We chose our spot well in Kep.
From the nice clean room, the hammock in the trees and the obliging lady host
to the beautiful beach and calm blue sea. We enjoyed our dinner last night sat
on the beach in the last embers of the days sun; a huge plateful of freshly
cooked giant prawns served with Kampot pepper, a spicy sauce and boiled rice.
Oh, and of course the obligatory ice cold Cambodian beers; if this isn’t
paradise then I don’t know what is. On this whole stretch of about half a mile
of beach, there was just us and for a short while a couple sat about a hundred
yards away; bliss!
During the night it rained hard,
but I’m not sure how long for, I was sleeping far too contentedly on our huge,
firm but very comfortable bed. I think I only heard it at all, as Allie chose
that moment to shout to me in her dream and I had to save her from the baddies
!!! Otherwise I would probably have been stood out enjoying the cool refreshing
water running over my skin. By this morning all that was left to show for it
was Allie’s soggy cushion on the bike, but it will soon dry in the heat of the
day. After a leisurely breakfast we wandered further along the beach; it was as
though the apocalypse or a plague has struck earth. The whole place was as near
deserted as makes no difference. We walked to the
Independence Monument
and the Museum (Closed and looking as though it will stay that way). Other than
a few friendly dogs and a young girl sat at a road side stall selling drinks…
well, water anyway, there was nobody to be seen. Perhaps the entire townsfolk
of Kep have been spirited away on Alien craft, or perhaps they have all gone to
Blackpool for their holidays. The fishermen
are all still here on their boats but that’s about all, except of course for our
lovely hostesss!
We’d been told and read in the
various guides that as Kampot is famous for it's pepper, so with Kep for it’s
crabs. So back in our cabin we freshened up with yet another cold shower,
dressed and wandered up to the main road to find a tuc tuc. True to form, it
was only a couple of minutes before the familiar buzz of a C90 was heard and
ubiquitous little vehicle hove into sight. You don’t have to hail a tuc tuc as
with a cab. If you’re walking the driver will assume that his services are
required and pull over to you. We asked Osseman to take us to a good crab
restaurant for lunch and off we went. In less than 5 minutes we were being
ushered into the Crab Shack, right on the waters edge and next to the crab
market… you will never get fresher seafood. Whilst crab isn’t perhaps top of my
list of favourite seafoods, I have to admit that it was very good. It was
served up together with grilled prawns, squid and a small salad and a separate
plate of prawn fritters. We only ever order 1 plate of anything so that we can share
and enjoy a wider selection of dishes and flavours. As we sat, we watched the
women collecting the crab baskets right below the restaurant and afterwards
wandered next door to the crab market to watch the women selling off their
catches. Whilst there didn’t appear to be any shortage of crabs, we were told
that the average size of crab caught has dropped significantly over recent
years; not a good indicator for future stocks.
The other item we were still
looking for was Kampot Pepper, we had a look around the stalls in the market
but couldn’t find any until we were approached by another tuc tuc driver.
Asking him where we could find some pepper without going to a plantation (which
we had seen up at Sen Monorom), he told us his wife sold it in the market and
took us over to her stall, tucked away in a back corner which we had missed,.
Sure enough, laid out on her stall was bag after bag of the precious spice in
all three of its varients; black, white and green. Better still it was all
weighed out and priced up ready for the locals to buy. After selection 3 bags
of green and one large bag of black, we even got a discount and ended up with a
bout four times the quantity we had looked at in
Phnom Penh for the same money; OK it didn’t
have the fancy jars, but we didn’t really want to be carrying glass jars
anyway. All together a very satisfactory morning; morning?, hmm well, it was
gone 3pm by the time we arrived back at our beach cabin and time for a siesta…
I just wish I hadn’t taught Allie how to get into a hammock though as she
always beats me to it now! LOL.
The days just fly by when you’re
relaxed and having fun. No sooner were we “Siestaed” than it was beer o’clock
and dinner time… Oh no, not more food! We had ordered the menu special a Kymer
Feast for two, but there was a slight problem. It seems that the new menu had
been printed up by the American that was staying here long term and I can only
surmise that he had neglected to fill in Sihue, our hostess, with the finer
points of it. The meni spoke of a feast of different dishes such as would be
served in a Kymer home! What we got was a pork curry with boiled rice… Very
nice though it was it definitely couldn’t be described as a feast, Kymer or
otherwise!!! However, she is so lovely to us we can’t find it our hearts to
complain or even point out the problem, though I shall if I get a chance
mention it to the silly Yank!
So relaxed are we here in our
little beach paradise that we’ve stayed on yet another day; almost unheard of
in our travels, three nights in the same place, but I have said before that Taz
and Joel taught me a whole different way to travel. After another leisurely
breakfast, we hopped onto the bike and set off to find the town centre of Kip…
That didn’t take long then, it simply doesn’t exist! The point the GPS took us
to was a dirt cross roads about 400 yds up the road from our cabin, with
nothing to be seen but a few trees! No worries, we ran down a little further,
past some rather grand looking Government buildings, which surprise, surprise,
looked empty. Then headed back around the coast to the north where we stopped
for an iced coffee before finally riding round to the crab market to snatch a
few more pics before returning to base for… yes, you guessed, it another
Siesta. We thought we’d give lunch a miss today as tonight, we have been
promised the regional specialiality dish, Amok, a fish curry made with
lemongrass, coconut cream and curry leaves, steamed and served up on a banana
leaf. It should be good as it doesn’t appear on the menu and it was Sihue who
suggested it, but only time will tell.
We chose our spot well in Kep.
From the nice clean room, the hammock in the trees and the obliging lady host
to the beautiful beach and calm blue sea. We enjoyed our dinner last night sat
on the beach in the last embers of the days sun; a huge plateful of freshly
cooked giant prawns served with Kampot pepper, a spicy sauce and boiled rice.
Oh, and of course the obligatory ice cold Cambodian beers; if this isn’t
paradise then I don’t know what is. On this whole stretch of about half a mile
of beach, there was just us and for a short while a couple sat about a hundred
yards away; bliss!
During the night it rained hard,
but I’m not sure how long for, I was sleeping far too contentedly on our huge,
firm but very comfortable bed. I think I only heard it at all, as Allie chose
that moment to shout to me in her dream and I had to save her from the baddies
!!! Otherwise I would probably have been stood out enjoying the cool refreshing
water running over my skin. By this morning all that was left to show for it
was Allie’s soggy cushion on the bike, but it will soon dry in the heat of the
day. After a leisurely breakfast we wandered further along the beach; it was as
though the apocalypse or a plague has struck earth. The whole place was as near
deserted as makes no difference. We walked to the 
We’d been told and read in the
various guides that as Kampot is famous for it's pepper, so with Kep for it’s
crabs. So back in our cabin we freshened up with yet another cold shower,
dressed and wandered up to the main road to find a tuc tuc. True to form, it
was only a couple of minutes before the familiar buzz of a C90 was heard and
ubiquitous little vehicle hove into sight. You don’t have to hail a tuc tuc as
with a cab. If you’re walking the driver will assume that his services are
required and pull over to you. We asked Osseman to take us to a good crab
restaurant for lunch and off we went. In less than 5 minutes we were being
ushered into the Crab Shack, right on the waters edge and next to the crab
market… you will never get fresher seafood. Whilst crab isn’t perhaps top of my
list of favourite seafoods, I have to admit that it was very good. It was
served up together with grilled prawns, squid and a small salad and a separate
plate of prawn fritters. We only ever order 1 plate of anything so that we can share
and enjoy a wider selection of dishes and flavours. As we sat, we watched the
women collecting the crab baskets right below the restaurant and afterwards
wandered next door to the crab market to watch the women selling off their
catches. Whilst there didn’t appear to be any shortage of crabs, we were told
that the average size of crab caught has dropped significantly over recent
years; not a good indicator for future stocks.
The other item we were still
looking for was Kampot Pepper, we had a look around the stalls in the market
but couldn’t find any until we were approached by another tuc tuc driver.
Asking him where we could find some pepper without going to a plantation (which
we had seen up at Sen Monorom), he told us his wife sold it in the market and
took us over to her stall, tucked away in a back corner which we had missed,.
Sure enough, laid out on her stall was bag after bag of the precious spice in
all three of its varients; black, white and green. Better still it was all
weighed out and priced up ready for the locals to buy. After selection 3 bags
of green and one large bag of black, we even got a discount and ended up with a
bout four times the quantity we had looked at in 
The days just fly by when you’re
relaxed and having fun. No sooner were we “Siestaed” than it was beer o’clock
and dinner time… Oh no, not more food! We had ordered the menu special a Kymer
Feast for two, but there was a slight problem. It seems that the new menu had
been printed up by the American that was staying here long term and I can only
surmise that he had neglected to fill in Sihue, our hostess, with the finer
points of it. The meni spoke of a feast of different dishes such as would be
served in a Kymer home! What we got was a pork curry with boiled rice… Very
nice though it was it definitely couldn’t be described as a feast, Kymer or
otherwise!!! However, she is so lovely to us we can’t find it our hearts to
complain or even point out the problem, though I shall if I get a chance
mention it to the silly Yank!
That food has made my mouth water Dennis. As for three nights in the same place. Unheard of !!!
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