I left Phnom Penh early for the seaside town of Kep a small town on the south coast of Cambodia with a pretty beach, fabulous sunsets and a famous crab market. I decided to treat myself and stayed in a wonderful guesthouse called Bacoma where the accommodation consists of cute little stone yurts with thatched roofs set among beautifully lush gardens. The owner, a Swiss chap, was a bit of a film buff and had built a very cool open air cinema in the gardens, he was also an Arsenal fan and we spent one very fun evening watching the mighty Arsenal thrash Liverpool 4-1!

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g608456-d3670792-Reviews-Bacoma-Kep_Kep_Province.html

Stone yurts at Bacoma guesthouse in Kep.

The bathrooms at Bacoma guesthouse in Kep.

The morning after I arrived I hired a remorke with driver and went to visit some local sights. We started at the salt fields, one of only three places in Cambodia where the combination of climate and geography result in optimum conditions for salt farming. It was early morning and the light and reflections off the fields made for some great photo opportunities, although not sure I realized any of them however! Through my remorke driver, Nik, I spent some time chatting to the workers about the process and the conditions working in the fields. It certainly sounded like hard back breaking work in very hot and humid conditions.

Expert driving in the remorke.

Salt fields just outside of Kep.

Harvesting the salt at the salt fields.

The salt storage sheds at the salt fields.

After a quick stop at a local village where we saw fisherman carrying out their daily routines of net mending and boat repairs we drove on to the temple caves. I was joined initially by two, then three, local kids who for a few dollars act as guides to the tourists through the caves.

Fishing boats at the fishing village.

Locals playing volleyball at the fishing village.

My wheels for the morning.

My expert guides at the temple caves.

Inside the temple caves.

Inside the temple caves.

The ‘Skinny Buddha’ inside the temple caves.

Our final destination was at a local pepper farm where the famous organic Kampot Pepper is grown. The farm was owned and managed by a German gentleman who had been living in Cambodia for over 20 years. He described the harvesting process and the differences in the process, smell and taste of black, red and white peppercorns. Only farms that meet stringent regulations including origin of seedlings and organic farming process can receive the official certification and brand their products as Kampot Pepper.

Learning all about Kampot Pepper.

Green and red peppercorns.

Learning all about Kampot Pepper.

One afternoon I took myself off for a walk in the national park and to watch the sunset over a famous local spot called ‘Sunset Rock’. Even at 3pm the day was still very hot and some parts of the track quite challenging, however it was a great way to experience the beautiful local flora and fauna.

Kep National Park.

Kep National Park.

On my way however I did have a rather unsettling experience involving a dog. There are lots of dogs in Cambodia, the majority look fairly well looked after and won’t bother you. I was passing a temple about 15 minutes away from my final destination when a dog came running out from the temple grounds towards me barking aggressively. I assumed he’d give me a few cautionary barks and then leave me alone, but no, he seemed pretty annoyed that I was on his turf. He continued to bark, growl and bare his teeth. I kept walking, looking straight ahead and trying to keep calm as he weaved backwards and forwards across the path at my feet. “Good dog, nice dog, please go away dog” I sang gently under my breath!   Finally after about 30 meters, which I tell you felt more like 100 meters, he stopped following me and trotted back into the temple. I thought for a Buddhist dog – my assumption as he had an orange scarf tied around his neck and came from the temple – he was pretty aggressive! With my heart still pounding I continued along the path to Sunset Rock. It was about 5:15pm now and the sun was getting low in the sky. My next dilemma; the path to Sunset Rock was becoming increasingly difficult and narrow. If I stayed to watch the full sunset I’d have to navigate my way back in the dark along the path, and the thought of meeting temple dog in the dark filled me with dread. So after spending two hours walking to the rock I spent less than two minutes there, took a couple of snaps and headed back. Temple dog greeted me again with the same amount of aggressive enthusiasm as before but again was all bark and fortunately no bite!

Approaching sunset from Sunset Rock in Kep.

The Nun’s Temple where I had the ‘scary’ dog encounter….if you look very closely you’ll see temple dog trotting off to the left of the temple after scaring the living daylights out of me!

I have to say that fortunately this minor unsettling experience was the worst thing that happened to me during my time in Cambodia and compared to a number of other traveler’s tales of woe, sickness and injury it’s really isn’t even that great a story – Dog barked and didn’t bite!

The rest of my days were spent swimming, eating crab and cycling around the town checking out all the old colonial buildings that were abandoned by the French during the Rouge Regime. I have to say that a stay in the lovely town of Kep should be on every visitor’s itinerary.

.

The ‘White Lady’ at Kep beach.

Crab restaurants next to the market at Kep.

At the crab market.

Early morning at Kep beach.

Gates and ruins from French colonial houses abandoned during the Rouge regime.

A quick note on the crab. One night I had the Khmer stir fried crab with green peppercorns. The crab is partly pre-smashed*, comes in a beautiful rich green peppercorn sauce and is served with rice. I got very messy eating this and took delight in sucking every morsel of crab out of even the tiniest bits of shell I could find. I needed to be hosed down afterwards, but it was worth it! One other night I had the plain boiled crab which comes with a black pepper and lime dipping sauce. I ordered the small size but realized my mistake when I was presented with two rather small crabs. The meat was delicious, sweet and tender but wow did I have to work at it! My advice for next time would be go large on the crab as I’m pretty certain the ratio of crabmeat to effort will be much greater!

*Okay, so I know this isn’t the correct culinary term but hopefully you get my gist!

Kep crab.

Fried crab with green peppercorns. Messy but worth it!

Boiled crab with black pepper and lime dipping sauce.

Dinner with a view at the crab markets in Kep.

A