26th February 2009

As Kep was only a half hour tuk tuk ride away, we were able to have a relaxed departure from Kampot. So we had our breakfast in a very leisurely fashion and then hired ourselves a tuk tuk to take us there.

We had done some research on where we wanted to stay in Kep, but after talking to the owner of Blissful Guest House, we changed our minds after he recommended a different guest house called 'Kukuluku'. After his description of really nice rooms and a private beach, we thought we were on to a winner with this one! After we arrived and checked in, we quicky realized that the rooms did not fit the description he had given us, they were very depressing and sparse and the private beach was a gross exagerration too! It looked more like a tiny muddy riverbank!

Adam noticed that opposite the guest house was a sign pointing to a place called 'Malibu Resort', so we trundled off up the dusty track in the heat of the midday sun to see if was any better than ours. It was beautiful and we immediately knew that this was out of our budget. After asking for the prices, this was confirmed, but we were encouraged to look at their camping option. Not being the outdoors types, we chuckled and said that we would take a look. To our amazement it was actually very nice, no tents to be seen at all, they were more like wooden gazebos with a raised floor and a double bed inside. As nice as they looked, it really wasn't our cup of tea.

After politely turning the camping option down, they called a tuk tuk for us, as we knew we didn't want to stay at Kukuluku. It was no time at all and the tuk tuk arrived for us. We talked to the driver and explained where we wanted to go and he quickly phoned all of our choices to see if they had any free rooms. This was starting to get a little tricky as they were all fully booked. We had one more option left, so we returned to Kukuluku to pick up our back packs. As we loaded them on to our waiting tuk tuk, our driver noticed that he had a flat tyre! Kep is a very quiet place and there are hardly any tuk tuk's around, so the driver kindly phoned his friend who owned a car to come and help us! Very quickly we were having a bags taken in to a very nice looking room at The Star Inn Hotel on the beach front. The tuk tuk driver and his friend did not ask us for any money, but we gave them a couple of dollars each for being so helpful to us.

Later that evening our tuk tuk driver came by to our hotel to thank us for the money, as it enabled him to buy a brand new tyre, rather than just having it repaired! He was very happy, so we chatted to him for a while and he even invited us to a party with him that evening! We thanked him very much, but declined his generous invitation. That evening we both ate in the hotel restaurant and we both had some very fresh crab. It was very messy, hard work but very tasty.

Later that evening it rained so hard that it woke us up, this was a proper monsoon and storm. We stood on our balcony watching the lightning move across the bay and lighting up the clouds and sea for our enjoyment. Suddenly we realized we had made the right decision not to go with the camping, we would have been a little wet by now!

The following morning we were looking forward to our breakfast that was included in the room price. Normally that would be a plus point but unfortunately here it consisted of coffee that could remove the enamel from your teeth and eggs that were deep fried in oil, nice and greasy! We asked for some butter to try and moisten the bread, they pointed at the triangle of laughing cow cheese on our plate and told us that was it! That's a new combination, cheese and jam!

We spent the day relaxing around the promenade and enjoyed a very nice sunset on the beach front with a nice can of beer in our hands, looking our to sea at the small islands in the bay.

Kep is a lovely and relaxing beach side town and we do hope to return. But next time we will book in advance for the resort we originally wanted.

We are off in the morining again and this time have arranged a minivan to pick us up from our hotel at 9am, It is taking us to the capital city of Cambodia, Phnom Penh.