Day 9 – A Day at Kep

When I woke up and looked outside, I noticed it was still raining.  Both Shawn and I had slept in and decided to meet at 9am to go to breakfast.  We walked over with our rain gear and camera bags.  We planned to go to the market which was suppose to be close to the water.  Breakfast was half buffet and half ordering from the menu.  I ordered tea for both of us but it seemed to take a long time to come.  We noticed that the service was almost nonexistent as we had to keep asking for things.  I really don’t think that the local servers had much experience waiting on people.  They barely understood English.  Breakfast came with the room and in fact, that was the case with all the hotels.  We were the only ones in the dining area.  We quickly finished and asked for directions from the hotel clerk as to where the market was located.  We had our umbrellas, camera bags etc and walked down the road and toward the beach.  The market was close by.  It wasn’t very busy and most of the vendors seemed to be cooking. We had to find places to stand so that the rain wouldn’t drip onto our cameras.  Here are the market photos:

We hung around the market for about an hour and then decided to take a look at the shops along the road.  Most of them were little stores that sold a variety of goods.  Others were small, inexpensive cafes.  There didn’t seem to be much going on in the rainy weather.  We walked back and decided we would explore the grounds.  We thought we would have lunch at the sailing club restaurant but when we got there it really started raining hard.  They had to close all the shutters and since some of it was open – much of it became wet.  There was a huge family taking over the dining room and then several other people came. Shawn and I decided to return to the main dining room as it was so crowded and noisy.  No one was in the dining room but us.  It still took us a long time to get our order.  Our Swiss waiter was not around so trying to explain anything was rather hit and miss.

We returned to our rooms after lunch.  I had decided to get a massage and a manicure, pedicure in the afternoon since it didn’t look like the rain was going to stop anytime soon.  The prices were a lot lower than in the states and the girl that waited on me was pretty good.  It was a relaxing way to while away a dreary afternoon.  Shawn stayed in to read and then went out and about to get more photos when the rain let up. By the time I went back to my room, took a shower and dressed – it was almost time to eat dinner. The food at this hotel was probably the most expensive of any of the other hotels.  I was surprised that the food prices in the hotel restaurants were so high.  Almost as high as in the states.  I guess if we had eaten at the street cafes, it would have been a lot cheaper but maybe not safer.  Neither Shawn nor I got really sick – we each had one day of slight stomach problems so I think that was pretty good.  Hygiene and cleanliness was not the best outside of our hotels which did not include the Bambu Battambang Hotel.

Here are my photos of the Knai Bang Chat Hotel grounds.  I actually took them the next day in the morning when there was a break in the rain.

The next photos are shots of the Sailing Club and surrounding area.