8/26/2008This week, our Cambodia embed, Tim Patterson, is giving us the inside scoop on the country, live from a guesthouse in Sihanoukville.
If my girlfriend was in Cambodia, I would go to Kep tomorrow, rent a bungalow and spend a week eating seafood and making sweet, sweet love.
There's something about this classy little seaside resort town that's hopelessly romantic. Kep is one of my favorite spots in Cambodia even when I'm traveling solo, but with a partner... Ay! It's like a steamy bath of crab meat and rose petals.
Kep is about four hours south of Phnom Penh, just a stone's throw from the Vietnamese border. Some of the islands off the coast are claimed by Cambodia but occupied by Vietnam, so if you happen to travel with your own sailboat, be careful where you drop anchor: The Vietnamese coast guard has been known to light up Cambodian fishing boats that stray too far from shore.
Wistful Memories of a Golden Age:
Back in the 1950s and '60s, when Cambodia was one of the more successful and stable countries in the region, Kep was the playground of the Cambodian elite, who built fancy villas along the seaside promenade. The Khmer Rouge didn't like the villas very much, and the Vietnamese didn't like the Khmer Rouge. So, during the long and brutal war, Kep got hit harder than any place in Cambodia.
Today, most of the villas are still bombed out wrecks, but somehow the ruins of faded glory just add to the atmosphere.
Delicious Crabs:
The fresh seafood in Kep is delectable. Young women will wade out into the sea, haul up crab traps and stir-fry the tasty little critters in pepper and lime sauce. At the crab market, order by the kilo.
More than two pounds of crabs goes for about $6, meaning that if you factor in the value, Kep is the best place in the world to gorge on crustaceans.
Bungalows with a View:
The best guesthouses in Kep are on a hillside overlooking the Gulf of Thailand. My favorite is Le Bout du Monde, an atmospheric, French owned place with a delightful garden and an air of elegant simplicity.
Next to Le Bout du Monde is Veranda Natural Resort, a newer, more modern and more popular place with a busy restaurant. The Kep Lodge is a more secluded option, with comfortable bungalows, Wi-Fi and a swimming pool.
All three of these guesthouses back up to the Kep National Park, where there are trails that lead around a small mountain. Look out for monkeys on the trail.
The Simple Life:
There's not much to do in Kep besides eat delicious seafood, relax on your bungalow porch and have lots and lots of sex.
More ambitious souls can make a trip out to Koh Tonsay, or Rabbit Island, a peaceful little place whose inhabitants were recently evicted to make room for a Chinese owned resort development.
You can stay overnight on Koh Tonsay in simple bungalows, or just go for the day, wandering around the deserted beaches and modeling natural bikinis like the one I'm sporting in this photo. Sexy, no?
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