Kep

Kep is written "Gaeb" in the Khmer language.  Pronounced similarly to the nonsense syllable "gaip".  So when the French came, they wrote it "Kep".  Because that makes sense, right?  It's pronounced Gaip; let's call it Kep.

Kep from the air hillside.

I went there this weekend.  Really only for a day--I got in late in the evening and left early the morning after next.  I'd heard there was a butterfly farm, but I never got there.

Instead, I woke up several hours early (because I slept in a hammock.  Why did I sleep in a hammock, you ask.  Because it was cheap) and drove around trying to find the National Park...I started feeling low and went back and slept for 3 more hours, so my day was already half gone.

The hammock in question

I then went to the National Park.

Word of warning to anyone going to Kep National Park--it's retarded.  First of all, there are basically no signs, nothing that says, Welcome to Kep National Park!  There's a highway road sign that tells you where to turn, but then you're not directed any further.... I wound up getting lost and instead stumbled across this pagoda on a hill...which was cool, but it did cost me another quarter of my day.

The pagoda on the hill

I told you it was cool

THEN.  I drove back into town (I brought my own Trusty White Bike) and just asked directions.

Also a dead snake

Apparently, you have to turn onto a road called the BOPHA... Road, and it wraps around in a circle through the national park.  There are two entrances.  There are apparently jungle trails, but they're so poorly maintained and dangerous that I simply turned back rather than struggle along in my flip-flops and beach pants.  There are overlooks where you can take pictures, and a lot of wildlife (my favorite was watching two dung beetles pushing a millipede carcass, also kicking a giant millipede out of my way [gently, I'm not a douchebag] and watching it freak out).

They're supposed to charge you at the gate, but because it was election day, no one was there (except the millipedes).  This was at 3:30 pm, when I finally got in.  The park closes at 5:30.

Well, the nice thing about wasting your day driving around like an idiot and showing up an hour before closing is that you get to see the sunset.

You also get to walk home on forest trails in the pitch blackness, stumble over rocks, cut your feet up, and lay smarting in your ultra-cheap hammock.  But with a town whose name is pronounced "Gaip" and written "Kep" what can you really expect? XD