Matt and I had debated for a while about if we could should go to Kep, Cambodia or not. We had read a lot of great things about it but it was a bit harder to get to in terms of long travel time on a bus. Finally, we just decided to go for it and we’re super glad we did!!
Kep ended up being super relaxing for the both us and a great place for us to get downtime. After a Khmer karaoke-music filled bus journey from Phnom Penh we walked to the bungalows that we were staying at. It was a real treat as they were situated in a private, woodsy (in a jungle-like sense) area and were a bit rustic. Our place had open-air windows, a fan and a nice balcony to sit inside.
We hadn’t eaten lunch yet so we headed down to the crab market to grab a bite.
Kep is known for its crab so we of course got some boiled crabs! The restaurants in the crab market were super neat in that the restaurants are off of the beach and you can see people crabbing. People were literally hauling in crab crates into each of their restaurants—talk about sea to table!
The crab was super yummy but was surprised us was the lemon and pepper dip that the crab came with. Kep’s neighboring city, Kampot is known for it’s black pepper which I thought was interesting that a place is known for its pepper. I mean, how good could pepper be? It’s pepper. Well—I’m not a Kampot pepper believer. I don’t know how to describe it but that pepper was just perfection. The meal was a wonderful experience and reminded me of my childhood. My parents would sometimes buy a bunch of crab from the Asian market and then we’d cover our dining table with newspaper and get cracking at those crabs!
After that delicious meal, we decided to stretch our legs from the long bus ride by going on a hike in Kep National Park, which was right by our bungalow.
Matt and I hiked, scrambled and at times had to climb up with a rope up to get to our destination: Sunset Peak. We made it right before sunset and got to see the beautiful sun settling down onto the beaches of Kep.
Luckily, the route down was a bit easier as we hiked down in the dark. We ended the day with dinner at our hotel- where Matt enjoyed lok-lak which included a most wonderful lemon and black pepper dip!
On our last day in Kep, we went down to enjoy the beach front. One of us took a dip into the water (I think you can guess who). But in case you couldn’t guess…
After the beach, Matt decided to run up to and then around Kep National Park and I decided to run through the pages of a book. We finished our evening by heading down to the night market for a happy hour drink to see the sunset and another nice crab meal to say good-bye to Kep.
The following morning, we boarded a bus to journey to Siem Reap for New Year’s Eve. Until next time, Kep.
Roam Sweet Roam 
Looks beautiful. The picture at Sunset Peak is amazing! And, the crab…you’re making me hungry!
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Thanks, Nik! It was one if the first times I was able to eat a crab and manage to get all the meat out that I wanted!
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