Crab palooza!

Kep is another small town on the coast of Cambodia, as close to Vietnam as we will get. We spent three mellow days exploring here, and ate crab and pepper by the pound most days. When in Rome…

Kep has been a seaside refuge of the elites in the past, and seems to be coming back. Aside ruined homes are emerging hotels and businesses, and the main road which is painfully small now is being expanded to a four lane boulevard.

The crab market is one hub, serving up crab fresh from the back door – almost literally except there is no door.

We learned in a tour of the pepper farm that the addictive green pepper on the vine is only good for 2-3 days which is perhaps why it hasn’t made a US debut. But dried, it is expo as black pepper. Red pepper is green ripened and dried with the skins on, but peeled becomes white pepper. Who knew?

Rabbit Island was another stop from Kep, a 20 minute boat ride away. This beach refuge is also being developed; it’s like seeing the Caribbean when the resorts were just being built. A trail around the island leads past construction to mangroves and then a family’s home a fishing spot. I wonder what it will look like 10 years from now.

Our detour to the Cambodian coast was a good one. We got to slow down to do more biking and hiking, and eating our weight in crab and pepper.