The Cambodian Town of 'Kep' Along the Gulf of Thailand

Kep has both an illustrative and disturbing past. Post World War ll, Kep became Cambodia's seaside playground for the rich. Kep was where one went to see and be seen. Hundreds of wonderful villas were built as holiday and weekend getaway estates on the seaside and only a couple hours drive South of Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh. Much of the architecture was edgy, minimalist, modern.

In the late 1960's, Kep slowly became less happy-go-lucky on two fronts. The Vietnam war was underway a short 10-kilometers away. On the heels of that ordeal, Cambodian communist rebels, later to be known as Khmer Rouge, were slowly building a rag-tag army rebellion around the entire perimeter of Cambodia with an eye on taking the capital.

By 1973, Kep was crawling with rebels in the jungle shadows and not fun or safe to visit anymore. Early 1975, Khmer Rouge took total control of Cambodia.

By all accounts, Khmer Rouge looted only Kep kitchen and food service related items. Everything else was left untouched as it represented the evil corruption and foreign influence that kept the masses in grinding poverty while a thin layer of wealthy were riding high.

After a couple years of nasty boarder spats launched by Khmer Rouge against Vietnam, Vietnam said enough is enough. In 1979. Guns blazing, Vietnam took Cambodia by storm and crushed the Khmer Rouge folly like a bug.

A Vietnam interim government was installed to, 'restore order' in Cambodia. Part of Vietnam's restoration effort included removing, as war booty, everything worth anything from Cambodia that could be packed out. Being so close to the Vietnam boarder, Kep was particularly hard hit. All the villas were stripped of everything including windows, floor tiles, doors, plumbing and wiring. Even the roofs were dismantled for their wood and tiles. What remains today are the husky bones of the buildings.

Kep is just starting to get up on it's knees. It will be some time before it is back on it's feet. Just the same, I enjoy long weekends in Kep.

A heaping feast of fresh crab in Kep is four to seven US dollars per plate. Beyond delicious.

Yours truly.

Amy was on our trip. She is a local artist and Khmer American friend lucky enough to be studying abroad while her family was slaughtered by Khmer Rouge. Amy's Dad was the Chancellor of Phnom Penh University. Being an intellectual meant certain death in the hands of the Khmer Rouge. As was often the case, like Amy's, the entire family was murdered so as others could not take revenge later.

The fellow on the right is the son of the Governor of Kep Provence before the war and holds many photographs of Kep in it's hey-day. A huge number of photographs of Cambodia circa 1940 -1980 no longer exist. Nearly all photographs from this period that remain are those that were taken to another country before the war.

We are attempting to track down some of the folks with old Cambodia pictures to re-shoot and maybe have a gallery showing here in Phnom Penh.

Great Kep mansion built 1906-1908.

Being creeped-out by a Kep ghost behind me.

Hungarian fellow that built a fabulous restaurant in Kep. Beards are unheard of in Cambodia. Locals call him Mr.Osama. He takes it in stride.

Former weekend home of the Queen of Cambodia.

Where locals find such odd shirts as this is a mystery to me. In this instance, the shirt reads,

"What Glorious weather".
Friend 'Chath' playing dead on a rain soaked highway insisting this was photographic art.

Wonderful foot bridge, 2008.

This monsoon season 2009, the river crested the bridge and the wood walkway caught the water just right and pulled the entire structure over.

I'm not sure either.

This sign at the entrance of one of Kep's finer resorts is Cambodian code for, " Don't bring in your body guard. It's O.K. to smoke Marijuana here."

Sign on tree says "For Sale". This is is inland Kep property likely an acre for $1,800-$2,500.

Weekends, places like this have throngs of locals eating, drinking, napping and reading while enjoying several meals. For an extra dollar, one can have a talented person at your side crack all your crab for you and mix-up crab sauce and hand it to you just the way you like it. That is too odd for me. I like to work on my crab myself.

Driving into a huge rolling rain storm.