Kep

Ahhhh, another gorgeous sunset sitting on the end of the pier at the Sailing Club in Kep.




I had had enough of the banging of hammers and the whine of buzz saws that has over taken the central areas of Phnom Penh so escaped to the place that time forgot.


Kep is the embodiment of a forgotten seaside paradise struggling to resurrect itself but not quite knowing how. The Khmer Rouge unwitting made Kep a photographer's paradise by destroying all the holiday homes but somehow leaving their burnt-out, shot-out shells intact enough to withstand the coastal weather. Time has also added layers of vegetation to the black of soot and the grey of detritus to result in a verdant tapestry of colour, light, shade, angles, softness and hardness. 

On top of this, Kep is very small and very intimate. There is not much there which is the way I like a place. A handful of restaurants, cafes and bars along with the famous crab shacks is all I really need to keep me amused. As well as frequenting the tropical beaches of Rabbit Island only 20 minutes away by boat, walking, cylcing and swimming keep a person fairly busy and Kampot is a mere 20 minutes of jouncing along in a tuk tuk away. 

My only problem is figuring out how I can move there and support myself. Some little business in food processing or production may work out especially as the area already has orchards and a little cropping going on. Hmmmmmm, food for thought.