Another early morning for me. You know, short curtains and all. Same procedure as every day: a little walk around the hotel. Not too long though, I was hungry and kicked out the brood. We had a pleasant little walk to Monkey Republic.


Kampot is a little behind the times.

Monkey Republic
Street 730
Open every day from 08:00 to 21:00.



When we arrived at Monkey Republic, I almost turned around immediately when I saw the “Yoga classes” sign. The place screams “hipster” and the theme continued inside, with a shit load of craft beers on offer, guys with man buns and gals with full on tattoos. But heck, as long as I get my brekkie.



The garden is actually very nice, a real oasis on a quiet street (though the endless recordings from the swift houses could be heard here as well). Staff were very friendly and quick. Thao and the kids had the crab meat omelet with duck eggs and, of course, avocado. I figured I am on a holiday so screw all that healthy eating; it was the “Big Boi” (no, not a spelling mistake, just more hipster stuff) breakfast. Bloody hell, was it good! It came with crispy bacon, the only way bacon should be cooked, mushrooms, baked beans, hash browns, tomato, the works. The sausage was probably the best I have had in Cambodia so far. The only thing missing was the blood pudding, but I am being petty here.


Now that is what I call a breakfast!



On the subject of baked beans: why are they being treated as if they were gold all over Southeast Asia? Every bloody restaurant will just give you that tiny little dish of them and I figure they are counted out one by one. How much does a can of baked beans really cost?



Anyway, we all agreed that the breakfast was darn excellent and the juices and coffee very pretty good too. I also thought it was good value for money, the crab meat omelet was $5.50 and my breakfast $6.50. The juices were a mix of fresh fruit and vegetables and came in at $2.50.



I was ready for a little lie-down but there were crabs to be eaten and beers to be drunk so I called our trusty Tuk-tuk driver and we headed off to Kep. The road is pretty crap in places at the moment but they are fixing it. Still considerably better than when I took a sidecar from Vietnam to Siem Reap and did a detour to Kep back in 2005. I had played with the idea of having lunch at the Sailing Club, but as passed, I saw a sign that it was closed, not sure if it was only that day.

We arrived at the crab market and that was a bit of a shock. The place is absolutely massive now, with dozens of restaurants. It was a little early for lunch, and that “Big Boi” breakfast was still sitting heavily in my belly, so we decided to walk to Kep proper. A nice little walk along the sea but Kep itself was a little underwhelming. We had toyed with the idea of having a swim at Kep beach, but one look at the beach put that idea to bed. Both the beach and the water looked more than just a little grimy.


Kep Beach. Meh.

We called our Tuk-tuk and drove to the pier where the boats leave for Rabbit Island, stopping for the obligatory photo in front of the crab statue. However, by the time we got there, it was getting a little too late and we planned to go to the island the next day. We had a drink at the restaurant at the beginning of the pier when someone suddenly called my name. Turns out it was someone I had “known” on Facebook for more than 10 years but never actually met. We had a little chat and, as they are residents of Kep, we asked for crab restaurant recommendations. She suggested that we go to the “Holy Crab”, a restaurant I had noticed earlier on our walk as it looks quite different from all the other shacks.


Can't go to Kep and not have a photo in front of the Crab statue.

Holy Crab Restaurant
F7PQ+VPC (how is that even an address? Anyway, it is in the middle of the Kep Crab Market
Open every day from 08:30 to 22:30



As I wrote earlier, the restaurant sticks out among all the other restaurants as it actually looks like a restaurant and not a lean-to shed made out of plywood and plastic tarps. Very nice interior and pleasant terrace by the sea.



Thao had been pestering me about crabs for the last two days so this is obviously what we ordered. Personally, I am not a big fan of crabs, or rather not a big fan of crabs in Southeast Asia. Growing up, we used to have these crabs with massive claws, and the claws were actually all we ate. The crabs here are way to fiddly for me; I hate having to work for my food.





We ended up ordering barbecue prawns ($11.00), steamed prawns ($11.00), and two plates of steamed crab (12.50). Angkor beers were $2.00 and juices $3.50 (restaurants in Cambodia obviously make their money with juices). I do not know how prices compare to the other restaurants, but I do know that our food was really fresh, and I have no problem with the prices. There was a bit of a wait as the restaurant was busy and they do mention in the menu that the food could take a while as everything is freshly prepared, a claim I believe.




The Vietnamese were happy.

A very pleasant lunch indeed but we reluctantly moved on to keep the monkeys entertained. I had read about a water park somewhere and so this is where we were headed.

River Park Kampot
Toek Chhou Rapids, just past The Greenhouse Guesthouse, about 10KM outside of town.

Monday 09:00 - 17:00
Tuesday 10:00 - 17:00
Wednesday 10:00 - 17:00
Thursday 10:00 - 17:00
Friday 10:00 - 17:00
Saturday 09:00 - 18:00
Sunday 09:00 - 18:00

It was quite a ride to get here but first impressions were good, even though the place was completely deserted. A huge slide, all sorts of bouncy castles, a zip line across the river, and so on. We purchased tickets for the slide, which was not all that easy as nobody spoke English. We thought we had purchased tickets for one go at the slide, but it was actually for one hour. I found out afterwards that one can either purchase tickets for each attraction or a pass for all. Not all that cheap, access to all activities for one time is 90,000 Riel whilst limitless access is 130,000 Riel.


Absolute death trap.

I figured that I would give the slide a miss after a beery lunch and let Thao and her kids have all the fun. The slide is actually not your normal water slide, it is all plastic, and you hammer down seated on some sort of raft. The whole thing is not entirely safe in my opinion. All three of them ended up with bruises and abrasions and there was no way they were going back for more. I also watched some people using the zip line, as they climbed up the tree, they were not always attached to the safety lines. The place needs to look at its safety procedures and also needs to do something about the rubbish everywhere.


Not exactly pristine.

The kids spent a little more time on the bouncy castles whilst I went in search of a beer. Unsuccessfully, as all the shops around the water park were closed. I do not know if it gets busy on weekends, but on a Tuesday afternoon, it was ghost city.



Personally, I cannot really recommend the place because of the cavalier attitude to safety. I saw this mentioned on social media as well, but the management replies by blaming the customers.





Amazingly enough, we were getting hungry again, so it was back to the hotel for a shower and then a walk to town. We had walked past on a place selling wreaths a few times and each time, we were asked if we wanted to buy some and today was no different. I might look close to death, but I had not planned on checking out just yet.

Anyway, we made it to the Aroma House without a wreath.

Aroma House
722 Street
Open Tuesday to Sunday from 11:00 to 21;30

The restaurant is not big, located in a small house. I cannot remember why we decided to eat Middle Eastern food, but I believe it came recommended. We were greeted by a very friendly staff and chose to sit outside as it was a very pleasant evening.



The menu starts with stating how they go to the market every morning and prepare everything from scratch. After having eaten there, that rings true. The menu is not very big, which suits me fine. I am always a little wary of places with a 60-pages menu; they must have seriously big freezers in the back.

Anyway, back on track: we ordered a chicken kebab wrap ($4.50), a beef felafel combo ($5.75), and something I can just not remember the name of. Beers were a very reasonable Dollar a pop. The beef falafel combo was huge, I put on two pounds just looking at it. Thao was very happy with her chicken kebab wrap. The children liked there food too, but then they like anything that they can smother in ketchup except ice cream. Service was outstanding throughout our meal. The owner is apparently a Canadian, I am sure there is quite a story here, but we did not get to meet him.


The beef falafel combo was ace.



I just cannot remember what that was, but it was great!



We did have a quick drink with a friend of mine that owns a pepper farm near Kampot. He suggested that we meet at Al Cioccolatino, good thing we had eaten already. He did text me the next day to tell me that the food was not really good.

We waddled back to our hotel. I was happy as a pig in shit, finally having had some great food. Thao and kids went for a swim, I went to sleep off my beef falafel combo.

English style breakfast looks terrible and small, but holy crab is a good place with good food and nice hosts. Rest of Kep was pretty terrible when i was there in april, run down, seriously dirty, i was told they was still cleaning up after khmer new year, so thats maybe why. All in though, i found it boring.

This looks tasty but the circular falafels in juice look weird if that's what they are.

Soriya wrote: ↑Fri Jul 14, 2023 9:10 pm English style breakfast looks terrible and small, but holy crab is a good place with good food and nice hosts. Rest of Kep was pretty terrible when i was there in april, run down, seriously dirty, i was told they was still cleaning up after khmer new year, so thats maybe why. All in though, i found it boring.

The breakfast was actually very good and plenty for me

John Bingham wrote: ↑Sat Jul 15, 2023 1:17 am This looks tasty but the circular falafels in juice look weird if that's what they are.

I know, right? But tasted fantastic.

DeparRudeAnts wrote: ↑Sat Jul 15, 2023 3:36 am Dishwater.. I prefer your Larry's bar review

Just scroll on?

hanno wrote: ↑Fri Jul 14, 2023 6:47 pm

[img]https://i.postimg.cc/2SrY4bgN/82.jpg[/The owner is apparently a Canadian, I am sure there is quite a story here, but we did not get to meet him.

Iranian I believe, though ofc could also be Canadian

Great food there consistently