Kep: The Peaceful Beachside Town
For my second weekend here, I got to travel out with the UBC Fish on Farms team to this cozy, quiet, local beach town called Kep that sits right on the southwestern coast of Cambodia and touches the Gulf of Thailand. Approaching the town, there’s a giant stone crab statue standing just off the shore, showing off the town’s pride in their fresh crab market. Kep has a warm and inviting atmosphere; you immediately get this sense of the local Cambodian culture when you are in the heart of the town by the seaside, but five minutes up the hill, you also get these luxurious villas and bungalows that were left behind in the 1960s from the French colonial era, where some have been transformed into guest houses for tourism.
We stayed at Villa Romonea, nicknamed the White House, and it was absolutely stunning. There were hammocks by the pool, a welcoming staff that cooked and looked after us, and of course, an infinity pool in the backyard that gives this gorgeous vantage point of the Cambodian and Vietnamese islands. You could pretty much spend your weekend just in this villa if you wanted to, it has enough to keep you busy for a day or two, and it’s clean and well-designed enough to give it that home feeling. They even have these speakers and a large outdoor patio upstairs that you could definitely do a small-wedding or major dance party if you wanted.
We rented motorbikes for the day for a couple bucks and after some practicing (battle wounds happened and flower bushes were wrecked, hah), we drove down to the local market by the seaside on a quest to find some fresh crab for tonight’s dinner. I love local markets because you get to witness and be immersed right into the culture like if you were a local, especially in Cambodia where they are so greatly in tune with nature and agriculture (like >90% of the population in this town does agricultural work!). There were crab traps lined up along the dock and market stall that sold an assortment of things that ranged from tropical fruit, to seafood on skewers, to handcrafted ornaments made from shells. Anyways, we arrived with impeccable timing, as the fisherman were just docking and bringing in the freshly caught crab. It was absolutely madness at the dock because as soon as the crabs were dumped into a large basket, 10 women pretty much had a free-for-all battle to get the best crab and it was absolutely hilarious and I still don’t understand how they don’t get pinched by the crabs. The crabs were all small to medium sized but they are supposedly so incredibly delicious that they ship them back to Phnom Penh over the weekend to be sold. We picked up 2 kilograms and bought some Kampot peppers that we were going to stir-fry with the crab. The ground pepper that is grown in Kampot is one of the world’s best, and when you pair that with some of Cambodia’s best crab (and with a glass of wine), you can expect an amazing traditional local dish (and it was!). There’s something so rewarding about getting messy, crack opening a crab and digging in for the crab meat. The crab was sweet, fresh and well flavored; I could definitely have this crab for dinner for a couple more nights.
Crab stares.
In the afternoon, we took our motorbikes up the hill to Kep National Park which is a 8km loop route that circles up a mountain to the summit. It was definitely a bit ambitious for my first day to go trekking through a jungle-styled route with trees fallen over, narrow bumpy dirt roads, and random bulls on the side of the road. I remember within the first 2 minutes I thought to myself: Holy moly, I’m not going to make it out of this track alive and I won’t be able to attend med school in the fall! But nonetheless, I don’t remember the last time I had so much adrenaline rushing through my body and it was just so exhilarating and refreshing to do something adventurous and get out of the ordinary routine I’ve lived for the past four years. We eventually made it to the summit that overlooked the jungle and Kep, and there was a small wooden sign that said there was a resort 109m down this narrow trail where we could get drinks and relax. So we decided to get off our bikes and hike down this barely constructed path down through vines and jungle plants. After passing down a staircase lined with starfruit trees, we reached this camping-resort like area that were connected by huts and wooden boards. However, it was COMPLETELY abandoned and it just looked like what was once a functioning resort, people just packed up their bags and deserted the area. There were still empty beer glasses sitting on the bar, a pool table, a bookshelf, and a running water tap. It had quite an eerie feeling to it and it really looked like an abandoned civilization that was just now inhabited by lizards and insects. Slight disappointment that we couldn’t grab a drink in the middle of a jungle, but still pretty neat to just see what was once a well-inhabited touristy area where it looked like people just camped there for days. Eventually made it back up the trail back to our bikes and finished the last half of the trail which wasn’t nearly as bad as the first half going up. We exited the park and made our way back home as we saw a storm coming in, and it was just the best feeling ripping it down the highway (sorry Mom, I know you told me not to do this), and just feeling refreshed by the sea breeze and ocean spray.
Staircase covered in starfruit.
Just to conclude, Kep is a great weekend get-away trip, and if you do find yourself in Cambodia, and you like to do the less-touristy activities, I would highly suggest spending some time in Kep. Kep has a good mix of activities, you can spend a couple hours just relaxing and eating meals by the infinity pool, and then switching it up and go for an adventurous motorbike ride up a national park or visit the Kampot Pepper plantations just half an hour away. The best part is that it’s ridiculously cheap to do activities and stay here, I pretty much spent one fifth of what I would normally have to pay for an equivalent weekend resort in more touristy areas of South East Asia. Anyways, had an awesome weekend, but it’s time to head back to Phnom Penh and get back to work!