It came as a surprise to find ourselves in the capital town of Sen Monorom in Mondulkiri. Mondulkiri is located in the northeastern part of Cambodia, some 390 kilometres away from Phnom Penh. But more surprisingly was to find ourselves enjoying the most delicious very early breakfast in town at the Cinnamon Cafe and Bakery.
The coffee was the best. I had enough of those bitter coffee from other places. Here, I can enjoy the coffee without being suspicious of its origin. The owner, Kia, told me that the coffee beans were bought in Phnom Penh. It does feel good!
For breakfast, we had an all day English breakfast. This meant two scrambled eggs, fried tomatoes, bacon and homemade bread. We also had yoghurt with mango, passion fruit and muesli.
And since, we can’t get enough, we had pancakes too served with lime and sugar.
I’ve met Kia, the owner, a few times before. The last time was in Bangkok some years ago. I know that she is known to be the best baker in town. She has many orders everyday from individuals and some from organisations too. Really cool! She related to me how everything started, how an expat couple who worked many years in Mondulkiri got her started and encouraged her to continue. It was a beautiful story.
But even more surprisingly, our breakfast extended until midday. The truck which supposed to pick us up had gone to fixing. So we ended up working at the cafe, preparing for the village visits.
But it was a wonderful place to work in, with the cat accompanying us and checking up on us. Also to know that I was among the cakes - lemon meringue, chocolate cake, banana cake, pumpkin cake... But then the motorbikes came. Yes, not the truck. The truck was still in the fixing. So on the motorbikes we went!
