Kep

Kep is a (seemingly) sleepy seaside town in southern Cambodia.  Despite hearing horror stories about the ~3 hour drive there from Phnom Penh, our taxi ride was sufficiently comfortable that Monju managed to spend most of it asleep.

Our major mission in Kep was to visit the local crab market.  After some initial confusion among the vendors about whether we were just taking pictures or actually purchasing crabs, Monju selected ~1.5 kg of live crabs for our consumption and negotiated the price, with some (though not complete) success at lowering the (unofficial) tourist tax.  We paid an extra dollar to have them cooked on site and feasted on super fresh crab: delicious!  

We'd discussed our plans and interests with the owner of our super cute treehouse hotel so he could make additional activity recommendations.  Having spoken with us for less than five minutes, he quickly understood that our priorities centered on our stomachs and recommended that we visit a local coffee shop known for big chocolate chip cookies and chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting.  After our crab market lunch, we were ready for dessert, so we meandered over to the coffee shop, passing the massive crab statue and the newly white sand beach (the sand was recently imported from Sihanoukville).

In one of those perfect small-world moments, it turns out the coffee shop owners were from Port Angeles, Washington, so we reminisced about Washington state for a while.  After dessert, we made our way back to the beach to rest and read before dinner.  Our sunset dinner was (you guessed it!) more crab, this time at Srey Pov, one of the small crab shacks behind the market along the water.  The crab in green Kampot pepper sauce we ate there was probably the most delicious dish I ate throughout my time in Cambodia.  We capped off the night with a couple drinks at the sailing club then went back to the hotel and turned in for an early night.

Overall impression: Great place for a short visit. Delicious crab.