This weekend we escaped the city and headed down to the peaceful seaside town of Kep. We stayed in a beautiful guesthouse with a pool, a restaurant and a collection of bungalows set in a beautiful garden. We spent our first day sunbathing by the pool, desperately trying to make up for weeks spent in the office. For me, however, this inevitably meant freckles and sunburn! That evening we headed down to Kep’s famous crab market. No trip is complete without a visit to this row of riverfront restaurants (or shacks!) to sample the delicious local crab in Kampot pepper. Kampot pepper was once a staple at every self-respecting French restaurant, but pepper plantations were destroyed by the Khmer Rouge, who favoured rice production. Now Kampot pepper is steadily regaining its international status; indeed, we could see why this pepper is so highly regarded as we sampled crab with fresh green pepper and watched night fall over the Gulf of Thailand.
Our bungalow at Botanica Guesthouse
The pool
Ben enjoying dinner overlooking the sea
Kep is also the gateway to the beautiful Rabbit Island, which we hoped to visit on our second day. Unfortunately, we woke up to pouring rain and, after reviewing the weather forecast, decided to cancel our trip. Of course sod’s law ensured that the sun shone all afternoon, but by that time we’d missed the only ferry of the day. We were disappointed to miss out on visiting a place that Mr. Corbett-Winder has been rabbiting on about (pun intended) for several years, but had a lovely morning walking along Kep’s seafront. Interestingly, Kep town is peppered with (sorry, couldn’t resist) dilapidated, modernist villas that were built when Kep was a thriving colonial resort. During the Khmer Rouge, the colonialists fled and these villas fell into disrepair. Today, these eerie echoes of Cambodia’s violent past stand in stark contrast to the host of new hotels in this area and to this country’s fast-developing future.
Kep beach – not as nice as Rabbit Island, but still pretty
Kep town statue!
Abandoned colonial villa
After a second night sampling the delicious local fare, it was time to return to Phnom Penh. Today, relief from the stifling heat of the last few days has been provided by some surprisingly English rain: not Phnom Penh’s usual tropical downpour, but a sustained drizzle throughout the day. We miss Kep already, but it is time to get back to work and plan our Cambodian Christmas (details to follow).
Enjoying our last meal in Kep
Jo Blogs 
Thanks for your latest update, I suspect that Grandad Kitching will particularly appreciate the puns!! I hope that your work is going well, but it’s good that you are able to get away and do other things at the weekends. I trust that the ropes suspending the hammock outside your bungalow at the Botanica Guesthouse were sturdier than the ones on Paul’s hammock in Blandford. Love from Trev & Liz xx