Days 15-17: Kep and Surrounds

Kep - Fri 31/12

We are now down on the south west coast of Cambodia at Kep. We're losing track of the days here ... but we think this is day 17.

Thanks again for your comments Wendy ! Don't believe everything you read on the blog ... some stories take on a life of their own ... and yes, the girls have not forgotten returning to training, but perhaps they are dreading that just a touch.

But back to a couple of days ago ... after our last shopaholic day in Phnom Penh, an early rise the next morning for the bus trip to Kep. Back in a mini bus for this trip, so just on our own and we were able to decide when to stop - and only 3 hours for this journey on much better roads that up north. Any road in Cambodia in a continual string of little towns and villages along the way - the photos hopefully capture samples of the sights along the way.

Kep is a fascinating place - check the map, but is right near the southern point of Cambodia on the gulf of Thailand, very close to the Vietnamese border. Not sure of all the history, but during the time of French colinisation this was the "French riviera" of Cambodia.

Kep was apparently another victim of the Khmer Rouge, as scattered along the foreshore are the skeletons of what were clearly magificent French homes a number of decades ago. Only the concrete walls of some homes remain, while others only have the foundations left. The walls that still stand are pock marked by gun fire, and the ones in the best condition are now occupied by new Cambodian squatters.

Scattered among the ruined houses are some that have been restored (mainly by government agencies), plus new tourist resorts that are slowly emerging. Where ever there are tourists, there are always locals as well trying to sell something - but you can already see that not too far down the track this area will be a "new mecca" for rich tourists prepared to fork out big bucks to stay in ritzy seaside hotels.

As for the seaside itself - the shoreline is very pleasant, with sub tropical forests extending right down to the seaside. As for the beaches ... as with many countries, what the locals consider a nice beach is woeful compared to our Aussie beaches - usually just a narrow strip of coarse sand or sometimes just rocks

This morning (Friday) we drove to Angkul beach (secret beach) to see supposedly what is the best beach around. Unfortunately, one of the major problems of modern Cambodia has completely spoiled this beach as well. The big problem with translating traditional village life to a modern context is that they just do not know how to deal with rubbish.

In traditional villages where all things were biodegradable, there was probably not a problem. But throw in modern materials, particularly plastic, and most villages are littered with rubbish and junk just lying around everywhere. There is no concept of rubbish collection and keeping a village tidy. Anything and everything is just discarded and lies around on the ground.

Angkul beach was no exception - one end of of the beach had a village, with all the fishing boats tied up at the shore - the combination of what the fishermen discarded from their catch, plus all the garbage blowing into the water from the village just made the place very unpleasant.

You will see a couple of nice looking pics in the photos - amazing what the camera can hide, these are a bit further down the beach where it looks a lot better - but from what was just behind the camera, no one felt the desire to swim.

This sort of encapsulates the ongoing problems of Cambodia - how to you blend the traditional village life with modern materials and practices without making a complete mess ? Both economically and of your environment ...

On that note, it's hot and time for a swim - in the nice clean resort pool.