What to do in Kep. A visit of Angkol fishing village

Kep is good for contemplation here a life in the Khmer outback like “the real Cambodia” with rural local people. How to do it? Very easy, it is enough to drive off from Kep just a few kilometers.

The place of interest is called Angkol. There are several spellings in the English transcription such as Angkol, Angkoal, Angkul, Angkual... This is a real fishing village where almost the whole fishing fleet of Kep province is based containing tens and hundreds of boats. In guidebooks and travel agencies this place is positioned as Angkol beach or Secret beach. However, I would not recommend going there only for a beach holiday since this beach is not worth special attention.

The shortest way to Angkol is along the seashore. If you drive from the center of Kep, then turn right on the road before of the largest local store called Mak Prey Mart. This is the last corner on the right before of Kep Market. Even if the turn is suddenly missed and the market is reached, then it’s easy to turn back and find the right street. After a few hundred meters you will reach the sea shore and then turn left.

Lovers of houses on the water can visit this place to become familiar with "the authentic Indochina", while there is no need to make a long way to the Mekong delta. It is enough to drive a kilometer from the Kep Market.

Then we move all the time along the seashore. It is impossible to get lost here, the road is only one. The road is not perfect, but you can ride a scooter at a normal speed almost all the time. After heavy rains, areas that are difficult to drive may appear. On the right bank there are mangroves. On the left there are hills, fields, sometimes even lotuses can be found. You can meet local birds, but not a lot.

The road leads to the white horse statue. It is similar with the horse that greets guests from Kampot, but not the same. On the left, on the hill you can see the pagoda, this is Angkol Wat. A road which is perpendicular to the sea leads to Angkol Wat from the white horse. From the temple there is a wonderful view of the rice fields, Rabbit Island, the bay and Kep.

After exploring the pagoda, we descend down to the white horse, and continue the journey along the sea. The fishing community Angkol is greeting us. The village of Angkol looks like a well-off. There are a lot of capital houses and just a few of garbage. There are a lot of boats. Some boats are located on the shore for repair or for decommissioning.

What is so special about these boats? When they gather in such huge quantities and combine with amazing landscapes, this is an incredibly beautiful sight.

Here is Angkol beach, but, unfortunately, it is not amazing in scale and cleanness. Maybe it could be "bounty", but the sea brings to the shore too much man-made "gifts". Water is good enough, so who is tired by the sun can swim. Entrance to the water is shallow and long. Probably you will like to stay here only for a short time.

Therefore, we go further, and the boats do not all end. Salt fields appear on the left, where salt is produced by evaporation. The territory is laid out in square areas, and warehouses are built for storage. There are no salt workers today, what means that they do not work every day.

We reach the less prosperous fishing village. Here, sea workers live in very unpretentious houses at the edge of the water.

And then a wide road suddenly ends in a deadlock. According to some information, this unfinished road led to the Vietnamese border. Maybe someday it will be finished.

There is another beach in this place, the quality is somewhere the same as the previous one.

It is needed to notice that there is Angkol beach in Kep surrounding. But Angkol beach is far away from Angkol village. Also Angkol beach is not recommended for visiting taken into account dirty environment.

The distance from Kep to Angkol is about 15 kilometers. This way on a dirt road on a scooter can be overcome in a half of hour. The whole trip with stops and swimming can take two to three hours. So, if you have a couple of hours of free time in Kep, a visit to the fishing village of Angkol is recommended to all those who are not indifferent to beautiful landscapes, rice fields, mangroves, temples, flying herons and, of course, to Asian life and handicrafts.