Three Months Solo in Southeast Asia: Why Kampot Stole My Heart

I'd been on the road for six weeks by the time I crossed from Vietnam into Cambodia at the Bavet border. Thailand had been my warm-up, Vietnam a beautiful whirlwind, and Cambodia was supposed to be a quick two-week stop before flying to Bali. Six weeks later, I was still here — and honestly, I didn't want to leave.

Phnom Penh was my starting point. I checked into a hostel near the riverside and immediately bonded with three other solo female travelers over cheap iced coffees. We ended up doing the Killing Fields and S-21 together the next day. Having others to process those heavy experiences with made a real difference. That evening, we ate lok lak on plastic chairs by the river and talked until midnight.

But Kampot is where everything changed. I took the bus down planning to stay three nights. The town sits on a sleepy river, backed by misty limestone mountains, and the pace is so different from everything else in Southeast Asia. I rented a bicycle and spent my first morning pedaling along the river road, stopping at a pepper plantation where the farmer insisted I try fresh green peppercorns straight off the vine. I'd never tasted anything like it.

I ended up renting a small bungalow at a riverside guesthouse for $6 a night. My neighbors were a French couple who'd been there two months and a South African yoga teacher. We cooked together, shared books, and watched sunsets from hammocks every evening. The Kampot sunset — that golden light hitting the mountains across the river — is something I still dream about.

I took a cooking class with a Cambodian grandmother who spoke almost no English but communicated everything through gestures and laughter. I learned to make fish amok, green mango salad, and the most incredible lemongrass soup. She sent me home with a bag of fresh Kampot pepper as a gift.

As a solo woman, I never once felt unsafe. Walking home after dark along the river road, riding my bike through villages, eating alone at local restaurants — the worst thing that happened was a curious child following me for ten minutes wanting to practice English. Cambodia has this way of making you feel looked after, even when you're completely alone.

Kep was a perfect day trip — the crab market by the sea, the abandoned villas in the hills, and Rabbit Island for a lazy afternoon. I went back to Kep three times during my Kampot stay, each time discovering something new.