The drive from Phnom Penh to Kep takes about 3 hours and was
particularly pleasant in the air-conditioned comfort of a nice car, luckily
with a very good driver as the roads can be hazardous. The secret to driving
here appears to involve never hesitating while always keeping a keen eye on
everything else on the road, including dogs and cows, people and bicycles,
motorbikes and tuk tuks, cars, trucks and buses.
As with the road down from Siem Reap, the
countryside outside of Phnom Penh was mostly flat but as we got closer to the
coast there were hills, some quite rugged, and in Kep our hotel, the Beach
House, was built on a hillside overlooking the beach and the waters of the Gulf
of Thailand.
A statue of a woman looking out to see for her fisherman husband at the end of the main beach at Kep |
After dumping our bags, we headed straight across
the road to the beach for a paddle as the boys had never been to the seaside
before and, bearing in mind they are 17 and 24 years old, were incredibly
excited – their wide white grins were a joy to see. The sea was incredibly
warm, almost as hot as the humid tropical air.
Kep is particularly famous for its delicious
crabs and, just as other places have huge statues of their typical food product
(Ohakune has its carrot and Woombye its big pineapple), so Kep has its large statue of a crab – a male crab I am
reliably told – something to do with the width of the central plate on its
tummy!
Later that first afternoon we walked the 3
kilometres around the bays to the crab market. A small troop of monkeys were
feeding and frolicking in the trees above one of the old abandoned houses that
litter the coast around Kep. According to our guide book, Kep was founded in
1908 as a beach resort for French colonials and thrived for 60-odd years as
their favourite holiday destination. But then the French abandoned their
luxurious villas after independence and many still stand, empty crumbling
shells of once magnificent buildings.
Both the sunset, which we enjoyed at the one of
the restaurants near the crab market, and the crabs we ate later were superb,
as were all the other types of fresh seafood we savoured in Kep – prawns,
shrimps, fish, squid and octopus. Seafood is my absolute favourite food so I
was in heaven, except for one meal. Be warned, “deep-fried prawns in powder” is
actually battered deep-fried prawns, with more batter than prawn and nothing
else to accompany this rather disappointing dish.
Kep is quite spread out so the following
morning’s walk took us a few kilometres in the opposite direction to the
market, to the pier where the boats to Rabbit Island
depart. We booked for the following morning and spent the rest of the day
relaxing, the boys and Marianne swimming in the sea and the hotel pool, me
sitting on a chair overlooking the bay, sometimes writing, sometimes just
enjoying the view. Another evening, another sunset, more beers and succulent
seafood!
We woke to the sound of rain, which became almost
torrential as the morning progressed. But the locals assured us it would clear
by lunch time and it did allow some time to catch up on blogs and emails and
writing. We also made a new, bright green friend, which turned out to be a
coconut locust that looked like a leaf – its method of protection from
predators, I assume.
The locals were right about the weather, so we
tuk-tukked round to catch our boat around 11am. There we encountered a problem:
we had paid for a private boat so we could come and go when we pleased but our
boatman tried to rip us off by bringing a parcel of locals and 2 German
backpackers along for the ride. No big deal, you might think, but if you don’t
stand up against scams like this, the local people will continue to try them, tourists will become disgruntled and not return. So, we argued
the point and eventually negotiated a refund of $10 off our initial price of
$30, which means we actually got the return trip for $5 per person, cheaper
than the usual $7 or $8 per person price.
It was a slow pleasant chug out to Rabbit Island
in one of the wooden longboats the locals normally use for fishing. I’m not
sure why the island is so-named as there were no rabbits and it wasn't shaped like one either; there was just a line of small wooden huts roofed with palm fronds and a sprinkle of shack-type restaurants designed for
those tourists seeking a desert island experience. Everything was fairly
basic and the island might well resemble paradise except for all the rubbish
everywhere.
The island is relatively small, just 6 kilometres
around and there’s supposed to be a track circling the island. But it is very
overgrown and, in places, difficult to negotiate, so we only managed to visit 3
bays before the path petered out. To continue we would have had to clamber over
jagged rocks or risk severe scratching by forcing our way through the sometime
spiky undergrowth so we did neither. It was still a nice walk, watching crabs scuttle
along the sand, collecting shells, and paddling in the warm water. The locals
who don’t earn their living catering to the tourists are fishermen and we
passed a tiny village of 4 or 5 scraggy huts where the men were repairing their
nets, chickens ran squawking about and shy children peeked at us through hut
windows.
It was nice to see the island while it was still
relatively unspoilt as I imagine a return visit in 5 years’ time might find a
concrete-block resort building dominating the beach front, though I fervently
hope that won’t happen.
A woman checks the crab pots |
We enjoyed another magnificent sunset – I took 55
photos in just one hour! – and salivated over more delicious seafood, and that
is certainly how I will remember Kep, for its fresh succulent crabs and the
stunning colours of its sky as the sun went down.
Locals swim as the sun sets over Kep beach |
Dear Annie Irving,
ReplyDeleteThank you for all the useful information and fabulous photos you’ve given me in this blog. I’ve got to say that you inspire me to travel more and more. I love the way you’ve styled your blog and your angle - of - view in photography. It’s amazing! I just want to be there right away
By the way, I’m Huyen content staff of Fiuzu - Trip planner portal. I’m writing this to ask for permission to use your photos on our website http://fiuzu.com/ . Fiuzu is a smart trip planning app on the web and mobile that helps plan travel activities, especially auto/semi-auto generation of itinerary that match traveller’s time, budget and interests.
At Fiuzu, we want introduce outstanding astounding sightseeing and attractions in each city through the pretty photos as yours. Hence, your photos will give our users a vivid and intuitive view about the locations we target. We will definitely put your name under each photos and a link to your blog. Please have a look at this link: http://fiuzu.com/a/skyline-luge-sentosa-1978045999 to see how Fiuzu presents photo and credit authors. So I just want to ask whether I can use your images Crab Statue in your post.
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Looking forward to hearing from you very soon.
Best regards,
Huyen
Thank you for your kind comments - much appreciated.
DeleteI see you are a commercial company - are you offering to pay for the use of my photographs? If so, you can see me a private message on Google+.
If not, then you do NOT have permission to use my images.