Off On Our Next Adventure

A Nightmare Road

After stocking up on snacks at the 7-Eleven at the Sihanoukville port, and a quick lunch of a ham and cheese toastie (the first one since Thailand!), we walked down the road to catch our van ride to Kep.

We only needed to wait about 20 minutes before our driver arrived, and we passed the time chatting to the owner of the business about her cute little one month old daughter who was at work with her.

The first few kilometres heading out of town were fine, on sealed roads in decent condition, but once we reached the outskirts of the city, the road became an unsealed track. It was terrible to travel on!

We bumped along for a few kilometres, rather impressed with our driver’s skill in dodging potholes, thinking it was only for a short part of the journey…

Nope. It continued for more than three hours, which was pretty much the whole way to Kampot. Even the Yorkshireman on board who had lived in Cambodia for 16 years was shocked at the condition of the road since the last time he’d travelled on it. He said that the state of the road was due to the two provincial governments arguing over who should pay for it. It is unbelievable, given that this is a main route between two cities, and we felt so sorry for the local people who have to travel that road regularly.  We only had to do it once as tourists. Imagine having to drive on it everyday! And what it would do to your vehicle.

It was a complete boneshaker of a journey and took nearly two hours longer than the stated time of three and a half hours.

At least there was plenty of time to check out the Cambodian countryside along the way, including two warring cows in the middle of what is meant to be a highway.

At times, there were torrential downpours which settled the dust but then turned parts of the road into huge muddy puddles.

The wildlife of the day were definitely cows, and we spotted this wee herd not far out from Kampot, complete with a few gorgeous calves.

Kep Lodge

We arrived at Kep Lodge around 7pm, having paid our driver an extra $5 to drop us off on the way into town to save backtracking from the van office. After an easy dinner in our room of pot noodles bought from the 7-Eleven earlier in the day, we had an early night.

Having arrived in the dark the night before, when we awoke to see our beautiful surroundings at Kep Lodge the next morning, we were delighted! It is adjacent to Kep National Park and is an idyllic spot, with a gorgeous swimming pool as well, all for about NZ$60 a night for a family room. We were even treated to sightings of red squirrels running across the roof of the breakfast area when we were swimming in the pool.

We had a lovely balcony area outside our room, like an outdoor sitting room, complete with hammock, so we spent a bit of time out there.

The main dining area was open air, and had a pool table and table tennis table, so even though it was a couple of kilometres away from the Kep Beach area, we still had plenty there to keep us entertained. Saying that, there isn’t really a central area in Kep…things are quite spread out, so you really need a scooter to get around. Lucky for us, we could rent those at Kep Lodge too!

Breakfast was included in our deal and was delicious; we could choose between a French or American Breakfast each day, and once we had discovered how good their crépes with lemon and sugar were, the kids and I ordered them each day that we were there. We ate out most nights, enjoying local food that was kind to our budget, but on the one night that we ate at Kep Lodge for a treat, the food was outstanding.

Kep National Park

We asked our host about the best attractions around Kep, and he suggested a whole list of things to check out, so we hired scooters, and off we went.

Kep National Park was beautiful, and had a paved trail through it that we were allowed to take scooters on. We drove up the hillside, admiring the view as we went, stopping at the top where there was a lookout tower.

The sign above warned us about the dangerous beasts in Kep National Park, so we were on the lookout, but we didn’t see any monkeys or snakes at all.

Shaun and the kids did however try to prank me by wiggling a stick around as I walked past, which actually gave me quite a big fright! You can see them plotting in the photo below while I was busy snapping a photo of them at the foot of the tower, oblivious to their plans.

The lookout tower looked reasonably new, solid, and safe enough to climb so we made our way up to the top.

I think the sign above was meant to say not to climb with more than 10 people on the structure.

Combined with the hilltop location, the tower gave us a view from quite a height. Both Shaun and I found ourselves holding on pretty tightly to the inside railing!

The view from both sides was spectacular, and we had a beautiful day for it, too.

We made our way back down to the bikes and continued along the trail to the next viewpoint.

Anna loves these posing points that are very popular throughout SEA and asked to stop for a photo, so we obliged.

From here we drove the rest of the way through the park and exited out the other side.

Kep Butterfly Garden

The Butterfly Garden had been recommended by our host as a nice place for the kids, and he was right. Travelling up the road to reach it was a bit of an adventure, because the last two kilometres were uphill dirt and gravel, with tree roots growing through the middle, as well as lots of ruts and potholes. Anna and I were in front with Google maps leading the way, and when we arrived, we were rather impressed with ourselves handling the road with ease…I don’t think I could’ve even imagined riding a scooter on a road like that five months earlier!

The Butterfly Garden was so pretty, with loads of different types of flowers growing and lots of butterflies flitting everywhere. They seemed to favour being up high, so it was difficult to catch one for a photo.

There were a couple of pupa houses, full of cocoons, some of which were hatching. Leo and Anna were stoked to be able to watch a couple of butterflies slowly emerging from their chrysalises.

When we left the enclosed butterfly house, we came across these swings in the garden, which naturally had to be tested out!

Pausing in the dappled shade was a lovely respite from the heat of the day and allowed Anna to swing for as long as she liked.

On our way out, we spotted these gorgeous white cows on the side of the road…they look so different to cows in NZ, and some have long floppy ears that look really cute.

Kep Crab Market

Kep is famous for its Crab Market, so that was next on the list to check out. After passing through Kep Beach on the way and getting a photo of the iconic Kep crab, we found a place to park our scooters and then walked up the road to the market entrance. The area was teeming with people due to it being the main holiday weekend for Pchum Ben, the Cambodian Festival of the Dead. Families travel from miles away to meet for beachside picnics and family get-togethers. Even though the traffic was a bit crazy it was such a nice festive atmosphere.

We wandered through aisles of fresh shellfish, including all shapes and sizes of prawns, lobster, snails, and most of all, crabs.

When in Kep, crab should definitely be on the menu, so we bought a kilo of crabs and a kilo of prawns, which a lady then cooked up for us there and then for a few extra dollars.

She threw in fresh green Kampot pepper as well as garlic, spring onion, and chilli to create the most delicious sauce as she stir-fried the crabs and then the prawns.

The finished dish was mouthwateringly delicious, served in a humble plastic bag, and we were provided with makeshift styrofoam plates (sorry environment) to eat off. We were seated at tables owned by the drinks lady, so we purchased a few cans of drink from her for the table rent and enjoyed our feast. After a few minutes, the lovely drinks lady appeared with a finger bowl that had fresh lime slices in it, a common astringent used throughout SEA.

It was totally worth the messy hands for the taste of fresh seafood, prepared simply and lovingly with local ingredients. We were also pleased we had remembered to bring along wet wipes so we could clean our hands and the drinks lady’s table afterwards!

There were more stalls outside the Crab Market, and Anna spotted candy floss that she wanted to buy…it looks huge but actually disappeared very quickly!

Despite the area between the Crab Market and the sea being fairly undeveloped, there were still plenty of families enjoying picnics together on mats they’d brought with them.

We then made our way back to Kep Lodge for a swim and some downtime. Later on, in the evening, we went out to a local restaurant for dinner called Captain Chims, which was at the beginning of the pier. It served yummy local food that we all enjoyed.

This was the first time that we had ridden scooters at night, but the roads in Kep are new and wide, so it was fine. It got a little hectic around Kep Beach as the Pchum Ben festivities continued, so we parked up for a wee stop on the beach to enjoy a crispy roti pancake drizzled with condensed milk before making our way back to the Lodge.

Sothy’s Pepper Farm

The following day, we had arranged for a tuktuk driver to take us to Sothys’s Pepper Farm for a tour before going into Kampot for the afternoon. We were picked up at 12pm, and it took about an hour to reach the pepper farm. As soon as we got to the outskirts of Kep, we saw that the roads were unsealed, and they stayed that way for the rest of the journey, becoming more rutted and full of potholes as we neared the pepper farm. Clouds of red dust swirled around us as cars passed by, save for some stretches of road where the ground had been sprayed with water outside local businesses.

When we reached Sothys’s Pepper Farm, we were greeted by our lovely tour guide who sat us down with tea while he taught us about the different types of pepper they produce.

After tasting green, red and black pepper, as well as salt preserved peppercorns), we were shown around the plantations.

It was fascinating learning about their permaculture approach and seeing how they had dug little wells next to each pepper plant so that they could be filled to water the plants properly.

After thanking our host, we made our way to Kampot in the tuktuk. When we had travelled this road in the dark on our way to Kep two days earlier, we hadn’t seen the condition of it, although it had felt a lot better than the road between Sihanoukville and Kampot. As with the road to the pepper farm, it was unsealed and incredibly dusty. Leo’s pale t-shirt had streaks of red dust on it, and Anna’s white skirt had become a pinky colour instead.

It got to the point where we had to stop and buy masks because it was pretty unpleasant. We were beginning to regret our choice of a tuktuk over a car, but our driver gallantly drove on, even though he himself had made the unfortunate choice of a white t-shirt for his workwear that day.

The drive to Kampot took close to an hour, and by the time we got there, the central market was closing, so we went for a walk near the river to find somewhere for an early dinner.

After we’d eaten at a lovely Mexican place that also served pizza, Anna and Leo talked us into buying sweet treats at the bakery next door.

We have certainly found many amazing bakeries in Cambodia. Over and above some remarkable architecture found in Laos and Cambodia the French have also very much influenced this side of local cuisine. We’ve enjoyed beautiful fresh baguettes, croissants, crépes, and cakes on our travels. This chocolate eclair and lemon meringue pie were both outstanding.

With very full tummies, we hopped back into the same tuktuk, as our driver had insisted on waiting for us, and drove back to Kep in the dusky evening light. Thankfully, it had rained while we ate dinner, which had settled the dust.

We snapped this picture of the river in Kampot just before we headed home for the night.

Anna’s Kep Highlights

A Visa Delay

I had applied for our Vietnamese E-Visas the previous week, while we were still on Koh Rong Sanloem, thinking that would give plenty of time for the visas to be processed before we left Kep. I was wrong. Because our application included a weekend in the timing, by the time we were due to leave Kep on Tuesday morning, only one of our visas had come through. We spoke to the lovely staff at Kep Lodge, having warned them the previous day that we might need to extend our stay and booked in for one more night.

We also let Kampot Transport know about our delay, as we were supposed to be travelling with them across the border and onward to Phu Quoc.

We had no trouble using the extra time in Kep, making another trip to Kampot to visit the market and look around. This time, we got a driver with a car, which was much more pleasant and a lot quicker than our dusty tuktuk adventure a couple of days earlier.

In the afternoon, we had a bit of time to catch up on the blog and for the kids to catch up with friends back home.

One Last Seafood Feast

We also managed to fit in one more seafood dinner, at a family restaurant near the Crab Market. The food was delicious!

Our E-Visas finally came through late that night and we were all set to cross the border to Vietnam in the morning.