you!

[@ayngelina]

I’m so glad you enjoyed it!

[@briantravelman]

I recently saw an episode of "House Hunters" where one of your fellow countrywomen moved to this city and set up a yoga studio, because she got fed up with the behavior of Toronto people and having to work. She said the values and lifestyles of Cambodians alligned much more with her's. I'd never heard of this town before then either, but it seems very popular with White expats.

[@ayngelina]

I may have seen that yoga studio as there’s one right in the middle of town. It has become a big expat destination. I actually heard about it because I wanted to go to Sihanoukville and both expats and locals told me not to go, that it had become a beach town of Chinese casinos and Russian businesses. So a lot of people moved to Kampot, especially older white men looking for companionship… aka sexpats. In the centre of town you see this quite a bit but it’s less apparent as you travel outward.

[@EvanChorm-le6tn]

@@ayngelina Really? That’s so gross. Sounds like a civilized, exclusive, fortified, segregated garden kingdom has regressed back to the inclusive, untamed wilderness.

[@ayngelina]

So gross. Unfortunately much of South East Asia is like that now as old white men can't afford to retire in their own country.

[@EvanChorm-le6tn]

@@ayngelina It’s so surreal to me because I was raised in America hearing about that stereotype of white men going to other countries or regions of the world such as Latin America or East Asia, not Cambodia. Now the virus is spreading to Cambodia this past few years and decade? Unbelievable! It’s like me hearing about other ethnicities profiting from other cultures ranging from European to Latin American to African and to East Asian and now they are all flocking to Cambodia and trying to profit from Cambodian culture and land? These things I’ve read about in American history books, heard about from other “marginalized” ethnicities, or seen in documentaries and movies about other countries are now happening to my very own culture, people and motherland is so surreal to me in a bad way.

[@calvinc6121]

remember to grab a bag of kampot pepper!

[@ayngelina]

You know I cannot believe I forgot to share this fact but Kampot pepper is not originally from Cambodia, but in fact Indonesia, specfically Sumatra. When the Dutch began colonization the King of Aceh did not want them to have anything so he burned all their pepper fields. The French imported the pepper and without a supply, they started to grow it in Cambodia.

[@sovannay9148]

Welcome to Cambodia 🇰🇭. Thank you for sharing your thoughts about our country and tell the world about our country 🥰♥️🙏

[@ayngelina]

Thank you! 😃 I have sadly only one more video but I will be back!

[@eternitywithjesus777]

Oh a day early. Thanks!

[@ayngelina]

I try to post when most subscribers are online, according to KZbin this is better for everyone 😊

[@eternitywithjesus777]

@@ayngelina 👍

[@sokunthiadan6537]

Wow, so beautiful is Kompot 😍

[@ayngelina]

It really is!

[@lizcarlyle2477]

Hello A & A, another great Cambodian video! Beachfront hotel & food is amazing! What was the seafood? Terima kasih.

[@ayngelina]

Squid with Kampot pepper! So good 😊

[@lizcarlyle2477]

Pepper is my favorite & usually my only spice. Will check it out. Thanks.

[@CambodiaLifeTV]

You should go to visit at Kep Beach also, around 30mn from Kampot ❤

[@ayngelina]

I think you’ll like the video this weekend 😊

[@sinitsen9265]

I love Kompot it’s beautiful city in Cambodia.

[@ayngelina]

It really is such a great city.

[@Phil-kb8ql]

How depressing. Now Starbucks have invaded Cambodia following 7 eleven. Not long before McDonalds and Pizza Hut arrive like a plague followed by a few Irish pubs. That was such a beautiful, unique restaurant overlooking the Praek Tuek Chou River. Seems like this process follows mainly young backpackers boasting they are on an adventure to explore other countries and cultures only to demand the same crap they had where they came from, huddled in groups glued to their phones for hours not even talking to each other.

[@ayngelina]

In this case I don’t think it’s foreigners driving the demand for Starbucks it is really locals. In Asia it seems to be a status symbol and locals are excited to have a foreign brand. Almost everyone I saw over a week were adults driving in with their cars.

[@elgringoec]

Well, it's got "pot" in the name... 😋😎☮️

[@ayngelina]

Haha yes it does

[@EvanChorm-le6tn]

Cambodia is a protectorate not a colony, and it was never invaded by the French. The Cambodian King reached out to other pro-monarchy on Earth people from the Spaniards to later the French for military aid as well as allyship against the encroaching democratic-like Thais and Vietnamese. Hence why the Cambodians aren’t antagonistic towards the French like how the Thais and Vietnamese are. And it is pronounced “poat” in Khmer which is the Khmer word for corn 🌽, a grass-grown fruit. This Khmer word for corn is in turn related to words such as Boat and Boy (English), Beau (French), Bodhi (Sanskrit), Poe (Germanic), and Peau (Khmer for the Baby/the youngest sibling like the protagonist Kevin McCallister in Home Alone). Whereas “Kam” means “to come” in both Khmer (Austro-Asiatic) and Indo-European languages. Thus both words when compounded together means “The Coming Bodhi” which makes sense given the statue of the floating on a lotus flower Buddha as if He is the Christ walking on water and its location is by the sea. And if you’re obsessed with interpreting philosophical kingdom mythology and fairy (fate) tales like me, then you would know the significance of the idea of land and sea, for the land and sea (which are dualities in nature) give rise to the Trinity-born Poseidon aka Neptune who is known as the Dragon-King (Neich-a-Reich in Khmer) and is simultaneously the prophesied Chosen sovereign human God-King on Earth. It has nothing to do with your version of pot. Keep it PG. Thanks.

[@elgringoec]

@@EvanChorm-le6tn That's beautiful, and I appreciate it. I'm a "how does this work" and "how can I accomplish this" kind of thinker so my mind is thinking fifty years ago as a teenager "if only we could alter cam timing and duration on the fly". Not sure what you're thinking with respect to my observation but I had nothing unhealthy in mind. It was a play on words style joke. I have no idea what their society's stance on marijuana is but the world is waking up to the value of it. While I was dreaming up impossible things that eventually came to fruition decades later, we would enjoy some recreational marijuana which we commonly called pot. We would hear stories of good quality stuff in that region just post the Vietnam war from people who had experienced it. Reportedly they had a much more open attitude towards its beneficial usage than what the west had become brainwashed to believe. And it only got worse here before it got better. People finally came around, some begrudgingly, but progress has been made. In present time we can enjoy the positive aspects of it without repercussion. It's a blessing and there's nothing incendiary about it anymore. Cheers!

[@peterRobinson10101]

​@@EvanChorm-le6tnhey thanks for your comment. its rare to get good info in the section.

[@briantravelman]

@elgringoec it has nothing to do with marijuana 🤦‍♂️

[@NightLife717]

❤

[@ayngelina]

💕

[@KhmerMinnesnowta]

We went to Bokor Hill National Park back in 2000, everything was in original condition buildings. We had to drive a 4wheel pickup truck as the road up there was like dirt road with constant pot holes and boulders left from the war. Sadly now, they have built these resorts and hotel casinos which are ruining its natural beauty. There are beautiful waterfalls back then on the hill but I'm not sure now. Deforestation is a major problem there and you can see it. Kep is a hidden town for people to come from the city to relax and enjoy fresh seafood. There are no beaches but there's a manmade sand beach but the water is not always swimmable due to rain and muddy water. Enjoy your trip. Peace ✌️

[@ayngelina]

The drive was the most disturbing and made me wonder what is the definition of a national park in Cambodia if it’s not protection and conservation. Later talking to some people about the houses they told me the land has been leased to Vietnamese. But why? There’s nothing up there…yet.

[@KhmerMinnesnowta]

@@ayngelina There is no Conservation in their dictionary there. Very 😢

[@Dakotaden4]

I agree entirely with not going to Starbucks. What is the point of traveling to a country so different from home if all you do is stay at a resort and eating Western food? 🤔 You can't say because it is cheaper there...because you have to factor in the travel costs to get there 🤣

[@ayngelina]

And Starbucks is so expensive here, I think more expensive than at home. But in South East Asia it’s a flex to be able to afford Starbucks and so in other countries it is busy but there are so many good local coffee shops here that tourists should really know better. I did stop by one in the Philippines because I needed internet to message my Airbnb and they didn’t have internet! I was so confused and said to the cashier “but this is Starbucks” and she just looked at me blankly so I think they aren’t workspaces in other countries either.

[@MrLeedone]

Local coffee is way better. Kompot, Kep is in my list.

[@ayngelina]

I loved both. My Kep video is next week and when I return I want to see Battambang.

[@sokpeaoky8852]

Don’t believe the superstition about that you have to pray to Grandma Mao on Bokor mountain, if you don’t bad thing will happen. ❤👍

[@ayngelina]

Thank you! But I think a visit and acknowledgement is OK...just in case!