The Cutlery Chronicles

Sunday, 5 April 2015

Week 15: CAMBODIA - Kep

Image of the week: A boy throwing rocks into the sea. Kep, Cambodia
More images at the end of post
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Where in the world

A two hour drive from Sihanoukville to Kep, where we stayed for six nights in a traditional Cambodian house on stilts at Khmer Hands.

Thoughts

Kep, the sleepy seaside town that was once the playground for the French and Khmer elite. That was, until, it faded from view and memory under the brutal Khmer Rouge occupancy in the 1970's. Since liberation, it's a spot that's been gradually re-developing to something of its former glory. And it's certainly one to linger in.

Activities aren't endless, but that's part of its charm. It's a place in which to meander, eat some crab, sit a while.

But you can also take in the beautiful French colonial building ruins, perhaps get a boat out to Koh Tonsay (Rabbit Island), laze on Kep beach, do a bit of kayaking, explore the limestone caves a little further out, go fishing. A bicycle is a good way to get around - there isn't much traffic.

Kep's National Park - a great green lushly blanketed hill overlooking this town - is prime for a good hike of its 8km circuit. Trails are well signposted and amongst the jungle you'll come across a butterfly farm and a couple of pit stops for a cold drink, but do take your own supplies and be finished before dark. By foot is best. You'll spot lizards, monkeys, squirrels and work up a good sweat doing so.

Kep National Park. Kep, Cambodia

hiking through Kep National Park. Kep, Cambodia

And then there's the crab market down by the shore, bustling with morning activity. Watch cages being hauled from the water, followed by a flourish of interest as patrons gather round and dip in a hand to feel for what's fat and what's good.

As well as individual customers, the catches are sold on to the street food vendors that cook them for you, and the strip of restaurants lining the water - take a look at Where to eat in Kep and Street food in Kep below.

Seafood reigns at the dinner table here.

Crab market. Kep, Cambodia

Where to stay in Kep

our traditional Khmer home for six nights
in Kep, at Khmer Hands

I can't close without mentioning the quite lovely stay we had at Khmer Hands during our six days in Kep, thanks to wonderful owners, hosts and husband and wife team, Chris and Noemie.

Khmer Hands currently has eight basic but comfortable huts to rent, with some raised on stilts as is the traditional Khmer way.

But the place also doubles up as KeyLight Learning, a training centre for locals. It has an an onsite school to teach the necessary English and hospitality skills that enable them to get jobs in the area, and stay with their families. Rather than moving to Thailand to find work, for example.

Really commendable stuff. And the staff here are all examples of this; a very lovely bunch.
It's particularly interesting to hear about Chris's background, originally from California.

He's travelled and lived all over the world, for most of his life, but has chosen to make a family and settle down in this corner of it. Which is a great testament to it, I reckon.

And so, it's our final week in, what has turned out to be, a very surprising country.

our traditional Khmer house,
Khmer Hands

Before I began these travels, I was told that Cambodia is 'fourth world'. I wasn't really sure what that meant; perhaps insight into the country's infrastructure, progression, ambitions.

But if there's one glaring observation I've made during my time here, it's that the place is developing, and fast.

There wasn't a single morning of our three week stay where we weren't woken up by the sound of construction work. Which whilst a bit irritating, is a sound indicator that Cambodia is going places.

People I have spoken to who have lived in the country for a few years now, always speak of the great strides it's taken during that time.

Chris himself has been in Cambodia for seven years. He mentioned when they first moved to Kep, there were only six guest houses in the area. Now there's 60.

I hope, as Cambodia continues to find its feet and work hard at catching up with its neighbours, it doesn't lose its charm and identity in the process.

The best things I ate this week

Where to eat in Kep

Crab with local green peppercorns.

There's a long strip of restaurants overlooking the water at the crab market in Kep, some westernised to attract the tourists. But Srey Pov, one of the more authentic ones, was one of the handful recommended by Chris at Khmer Hands. And it did not disappoint.

There are few things more joyous when it comes to food than working your way through a plate of crabs. Cracking legs, sucking flesh, rooting around in the offally nooks. We had them fried with green peppercorns from Kampot, about a half hour drive down the coast, and an area famous for growing these fiery little beads of heat.

The peppercorns are still on the stalk; you can put the whole thing in your gob and pull it out clean. There was also a plate of succulent squid that had the same treatment, and juicy grilled prawns with a lime and pepper dipping sauce.

We went back a second night. Got more crab - hard not to. And also their fish amok, which might have been the best plate of food I had in Cambodia. It's a famous Khmer dish - fresh boned fish, rich spicy coconut custard, steamed in a banana leaf cup. Gosh, I could have cleared three.

Srey Pov, (the strip of restaurants at the crab market), Psar Kadam, Kep

from top left: crab and prawns at Srey Pov, cake at Kep Coffee, cheese and ham baguette from L'Epi D'Or, fish amok and more crab from Srey Pov
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Cake at Kep Coffee.

After 8km of sticky hiking through Kep National Park, I did a good job inhaling these. A fantastically sour lime juice, iced coffee and chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting.

The American owners of Kep Coffee are good friends with Chris and Noemie, and their sweet treats came recommended by them. It felt mighty good to be eating some homemade cake, let me tell you. And I hear their pizzas are top draw too.

Kep Coffee, Road 33, Behind Sokimex Petrol Station, Kep

Real French baguettes at L'Epi D'Or.

We paid a visit to Kep's only bakery for breakfast, L'Epi D'Or. They have two bakers in the kitchen - a French guy and a local Khmer guy. The place is pretty new on the scene too.

The baguettes are French. Not light Asian-baguettes made with rice flour. Actual proper chewy crusty baguettes made with wheat. And proper ham. And proper cheese! Simple pleasures that have been greatly missed. It might have been the best breakfast I've had in Cambodia.

God bless those French and their colonisation skills.

L'Epi D'Or, by Kep Beach

Anything from Khmer Hands

One of the great things about this place is that they will freshly cook you something tasty at any time of day. Breakfast isn't fixed to certain hours - you could order from the breakfast menu at dinner time if you wanted.

We hung out at Khmer Hands quite a bit, which meant we also ate there a lot. They offer a whole load of local dishes, there's a few western classics, filling sandwiches, pancakes, burgers, and all reasonably priced.

We often went for the omelettes with fried potatoes or fresh fruit in the morning. Noemi's secret soup was also a winner, as was the chicken with ginger (and loads of ginger, which is how we like it), and chicken with Kampot pepper (I have no pictures as it was usually too dark).

You don't have to be staying at Khmer Hands to eat there, so definitely pay a visit if you're in the area. It was really only the prospect of crab at the market that pulled us away from the place.

At the moment, the dining area is by the reception at the back of the site and is just a few tables. But the construction mentioned above was for a whole new and larger restaurant area, raised on stilts, right at the front. From what I could see, it promises to look pretty swish when complete.

Khmer Hands, Pepper Street, Kep

Seafood restaurants along the sea front. View from Srey Pov. Kep, Cambodia

Dinner in Srey Pov. Kep, Cambodia

Street food must-eats

Street food in Kep

Head down to the crab market and you'll find all sorts of things from the sea skewered on a stick and grilled over coals. Little squid, big fish wrapped in banana leaves, cooked crab you can take away in a polystyrene box along with some rice.

Get there early in the day for the freshest catch and have a seafood picnic for breakfast on the waterfront.

Squid street food at the Crab Market. Kep, Cambodia

Crab market. Kep, Cambodia

Did you know?

mystery roadside yellow
liquid for sale - revealed

Mystery yellow liquid for sale. Every time Matt and I were in a car passing through rural Cambodia, or in a tuk tuk in the city, we would see roadside vendors with rows of 2 litre soft drink bottles filled with a yellow liquid for sale.

We'd been racking our brains as to what they could be. Some sort of home brew? Big bottles of funky looking tea? Pee?

Then Matt declared triumphantly one day, 'I've figured out what the yellow liquid is. It's petrol!'

I did a quick Google search and low and behold, he'd got it. Sure enough, we witnessed someone buy one of these bottles and funnel it into the tank of his scooter the next day.

I'm not sure that's the safest way to be storing petrol. But hey, welcome to Cambodia!

My insider tips

Keeping insects from your light. The one real annoyance about sleeping in an unsealed property is that once it gets dark, putting on the room light means you'll get every insect surrounding your hut, coming into your hut.

On the first night, we had the main light off but kept the smaller bathroom light on, whilst I was on my laptop on the bed under the mosquito net.

Loads of really tiny little flies, far smaller than the net holes, managed to get through - it seemed they were attracted to the white of the bed sheet. They were all over it, and the white towels in the bathroom. They didn't bite, more an annoyance. Once we turned the lights off, they soon disappeared.

It's no fun stumbling around in the dark all evening though. What we figured out is that if you turn on the torch function of your mobile phone and position it high up, somewhere like a shelf or ledge, and point the light downwards, insects don't seem to see the light source.

It's more than enough light to illuminate a space for you to see what you're doing. Problem solved.

Highlight / Lowlight

Highlight. Those who have visited SE Asia will be familiar with the nocturnal call of the Tokay geckho. I first heard it this week; the unsealed huts at Khmer Hands make it feel as though you could be sleeping out in the open, such is the racket from the night time critters - bring ear plugs.

This reptile's call is surely one of the most comical in the animal kingdom. Because after the initial chatter, with each repeat, it sounds like it increasingly just cannot be arsed.

It's like this lizard has given up on the whole prospect of finding a mate. It ends on a 'what's the point' tonal fall. I think it's truly excellent.

Have a listen below (ignore the video) and tell me this doesn't make you chuckle.

Lowlight. The first night in the hut was a really terrible sleep. It turns out foam mattresses and I are not friends. The depressions made by the weight of the body is the exact opposite to what my lower back - and the pain I occasionally get in it - needs. I woke up very achy and acutely tired.

But it was nothing a few blankets to pad out the depressions couldn't sort out for the following nights.

Next week

Country number six! We say farewell to Cambodia and hello to Thailand. Specifically, the city of Chiang Mai in the north.

Postcards

Kep, Cambodia

Crab market. Kep, Cambodia

View from the top of Kep National Park. Kep, Cambodia

Kep, Cambodia

Crab market. Kep, Cambodia

Kep, Cambodia

Sunday, 29 March 2015

Week 14: CAMBODIA - Sihanoukville & Koh Rong Samloem Island

Image of the week: the jungle path on Koh Rong Samloem, connecting the two sides of the island
More images at the end of post
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Where in the world

A three and a half hour drive from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville on the southwest coast, where we intended to stay for six nights.

One of those spontaneously ended up being on the exquisite island of Koh Rong Samloem - more on that below.

Thoughts

"Sihanoukville? More like Shitsville" said Matt, as we walked past a hanging group of excessively-tattooed Australians inhaling their Full English breakfasts, whilst simultaneously pulling faces hinting at a struggle to keep them down. "This is what Magaluf is like".

A sentence probably best kept out of Sihanoukville's travel brochure. But he's not wrong.

If your idea of a good time is mingling with sunburnt 20-somethings in oversized vests drinking beer at 11am, men in their late 30's refusing to act their age or travel by a means other than skateboard (good luck with that on the sand), and bars called No Problem! and Utopia that serve a slice of magic mushroom pizza along with your beer (I reckon that sounds better than it actually is), then Sihanoukville is for you.

If that's not really your scene, move on - it has no other sales pitch. Except, that is, people do seem to be making it their home. Foreigners, and normal, functioning ones at that. A good example are the Italian husband and wife team running a very good restaurant there (see what to eat in Sihanoukville below).

We had six nights here, and after a few hours exploring and finding little of interest on the first day, I resigned myself to a week mostly spent at the laptop in the hotel, catching up on life admin, emails, writing and the rest.

In a last ditch attempt to find something to do, we took a speedboat to spend a day at one of the handful of nearby islands, specifically Koh Rong Samloem. And, oh my. What a slice of paradise so many worlds away from Sihanoukville, it might as well be in a different galaxy.

It's the sort of beach around which films are made. It is utterly exquisite, and I'm not sure we'll come across another like it (more about the island further down).

Saracen Bay, Koh Rong Samloem island

It's biggest draw has to be the fact that it is still undeveloped - no hotels, roads, or much expansion of any sort.

Eye-blindingly white, pristine, soft sandy beaches, backing onto unspoilt Cambodian jungle. Warm and shallow marine-green waters. And such few people. But be warned, it's not going to stay this way for long. The island has been earmarked for all sorts - big golf course resorts, hotels and even an airport.

It was such a show stopper that we decided to stay the night, at one of the basic beach huts. All we had between us was what we had brought for the day - sunscreen, sunglasses, money and a (thankfully fully charged) camera. No laptop, toiletries, change of clothes, or the rest. It was liberating.

Electricity on the island runs by solar panels and generators, only operates a few hours a day and there's barely any phone signal. We walked along a jungle path and spotted two great hornbills, an osprey, and a macaque making a right racket swinging through the treetops. We fell asleep to the sounds of the jungle and woke up with the sun.

The week was well and truly saved.

sunrise and fishermen at Saracen Bay, Koh Rong Samloem island, Cambodia

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The best things I ate this week

Where to eat in Sihanoukville

Homely Italian at L'Osteria di Gino.

There is a good Italian in town - L'Osteria di Gino. It only has a handful of tables, and the owner and head chef is from Saronno, moving to Cambodia to open the business in 2012. She knows how to cook.

I noticed a 'for sale' sign outside, turns out they're moving to a bigger site - a good sign.

During dinner, a load of Italian expats scooted up to say ciao (with hot Cambodian wives and girlfriends, and gorgeous kids). Who knew there were so many Italians in Sihanoukville.

We ate here on three nights: spaghetti pomodoro, carbonara, milanese, and bruschetta. Oh, the bruschetta.

I'VE MISSED GARLIC WITH OLIVE OIL SO MUCH (I might be sick of rice).

L'osteria di Gino Garden, Mondul 4, Sangkat 4 (near Golden lions circle, just in front of Golden Sand Hotel), Sihanoukville

Khmer food with flair at Sandan Restaurant.

This restaurant is run by the TREE Alliance, a global alliance of training restaurants working to build futures for former street youth, marginalized young people and adults. Really commendable work.

They have a few others in Cambodia and also one in Laos.

This is the place where I had my near-fainting episode (nothing to do with the food, see lowlight below), but I could still tell the food was good, creative and reasonably priced. Think of almond and guava daiquiris, beef and peanut curry, buffalo lok lak with quails egg and sweet potato fries, and a lot more.

Sandan Restaurant, 100m from the Golden Lions Circle on the road to the Sokha Beach, Sihanoukville

good eating at Gino's and Sandan

Where to eat in Saracen Bay, Koh Rong Samloem island

Turkish home-cooking in the Gulf of Thailand.

Guess how surprised I was to find a Turkish husband and wife team running one of the handful of restaurants on Saracen Bay. I got to eat menemen, borek and adana kebab on a random tiny island in the Gulf of Thailand. What a win.

I got chatting to Alev, the wife, who is originally from Istanbul where she and her husband had a restaurant. They've been living on this remote and undeveloped island, running Greenblue resort, (a restaurant as well as a few beach huts), for a year and a half.

When I asked her why she moved here, she said, 'I don't know darling. We visited one day, fell in love with this bay, then decided to just move here.'

I can understand that.

What I commend about Greenblue's cooking is that they do their best to replicate Turkish dishes with local Cambodian ingredients. For example, whilst the picture below may not look like a borek as we may know it, the flavour was there, let me tell you. And who could say no to that amount of cheese stringiness anyway? There's also local Khmer cooking, wine, and other western options here, should you fancy it.

It's worth mentioning the reason we first chose to eat at Greenblue was because it was the busiest restaurant on the bay, which means a fast turnover of food - always a good sign. It was only when we looked at the menu was the Turkish side joyfully revealed.

Greenblue Resort, Saracen Bay, Koh Rong Sanloem

Images from Greenblue restaurant on Saracen Bay, Koh Rong Samloem island.
From top left: Alev and a couple of her lovely staff, beach sign, cheesy borek, menemen breakfast, the restaurant, restaurant cat

Street food must-eats

Similar thoughts to last week in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh.

Try again next week.

Did you know?

Some insight on Sihanoukville, according to the feedback on this website, written by an expat who lives there, from what I can gather. I've edited it in places.

"Expats call it Snooky. People say it has some of the best beaches around, but they've either been sold or are rented to resorts or bars, and so are inaccessible to non-resort guests.

The majority of western guests are backpackers and apart from the still open Otres and Ocheteal beaches, there's not much to do in Snooky. The less favourable characters of the backpacking crowd have taken their toll on the Khmer people who are confronted with druggies, alcoholics, general riffraff and other western exports.

The locals attitude towards tourists have taken the same path as on Bangkok's Kao San Road*."

My opinion of the place: it's a means to get to Koh Rong Samloem.

*also referred to as 'the centre of the backpacking universe'. And doesn't that just sound like hell on earth.

My insider tips

our Natural Island beach hut accommodation, on Saracen Bay, Koh Rong Samloem island
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Accommodation in Saracen Bay, Koh Rong Samloem.

First point to note, there is another island in these parts also accessible by boat called Koh Rong (almost the same name, confusing). Koh Rong is bigger than Koh Rong Samloem and a lot more developed - this invariably means more people.

On the return journey back to the mainland, the speedboat made a stop here to drop some people off. From the limited judgement I could make aboard the boat, I'm glad we went in favour of Koh Rong Samloem and it's undeveloped charm.

Second thing, here's the ever excellent TravelFish with their guide to Koh Rong Samloem island, providing a load of insight on where to stay, what to do, and how to navigate your way around it.

But my own personal tip about accommodation, specifically in Saracen Bay where the speedboat makes a drop off from the mainland, is the further away you walk from the drop off pier, the cheaper accommodation gets. This is probably because people hauling heavy suitcases would rather not traipse the length of the beach with them under the midday sun, so opt for rooms close to the pier, and pay for the privilege.

When we decided to stay the night, I did some traipsing of myself, up and down the beach, to see who could offer the cheapest rate. Near the pier I was quoted $65. Further down at Natural Island, where we ended up staying, it was $50, but I got it down to $40. Quite a big difference for huts that provide the same amenities.

Walk even further down, and you have the option of hiring eco-tents or even just a hammock for the night. Frugal.

Highlight / Lowlight

Highlight. The world's biggest planners (both Matt and I) spending the night somewhere entirely unplanned, and with hardly anything on me. Spontaneity win.

Lowlight. I came over all peculiar during dinner on our first night in Sihanoukville.

The closest I've come to fainting before was after the first time I gave blood. I didn't stay horizontal for long enough - rooky mistake. I remember sitting at the biscuit-and-juice table chatting to my friend, when my vision started to go. This was followed by a nurse intercepting my slow slide off the chair onto the floor, and directing me to a bed where she made me lie down and raised my feet.

The exact same thing happened at dinner. I felt very strange, knowing that I absolutely had to lie down or I would lose consciousness. But I was still with it and self conscious enough to realise it would look pretty weird if I hit the deck in the middle of a restaurant. So instead, I went to lay down on the floor in the only private place I could think of - their toilet (thankfully, very clean).

I had to ask a member of staff where it was though, because I couldn't really see. I also couldn't really see the member of staff while I was asking him, so that must have been a good look.

After a few minutes I went back to the table, but the black-out wave started to wash over me again. We ended up moving our dinner to the staff sofa out the back, and I basically ate it lying down.

I put it down to a combination of not having eaten since breakfast (believe it), going from working in an AC room all day to the heat of outside and not being hydrated enough for the shock, and the first thing passing my lips being a cocktail - whoops.

Next week

We move to the sleepy seaside town of Kep, a couple of hours drive away, where we'll stay in a traditional and pretty basic Khmer house on stilts for a week.

Postcards