Early 2019

To be honest I’m still confused about Cambodia and its “development”. We love spending time here in Kep. The climate is perfect, our accommodation is wonderful, we have friends here and the local people are really friendly - but I wonder what the future holds for the country. Cambodia graduated from least developed to lower middle income country in 2016 and until recently had one of the highest rates of GDP economic growth in the world. We see evidence of this wealth in terms of the huge increase in the numbers of large white 4x4 on the roads.

Certainly there is little evidence of extreme poverty here in Kep. The children look well nourished, the houses are generally weatherproof and life seems good. It doesn’t feel like a “third world” country. Apparently land prices have gone up astronomically in recent times so a few people are getting very very rich. And the garment factories in Cambodia employ around a million people, providing women with income and status within the family that was previously unattainable.
Life is very different in the rural villages out of range of the tourist dollars no doubt. There are no safety nets in case of illness and accident. Public education and health systems are still patchy.

But what of the future? Aspirations seem to be status and money. I don’t hear much pride in the Khmer heritage and culture - apart from Angkor Wat of course! And there’s little interest in nature. Mountains and forests and fisheries are primarily resources for exploitation. And as for what they’ve allowed in Sihanoukville, which is now a Chinese gambling enclave - well I’m not optimistic!

So we’re now into our last couple of days here. Six weeks has flown by. At the weekend we travel via Phnom Penh and Bangkok up to northern Laos and our beloved Luang Prabang.

 

Nek and Dahlane get creative with our towels!

As always, New Year on the beach was chaotic, colourful, full of good cheer. Happy 2019!

We came back to Bacoma after the fireworks for our sophisticated little glasses of bubbly

This is the centre of "Kep City" with the Independence Monument - a smaller replica of the one in Phnom Penh 

This sculpture celebrates the friendship between Cambodia and Vietnam

I hadn't seen this bird before in the garden at Bacoma. Don't know what it is.

We returned to Rabbit Island this week to attempt the round-island walk. At first the path was well defined and easy...

The beaches and shoreline are beautiful

But oh! The plastics!

Lovely bits of coral

But the path ended in a mangrove swamp and we could find no way round so had to retrace our steps. Mission not accomplished!

Some interesting plants. Rhizophora mucronata, the loop-root mangrove. Some of the roots growing down from the fruits were over a metre long.

Rabbit Island bungalows

The fishermen raft up before setting out in the evening

Spectacular sunsets - again!