Kep.

Kep is an interesting place. In the years leading upto 1960, it was developed as a high end resort for wealthy Khmer and French. Throughout this small seaside town were constructed walled mansions in the French Colonial style and was the place to be seen by the elite during the right time of year. In the 1960's the town received some unexpected guests - Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. Engaging in some inventive remodelling, this new army sacked and burned the estates. Today, though years removed from from the height of power for the Khmer Rouge, these estates remain burned out hulks, the gardens which were once well tended, returned now to the jungle. This in some part resulted from the fact that the area around Kep was the last place in Cambodia that the Khmer Rouge held power, finally defeated in 1998!

The dream of Kep returning to is place as Cambodia's tourism star is now alive again. Though a very small town with an almost beachless coastline, there is everywhere evidence of big money flowing in. Kep Beach in the centre of town - which until a couple of months ago was a pebbly, course brown sand affair - now sees a constant parade of large trucks hauling fine white sand from elsewhere, dumped in great piles which spill out onto the roadway. The main road through town - which based on nearby towns with similar populations, should be a well kept 2 lane gravel track - is in fact a newly paved 6 lane boulevard with garden meridians. Here and there are brand new ( brand new stands out around here ) shopping plazas and gas stations which enjoy little to no trade, awaiting, I assume, the boom of new resorts and the tourists who will populate them.