Vapor Trails: Led Zep in Kep

As much as I was enjoying Sihanoukville, I decided to head further down the coast, to a place called Kep. Again - I wasn't planning on doing much - but thought a change of scenery would be good.

Between 1908 and the 1960's Kep was the place where the French and Khmer elite would come for their holidays. There was even a zoo here. The town was destroyed by the Khmer Rouge during the civil war, as it represented to them everything they hated about the bourgeoisie. Even today, there are empty villa's that were destroyed during the war.

Even though it's the administrative center of it's own province, it's not a particularly big place - it makes Haworth look like a city! And as a result it's very very quiet - but it makes a nice place to visit for a few days, and is famous for it's sunsets and seafood.

The trip here was fun, as I'd decided to avoid the "tourist" transport and go with the locals. So I headed up to the market and started the process of bartering for a seat in a share taxi.

When we finally set off, there were three in the front, four in the back, and two people in the boot, along with all of the stuff people wanted to take. A little old lady talks to me for ages and we keep laughing and she keeps talking, and then I say something and we start laughing. She can't speak English, and I can't speak Khmer, but she seemed to enjoy the conversation all the same.

At the half way point I had to change taxis, and this time there were five of us in the back, and four people in the front - yes four in the front: the driver shared his seat with another guy, and there were two people sitting on the passenger seat. I thought I'd seen it all - but apparently not.

That afternoon, I went with Jackie - one of the guides - to see some of the famous limestone caves of Kampong Trach. From the outside, it looks like a cone of rock, but when you walk through the caves, you come out into a weird open area - which is when you realize that the inside is hollow.

Kampong Trach from a distance:

There's then a series of caves with rock formation, and temples built into them. While each formation has a name, you have to have a crazy imagination to tie up what there pointing at to what there telling you. Fun though.

And then it was the long climb (and I mean climb) to the top to see the view. The climb consisted of scrambling / easy rock climbing up 300 meters of mud, including several 30 foot sections of sheer limestone - total fun.

The view from the top:

The climb down:

That night I headed to the crab market (what's up Crab Man!) for the two things Kep is famous for: sunsets and crabs. While the sun set, I had fried crab with Kampot pepper - incredible - one of the best meals I've ever had.

The only down side is that there were loads of fresh peppercorns in the sauce and I ate them all. About an hour later I felt really hot, like I was sweating pure pepper. Which didn't help things, because I've not been feeling that well for a few days, and this didn't help!

The crab shacks at Kep:

The sunset:

Two monks I met one evening - we got chatting watching the sun set:

The next day it was off to Rabbit Island, so named because it is said to resemble a rabbit - although I can't see it myself - unless it's one that's been run over:

The main beach on "The Island":

I spent the morning snorkeling, walking along the beach, followed by lunch. And then it was off for a walk to the top of the island. This was a Khmer Rouge stronghold at one point, and there's a concrete gun embankment right at the top. The path was really steep, and I may have (just for a moment or two mind) pretended that I was on "The Island" in Lost :-)

Here's a picture of "The Owl" well known Dharma Initiative look-out post :-)

Huge bug thingy on the way down from The Owl:

A bit more reading, and then it was back on the boat to Kep.

That night I had monster shrimps with more Kampot Pepper. Big mistake. With the sun burn from the snorkeling, and a double dose of pepper, I felt like I was on fire, and felt really ill.

I had an early night, but lay awake most of the night feeling like my skin was burning. So the next day I did nothing, except reading.

I did manage to walk to the other side of Kep to go to the Led Zep cafe (it'd be rude not to :-). They had pics on the wall of all of the guitar greats, including several of Led Zeppelin in action. The Pizza and fresh lime juice helped a lot as well (shame it wasn't lemon juice though :-):