Kep is about eating crab and black pepper. And that’s what decided us to go there. Food had a really important part when you are traveling. You can find ingredients in a meal that provokes an explosion of happiness when they reach your mouth, really bad associations who can turn a lovely meal into “I will never eat fish anymore in my life”, or food that looks fresh at first but wake you up in the middle of the night only to realize that it has been a really wrong idea to eat in that restaurant… Food poisoning is the nightmare of all the backpackers. There is simple rules to follow but at one point, nothing is 100% sure. Usually, I won’t tempt to ingest crab, mussels, milk, not peeled vegetables, lettuce but Kep is famous for crab and black pepper so I had to eat crab and black pepper there. 

Nothing bad happened after so I can recommend you to go to the crab market at night, grab a sit next to the sea and listen to the waves crashing on the shore while having your dinner. I can also recommend the nicest place ever to put your backpack and your sore body: Tree Top Hill, a little Eden with small bungalows for cheap (but clean) which are facing the sea. How delightful is it to wake up and take your coffee in the lounge build in the trees! Keane the owner is a little lady, full of good feelings for her customers. Be careful, she will probably consider that she has to take care of you like your mum. “Madame”, has she called herself will try to remember your name and repeat to you hundred times “take good care”, “slowly slowly on the scooter!”. Like your mum would…
    
    
    

After twenty minutes driving in the country side, trying to see the salt fields, we decided to find a nice beach to stay as everything looked pretty muddy. On the way we’ve learned that dogs don’t like scooter and that you have to drive really fast if you don’t want to have your leg bitten by a silent dog running to taste your flesh. “Madame” didn’t warned us about these monsters…
    
    
    
    
    

I can’t really say we find paradise… The landscape itself was stunning but if you look closer, trash bags and bins were covering the sand. I started to think it’s a part of the landscape in Cambodia… We talked about this subject before, it’s just another example how ecology should be a problem there but is not. You don’t really want to tempt to put a feet into the water… However, like kids in a fairy tales following some elves flying around in a magic forest, we decided to walk under the thousands of dragonfly in search for a better place to stand on the sand. And we kind of find some. Not that they were no plastic bags there but we met some little friends. Travis is pretty easy going with kids and dogs, he is actually like a magnet with them. No need to speak the same language, if you have a frisbee (working for kids AND dogs), Curtis Mayfair for the soundtrack and some menthol chewing gum, you’ll have three new friends.
    
    
    
    
    
    
 

The young lady really covered while I’m wearing a swimwear, actually arrived at first and sat next to us. No talk. Staring at us. 

You have to be used to this attitude to not be scared. She just wanted to observe us. No barriers, she was sitting one meter away, facing us, staring and that’s it. No big deal. However, she asked us if we were not hot, not covered, under this sun… We could have asked the same question!