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Kep was founded on the south coast of Cambodia as a colonial retreat for the French elite in 1908. In the 1960s wealthy Cambodians also flocked here to build mansions, however in the 1970s the Khmer Rouge rule forced many to evacuate and a lot of the properties were destroyed and looted. Today, many of Kep’s luxurious villas remain blackened shells, remembrance of a once-successful and wealthy civilisation that met a sudden and violent end.
Deep tangled jungle surrounds the town juxtaposed by a backdrop of towering mountains from the Kep National park. It is evident that the government have invested money into the modern, well signposted, roads along with the numerous grassy communal areas and elaborate statues. This development seems to be having a positive impact. Kep has recently become established as a Khmer holiday spot and although not as popular as Sihanoukville, it is slowly becoming more popular with travellers.
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The small town has a quiet, laid back atmosphere and is most famous for its crab fishing. This is affirmed by the 'Welcome to Kep' sign on a giant crab facing the shore out to sea. Kep beach is a small man made arc of imported white sand, behind it the main town centre consisting of a few travel shops and guest houses. A deserted road running parallel with the seafront provides the opportunity for a spectacular sunset view from anywhere along the coast line. As well as relaxing on the beach there are many hammocks readily available forsome shade from the midday heat.
The famous crab market, sells many types of grilled seafood, fruit and souvenirs made from sea shells and coral. In Asia they have yellow mangos which are much sweeter and juicier than the green ones in England. For 20p each we soon
became addicted and bought 10 mangos in the space of three days! Just along from the market are a few restaurants that specialise in freshly caught seafood displayed live, in tanks, out the front to entice customers. We chose a restaurant that had a seafront balcony so that we could enjoy the sunset over the sea as well as watching the women crab fishing.
We rode 13 miles North to the town of Kampot on a moped we rented for the day. The surrounding area of Kampot is famous for pepper corn farming. Unfortunately we didn't make it to a pepper farm but I did get the opportunity to touch and smell some of the black, white and red corns in a shop. The town centre is bigger and more adapted for tourists with many restaurants along the river front. We stopped at a pizza restaurant, ordered and was then asked by the lady if we would like a normal or happy pizza. Luckily
Will realised what she meant and politely declined that we did not want a marajauana pizza!
We left Kep for Vietnam on the back of a motorbike taxi, with our bags piled on the front and a driver who didn't speak a word of English. The drive was 23km cross country, through a mixture of mud and sand, rural farms and salt fields. We kept having to stop for some unknown reason to change bikes and drivers but after our eighth driver, and that's no exaggeration, eventually made it to the border check point 30 minuites before it closed. As we arrived we suddenly realised we had got the date wrong and our Vietnamese visas didn't start until the following day. After bribing our way through the border control and paying the dubious 'Health Check' fee we were back on the bike, now on Vietnamese soil. They hastily dropped us off at the bus station for us then to find out our bus ticket was invalid and that we had been scammed by the travel agent in Kep. Luckily, after everyone telling us the buses were full, an English speaking Vietnamese man managed to get hold of some tickets
for us. We arrived at 4:00am in Ho Chi Minh City, exhausted and with no accommodation booked. Luckily we spotted a Mcdonalds and a double cheese burger soon made everything ok!
Check out Will's Magic footage from Kep on the YouTube link below:
https://www.claritycounsellingnorthernbeaches.com
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