Kep Crabs

Kep is a small coastal town half way between Kampot and the Vietnam boarder. It was once a prosperous place full of mansions and grandeur, frequented by rich French expatriates. Now, many of those mansions lie derelict and abandoned, and local people have reclaimed the land, setting up shanty houses in the grounds or converting the shells of the buildings into make shift shelters.

Abandoned overgrown mansion, Kep. 

Kep is famous for its crab market, where you can eat some of the cheapest, freshest crab in Cambodia. At the market, women dressed in rain coats and big hats wade out into the ocean to collect submerged woven baskets full of newly caught crabs. We picked out our crabs, still live, and the lady boiled them in front of us on a wood burning stove. A couple of minutes later we (and by ‘we’ I mean Ric) were eating crabs and homemade chilli sauce next to the ocean. Can’t get much fresher than that.

Catching crabs.

Cooking crabs.

Eating crab.

Kep crab market, all sorts of barbecued fish and seafood are available.

From our guest house (Rega Guest House) we hiked uphill towards the National Park. On the way we discovered Jasmine Valley Eco Village, an abandoned resort set in the jungle, high above the town. Once one of Kep’s most renowned resorts, Jasmine Valley is now a ghost town. There’s still toilet paper in the tree house suites and books still stand on the shelves in the library, their pages curling in the damp. It has only been abandoned for six weeks, since the owner ran up too many debts and fled the country, and it really felt like everyone had just disappeared. The jungle is slowly taking over the resort, covering the foot paths and taking over the restaurant. The swimming pool is overflowing from the heavy rains and fish swim in the murky water. From the top of the resort there was a wonderful view of the ocean. Although we were tempted to stay and claim the place as our own, we carried on up a steep incline and joined the National Park road, which winds around a mountain affording some good views out to Kampot and the area around Kep. It was a pleasant shady walk and we spotted a few monkeys along the way.

Deserted tree house at Jasmine Valley Eco Village.

Overflowing pool at Jasmine Valley.

View out to Kampot, from Kep National Park.

Kep has a good beach, small but with fine white sand. After three days of heavy rain we were finally able to top up our tans and enjoy the sun.

Kep beach.

We’re enjoying our last few nights in Cambodia before our visas expire on 8^th August and we cross over into Vietnam. We’ll be sad to leave.