On our way to Kep
Our hotel in Phnom Penh had helped us to arrange a transfer per taxi to Kep. The journey was a special experience with also many trucks on the road.
We had asked our driver, to stop at the Tonle Bati Lake, a popular weekend destination of the Cambodians. Today it was not very busy. The bamboo shacks around the water, used for picnic’s, were as good as empty. The views of the lake were so picturesque…
We continued our drive to Kep, in the past a fashionable seaside town, but today fairly quiet.
Villa Kep
We stayed at Villa Kep Resort that was situated at 5 minutes from the town centre on the borders of the Kep National Park. The accommodation was less luxurious than our previous hotel, but it was still very nice and had a particular charm to it. It should be noted that it was adults only. The reception organised our transportation (tuk tuk) to the town centre whenever needed.
We were a bit hungry, so we first had a small lunch at Villa Kep and then a quick swim to recover from the long ride. The water was lovely and it was fantastic to have a pool all to ourselves.
Sunset at the sailing club
In the late afternoon, we wanted to see the sunset because we were at the seaside. So we went to the sailing club and that was a very good idea. We got lucky because it was happy hour for the cocktails (-50%) . We were wondering how they could sell the drinks at such low prices, certainly since the club looked a bit more upmarket. The normal price was around 6 $, now 3$ !
The sunset was stunning so we wanted to repeat this the next day…
The food at the restaurant of the club was very tasty. We had fish cakes as a starter, fish amok (yes again :-)) and seafood linguini as a main course. We were not going to lose any weight during this vacation, hahaha. The road to and from our hotel was really bumpy, not really recommended when you just had dinner…
Discovery of Kep
Today we slept until 8h30. We seemed to be one of the last couples at the breakfast table. The food itself was simple but sufficient. We first considered going to the National Park for a hike, but eventually, we decided to do an excursion to ‘La Plantation’, a pepper farm run by a Belgian and French couple in Kampot. This excursion is part of our next blog.
We had arranged our tuk tuk for the day. First a visit of Kep with the famous crab market, where fishermen sorted their fish, shrimps and crabs. At the market there were different stalls where they prepared the crab on demand. There were also skewers with all kinds of grilled fish. It looked so good! However, we just had eaten our breakfast so the timing was not perfect. We then walked on the pier, where two fishermen caught some mini fish. Last stop was the crab statue for which Kep is world famous :-).
After that, we drove to the pepper plantation.
In the late afternoon, after having returned from La Plantation, we went back to the sailing club for a last sunset. Again a very relaxing moment.
We had asked our tuk tuk driver to pick us up later that evening because we wanted to eat at the ‘Holy Crab’. We ordered the crab amok and the sautéed crab with green pepper. I can only say that the food was excellent (for those that think of passing there during their travels, take some napkins with you… you will need them :-)).
