We head out of Phnom Penh for the last time at 9 am to explore Cambodia’s southern area. We will stay in Kep for two nights. Kep is a small seaside town about 100 miles south of Phnom Penh. It was once the “playground of the French” in the early 20th century and Cambodian elites in the 1960s. Today it is characterized as “sleepy”. We will see.

As we enter the province of Kep, we stop at the Kampot Pepper Farm. Red, black and white pepper have been grown here for many years with a break when the Khmer Rouge regime was in control and terrorizing the country. 

Everything grown here is organic and electricity provided by solar.
They even have an oven that is powered by solar that is used part of the day to boil water….very cool. I think I will make one of these at home!

We sample the red, white and black pepper which are all from the same “fruit” and plant. We walk through the process from the one year old plants, the harvest, drying and sorting process. We also taste the raw pepper and experience the differences. They sell most of the pepper in Cambodia, but some around the world. Apparently it is the latest rage for many chefs around the world.

The operation includes 16 full-time workers and volunteers that work for lodging. There are six volunteers here at the moment, most stay a couple of weeks and move on. Most seem generally in their twenties.

Our tour guide is Jolie a young French woman who has been here two weeks and staying for two more. She is traveling around the region long-term and is going to Thailand, Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand. Reverse order of our “living around the world” trip so far.

We finish the tour with a fresh coconut, drinking the water first and then eating the flesh. A tasty healthy lunch of pepper, coconut water, and fresh coconut! Sophie worked on splitting the coconut. One of the young ladies helped him finish it.

Onward, we head to the town of Kep. We stop for a real late lunch at the waterfront crab market. The market is mostly locals.

 

 

 

Crab is the food of choice here and apparently plentiful in the waters. Squid, shrimp, fish and chicken are also served here…and we try it all…grilled!

 

 

The live crab are kept in the waters in baskets until ready to be prepared. So guaranteed fresh! We wash it down with a few Angkor beers. A feast for a Cambodian king…Delicious!

Our hotel, the Spring Valley Resort, is in an absolutely beautiful setting. It is on a mountainside, in deep lush tropical flora with some seaside views. We have a few problems with the room however, and these are eventually sorted out by the time we try a third room. All is good. Pretty good, lol.

For our evening entertainment we visit the Happy Kep Club for what Cambodians call KTV, or Karaoke. This is a place that just opened with a nice room and nice equipment. Our driver, Mr. Roth and guide, Sophea, both like to sing and are good at it.

They have to drink a lot of beer to put up with mine and Tracey’s singing, lol. We all put a pretty good dent in the case of Tiger over a few hours. I enjoyed singing back up to Sophea’s Cambodian tunes.

We make a quick stop at the adjacent night club. The young boys are “cuttin the rug” on the dance floor. Very few girls in the place, most seem bored while the guys dance.

Thursday

Wow! The fun last night makes for an early morning! We are slow learners I guess, lol. We take a 30 minute boat ride over to Koh Thonsay, which translates to Rabbit Island. It is a small island only 2 square kilometers and lies about 4 km south of the town of Kep in the Gulf of Thailand.

The island is home to a few fisherman and farmers, thatched bungalows, some which can be rented for $7 per night and restaurant beach shacks line the nice stretch of beach where we arrive. I know where to go if I am running low on cash!

We rent a cabana for the day with a large bamboo mat in the center and hammocks hanging. We stroll down the beach which reminds us of some of the Caribbean islands we have visited. Drinks are priced well at $1.50 per cocktail and full body seaside massages for $7. I could afford to live here for a long, long time at these prices!

A few fishing boats are docked along the beach. There are island dogs and chickens roaming the beaches. We order grilled squid, grilled chicken and shrimp sour soup for lunch at the Cabana. Delicious!
After a very relaxing afternoon, we take our boat back across the large bay to Kep. We take a break from the Cambodian food and enjoy pasta and pizza at the Italian Corner.  A husband and wife team, an Italian and Cambodian, respectively, own the restaurant.  Great food and service!

Friday 

Time to work off some food with a bit of hiking in the Kep National Park, designated such in 1993.  We start off on our 10 km trek mid morning.  Speaking of food, just shortly after we start our walk, we pass the Led Zep Cafe!  Cool name, cool place, lucky for us it is closed.

It is plenty warm outside but most of the walk is shaded. The walk is gradual up the west and south side of the mountain with beautiful views of the Booker Ranges, the Gulf of Thailand including Rabbit Island that we visited yesterday and Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam. To the East are views across islands of the vast Vietnamese marine reserve in Kiên Gian. 

We come across some monkeys in the wild.  There are several young ones that are very curious of us.  We also come across a very large centipede.

I suggest we call this the butterfly tour. We spot dozens of butterfly all along the trek of just about every color. Difficult to photograph but spectacular!

After our hike, we head to the beach for some views and nice cold refreshing sugar cane juice. It is a warm afternoon, great for a relaxing poolside lunch, and siesta back at our place.

We head back to the Italian Corner for dinner for more western food.  The cheeseburger is pretty good!  We catch up with a young couple from Tasmania that we saw hiking.  They are on a three-month trip around SE Asia.  They are only three weeks in and breaking down and eating western food, lol.

Kep to Sihanoukville

We leave Kep and travel to the little town of Kompong Trach. For a long time, this place was forgotten, as the civil war kept it off the map, but the new border crossing with Vietnam has seen a bit of a boom. We stop to visit the interesting cave temple of Wat Kirisan, built-in the sixth century into the base of Phnom Sor. 

It’s not a bad walk up, only a of couple hundred stairs.  There are some beautiful views from the top and some monkeys hanging around, pun intended. 

We stop for a stroll in Kampot which is on the Kampot River with great views of Bokor Mountain.  A few young fisherman are casting from the river’s edge.

The town has some French inspired architecture, some nice looking pubs and restaurants.  We stop in for a meditative glass of iced lemongrass and ginger tea and a hot honey infused ginger tea. Life is good.

Onward we travel to our destination of Sihanoukville. It is here we say so long to our wonderful friends and guide Sophea, and driver Mr. Roth.  We have spent much time with them in Cambodia and loved every minute of it!

And a few more pics of this fantastic journey…