Kep · Backpacking

A bed, a market breakfast and a moto are all at the bottom of Cambodian prices; the crab is not, and it is sold by the kilo at rates that swing with the season and the weather, so ask before you order rather than after. Prices are quoted in US dollars with riel as change below a dollar at about 4,000 to the dollar, and Kep has very few ATMs — arrive with cash.

Kep is 25km from Kampot along a flat, quiet road that a rented motorbike covers in well under an hour. Sleeping in Kampot and coming over for lunch costs less than a night here and gives you an evening at the other end.

The huts on Rabbit Island are among the cheapest beds on this coast, and there is no ATM, no real shop and only part-time electricity. Bring cash, water, a torch and repellent, and check what time the last boat leaves.

Giant Ibis runs Phnom Penh to Kep as its own route rather than a Kampot connection, which saves the extra hop and the moto at the end. Book a day or two ahead at weekends.

There is no night market, no bar strip and very little happening after about nine. A night in Kep costs almost nothing and offers almost nothing — budget it as somewhere to sleep after crab, not as a stop in itself.