Kep Day Tour
As scheduled, our tuk-tuk pulls up in front of the hotel at 9am. The logic at the time was to start on the early side to avoid the worst of the heat, but it’s already oppressively hot away from the shade and the breeze, once we start moving, is a welcome relief.
We head past the beach we visited last night, and in the daylight see this fellow out in the bay. tab, apparently, is an even bigger deal here than we thought.
Aside from fishing, one of the big industries in Kep is salt farming, where low lying pits are repeatedly flooded with sea water that is allowed to evaporate until the remaining salt crystals are large enough to scoop up. We’ve seen the process elsewhere, and with the season just starting, the work is mostly focused on cleaning and preparing the pits for use. Even so, seeing the amount of land the process requires and the labor involved you can’t help but wonder how the economics work for such a low cost item like salt.
From here we head out to a set of caves called Phnom Kampong Trach. Like temples, we’ve seen our fill of caves over the years so are are pretty ambivalent about these ones. We’re pleasantly surprised though, not by the caves themselves, but by the natural courtyard they open up to, completely isolated from the outside world.
My trusty sidekick is also able to collect data on another example of the local facilities. After all of these years, you’d think the benefits of drinking less tea in the morning would become more clear, but it is not so. Watch for her upcoming series of reviews on www.dropsquat.com.
The main spot we wanted to visit today, since we’ve never seen one before, was the pepper plantation. As I mentioned in a previous post, this area is produces some of the finest pepper in the world, and for something we use pretty much every day. we have no idea how it is made.
Pepper, as it turns out, grows like grapes, and at first glance, you could easily mistake a pepper field for a vineyard. Vines about 10 feet tall produce small clusters of peppercorns, and depending on when they are picked, will ultimately end up as red or black pepper. The pepper on your table comes from a much more industrial operation where chemicals and machines optimize the yield, but here everything is done by hand, right down to the lady who sifts through basket after basket of dried peppercorns, picking rejects out with a pair of long tweezers.
After a short pit stop to load up on chocolate croissants (one of the finer things left behind by the French), we get back to the hotel around 3:30pm. Time for a short nap in the glorious air conditioning before heading back to the crab market for dinner. Our meal last night was so relaxing that we’re back to the same spot again for a do over, this time capped off with a decadent vanilla shake.
It has been a short stay here in Kep, and between here and Kampot we’ve run into an amazing number of expats who came and never left. It isn’t hard to see why, as the pace of life here is pretty intoxicating. I could definitely see coming back one day, but for now, we’re excited to get to the beach so ready to move on.