The coast around Kampot is not only about the water. Turn inland and the flat green paddies are suddenly interrupted by dramatic limestone hills, rising like islands out of the fields, and inside them lies some of the most surprising country on the whole coast.
The cave temples
Several of these karst outcrops hide caves, and some of the caves hide temples. At Phnom Chhnork, a short climb and a scramble lead to a small brick sanctuary, well over a thousand years old, standing inside a cavern with the jungle and the sky showing through a hole in the roof. Phnom Sorsia and others nearby hold their own chambers, stalactites and resident bats. Local children, inevitably, will offer to guide you, and usually do it well.
The back roads
Half the pleasure is simply getting there. The lanes between the hills run through classic countryside, rice paddies and sugar palms, white cattle and wooden houses on stilts, with the karst peaks as a backdrop. It is flat, gentle country, perfect for exploring slowly by bicycle or motorbike, stopping wherever a cave mouth or a pagoda catches your eye.
The Secret Lake
Northeast of town lies the so-called Secret Lake, a reservoir with a harder history, dug by forced labour in the Khmer Rouge years, now a peaceful spot for a late-afternoon swim and a drink as the sun goes down behind the hills. Like much of this coast, its calm surface sits over a deeper past.
How to be here
Rent a bicycle or a motorbike in Kampot, take a rough map and plenty of water, and give a day to the hills and caves. Go gently, accept a local guide at the caves, and let the karst country show you the coast's quieter, older side.