A Weekend in Kep

We've just had a 4 day holiday from school.  Monday was Women's Day (why did I have to move overseas to learn about that one?) and Tuesday was a freebie. So the girls and I decided to hop a bus to a seaside town called Kep.

Kep (sounds like Kipe) is on a little southern tip of Cambodia.  Compared to Phnom Penh, it is quiet, quaint and peaceful.  It was delightful to breath fresh air and get a break from the noises of the city.

After a 4-5 hour bus ride we arrived just outside our little boutique hotel, Brise de Kep.  It was right on the sea with little curtained sunbeds.  We decided to walk along the beach into the town proper and find a place for dinner.

Here I'm standing at the end of a boat slip.  I have to digress from my original story and mention the giant gastropod I'm sporting on my t-shirt.  Yes that's a large snail, and you can't tell but that quirky snail is reading a book.  One of my students made that drawing, and it made it onto the school t-shirt.  To the folks from Vegas- has anyone been to see the Cirque show Mystere`?  Well, I won't spoil the ending, but if you've seen it you'll see the connection to my shirt.  See, I was meant to be here.


Returning to Kep... here are some photos of our walk along the sea.

There was lots of statuary around town.

Including this monstrosity.

If you couldn't surmise from the picture, Kep is known for it's fresh and delicious crab.  

If I was a teacher in this town I might be tempted to tell my students that the giant Kep crab comes alive at night and pinches off the toes of children who don't do their homework. 

Some of the leaves were turning red on the trees and it almost felt like fall in New England... almost.

It was relatively clean and there were sidewalks to walk on.  Did you hear me? Sidewalks! I tell you it was a wonderful, beautiful thing.

Fishing boats at sunset.

We had dinner at a little Italian place and I had a stuffed crab salad (in honor of Kep and its giant crab mascot).  Mango smoothies are a work of art here. They are as beautiful to the eyes as they are to taste. I can't help getting a still life shot in.

We were able to watch the sunset from the deck of our restaurant.  My camera cannot do justice to the fiery orange orb that slowly sank towards the sea.

After dinner we caught a tuk tuk home because it was too far to walk back in the dark. We met the friendliest fellow who I'm just going to call "Shawn." We practiced our Khmer with him and he practiced his English with us. Every time he turned around to talk to us he would swerve all over the road.  It was fine because Kep really is a quiet town and there weren't many people on the road. And we were going about 7 miles an hour, anyway.  

The next day we decided to go out to Rabbit Island. It's only a short boat ride away.  

We took a boat like this one. HMS ____ fill in the blank with your best idea.  I'm sure this gal hasn't been christened with a bottle of Champagne.

Our boatman. In case you're wondering, yes the boat had a motor. He only used the bamboo pole to push us away from the dock and aim us out to sea.

Our approach to Rabbit Island.

We had a nice long day sitting on the beach and swimming in the sea.  I saw this beautiful creature while swimming.  I'm sorry to say that some other kids found him.  I later saw him being carried to shore, destined for a soup of some sort, I'm sure.  I should have given him a toss into deep sea.  I feel a bit responsible for his shortened life span.

Massage huts right on the beach.  A bit public for my taste, but some folks were giving it a go.

I had spicy crab for lunch, what else?  We watched as the man walked to the ocean and retrieved our lunch directly from the sea.  

The next morning a few of us decided to do a little hike in Kep National Park.

There were pretty views of the ocean along the way. It was a little bit tortuous to look at that ocean as we climbed up the hot, dusty trail.

So we descended and decided to look for a pool around town to take a dip in. This turned out to be an adventure. The Royal Rock has the newest, nicest pool in town, but after a whole day at Rabbit Island with ineffective sunblock, we needed a pool with some shady areas and the Royal Rock could not offer this to us. 

Someone recommended the Le Ponton, but once we got there we found out their pool was full with hotel guests.  On we went to the Malibu.  "So sorry Madame, we just put acid in the pool."  We ended up at Kukuluku that Mr. Shawn (remember the friendly driver? He made a few appearances over the weekend) had been recommending all along.  It's definitely a place that one 'ends up' in.  It looked like a bombed out war ruin, with water related relics all around.  But the pool was clean and we used it for free.  I wish I had taken a picture to share with you, but really the place was more a topic of conversation than something you want to document in visual history.  After our cool and refreshing dunk in the pool, Miss Susan and I sat on a curtained sunbed on the beach (it was best to make as little contact with that beach as possible) and hashed out most of the problems of the world.

It was a day of extremes.  From the hot dusty trail, to a cool and refreshing pool.  From the Kukuluku and onto the Sailing Club that evening.

We had made reservations for dinner at the Sailing Club for our last night in town.  It's a classy joint right on the ocean and is perfect for a sunset dinner.  It was clean and beautiful, qualities I appreciate more and more since living in Cambodia.

Here are we are at the Sailing Club.  Me, Susan, Danielle, Meredith and Rebecca. And here we come to the end of our happy Kep trail.  

This may sound odd, but one of the nicest highlights of the trip was the good-natured, friendly and safe tuk tuk drivers.  It made the weekend that much more enjoyable.  Sihanoukville could definitely learn a thing or two from her sister on the sea: Kep.