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.

Kirirom

Kirirom is a National Park in Cambodia.

Long talking on the phone with his Mom in the United States while working on a photograph.

I don't know. I need to do some research.

Another Project with Royal Group

The Royal Group is a holding company headed by an interesting fellow by the name of Kith Meng. Meng is in his early-forties and one of the few stratospheric entrepreneurs here in Cambodia that commands a multi-billion dollar portfolio in banking, broadcast, premium hotels and real estate. Kith Meng's most recent brainstorm was to import forty new E320 Mercedes Benz to Cambodia and serve government, diplomatic and business leaders in the Kingdom. The cars are now on the ground here in Phnom Penh... It is Show Time. It has been a blast working, mostly behind the scenes, with Royal Group helping to put their best foot forward in this new endeavor. Chean Long is the photographer. My roll is creative director.

A couple things should be noted about these images. Many of the international folks that follow this blog have a slower down-load speed that make viewing these images in their pure form too time consuming. We have adjusted the resolution lower to make blog image-capture faster. Secondly, you will find many of these images shot 'wide'. These shots are 'raw' and allow for much tighter framing for final product. The equipment being employed for our work delivers sharpness all the way to peoples eyelashes. What you see below will be enlarged and cropped.

Phnom Penh International Speedway

Today, some friends and I went to a fun - and rather large - go-cart track just outside Phnom Penh. On this trip is Long, my photographer friend, Agi, a very famous (in Cambodia) singer/dancer and my driver, Phea. Long, Agi and Phea drove and I did the announcing.

It's race time! Take a look!

I'll Take My Recession in Asia, Thank You.

Being a small land developer for nearly 20-years has been a real pleasure. I have been blessed with acquiring some wonderful parcels and working with a wide range of talented folks creating some exceptional properties. I feel particularly lucky that all that I have created - up until now - sold well.

Even in the headier days of 2006-2008, I knew investing and developing in Cambodia was risky business. Retained earnings have never been leveraged. I will ride-out the current economic environment debt-free, stable and for the foreseeable future, not making new profits.

Like everybody, these bad times I need to ride-out. It may take a couple years.

For now, I want to be in Asia more than the United States. Things are more dynamic here.

Thakmao

Exploring a suburb of Phnom Penh.

Olympic Stadium

Olympic Stadium in Phnom Penh was designed and built in the 1960's before the wheels of this country started to come off. The complex is extensive and rather well designed, but has fallen in deep disrepair. There were several government mass killings here in the mid-seventies. Ghosts play an important roll in this cultures mind set. Where people die or are killed, it is believed here, that is where their Spirit live. This puts this land in a tainted no-mans land for this generation of leadership. Superstition plays an inordinate role in decision making here.