Kep

Luckily for my ankle, next stop on our trip was the chilled out and relaxed beach resort of Kep. We shared a taxi down to Phnom Penh with two friendly middle-aged Australians, Tony and Wendy, who schooled us on the many ways that you could die violent deaths in their home country (shark attack of course won). This was on Cambodia's only real highway, and the entire way was lovely - with rice paddies, rivers, lakes and mountains. Picturesque now, but chilling to think that these were the fields where the residents of Phnom Penh were forced into labor camps by the Khmer Rouge, many dying from hunger, disease or execution. There is that constant memory lingering over much of Cambodia, contrasting with the natural beauty and friendly people.

From Phnom Penh, we took one of the more frightening taxi rides I've had the remaining distance to Kep. By now I'm used to near misses with passing trucks and motorbikes, but this guy was going so fast we barely made it through turns on the road without flying out onto the fields.




We stayed at the Veranda Resort in Kep, which consisted of a bunch of sweet bungalows connected by raised wooden walkways. And a delicious restaurant that had ice cream. We were pretty much in heaven. I spent the next four days moving as little as possible, never leaving the resort, reading, relaxing and recovering. Cindy took a day trip to the nearby Rabbit Island for a little beach action, but I was very content to be immobile. This was the "vacation" part of our vacation.