TIME: August
LOCATION: Kampot province/Kep, Chamkar Bei Commune

Emerging from the wild, lush, green forest of Kampot province in southern Cambodia, a stretch of accessible oceanside beckons. Kep (pronounced kipe) used to be a French resort town in the 1960s and 70s. French colonial holiday homes are scattered along the coast and when I say scattered- it's the truth. Kep was a hard hit area during the khmer rouge regime and the once charming holiday homes are hard to recognize amongst the rubble and remnants of these once elegant buildings. But, a quick walk around this local favorite weekend picnic spot and you can see the attempt to stage a come back. Many small resorts and backpacker havens have established themselves and small restaurants are finding their niche to the nationals and visiting tourists. The famous crab shacks line the edge of the strip of beach offering excellent squid, crab and prawns. Combine seafood caught right off the beach with locally grown Kampot pepper and the $2.50 seafood extravaganza is born. On with food (my favorite subject), if you want to splurge and add some variety to the seafood binge, you can walk up the dirt road to the Veranda resort. The best thing about the laid back french guesthouse snuggled in the moutainside overlooking the ocean is the BREAD!! I had the opportunity to meet the baker one early morning (4 am!!) and see the process and resources the amazing baker works with. He was trained at a restaurant in Phnom Penh called Comme le Maison and migrated south to find himself as the head baker tutoring aspiring local bakers at Veranda. Assortments of croissants, rolls and loaves of unique and characteristic bread all made with the classic french taste are all freshly made every morning. It is very easy to bring a book, drink some tea and savor the fresh baked bread for the whole morning at Veranda while watching the ocean play with the coastline of Cambodia. If you are fiending for some cold sweetness later, rich creamy gelato is available.... expensive, but if you want to splurge, it's worth it! Right behind the resort, the French man that owns Led Zepplin Cafe has take the initiative and has constructed cute informative signs that lead you up the mountain and around to a look out point where you can gasp at the expanse of the beautiful green coastline hitting aqua waters for miles and miles. This view also gives you a glimpse at Rabbit Island, which is a favorite for the PCVs as a cheap, quick, vacation spot where bungalows go for $5 a night and phosphorescent ocean dwellers entice visitors to partake in nightswimming off the white sand beach.


I answered the call of the sea undine that is perched on the coast of Kep and found myself living in Kep for the month of August volunteering for the NGO Bridges Across Borders.

At first, two other volunteers and I, started out on a project to remodel a house on a newly acquired UNESCO site so that future volunteers would be able to stay there. We painted and re-thatched the roof with two local men who lived close to the site in the village known as Chamkar Bei. Chamkar Bei literally translates as 'the three farms' and was named for three Chinese farmers that found the fertile land of Kampot province welcome to their pepper plants. Three plots of land were cleared and the farmlands have been successful ever since. Now, Chamkar Bei is known as the site that the Cambodian government and the UN designated as a re-integration effort for former Khmer Rouge soldiers and their families who up until the 90s were still hiding out in the mountains outside of Kep. This is where BAB (Bridges Across Borders) has put down roots and they have two branches of outreach, education and livelihood. The project that I veered off into was a coconut jewelry start up for the youth of Chamkar Bei. The young women that were trained in coconut jewelry carving were amazing individuals to work with and made 'coming to work' everyday a pleasure. Greeted with hugs and broken attempts at English (the fav saying that I taught was 'I am a princess') we chatted away the day while experimenting with different earring/necklace ideas made from donated coconut shells.