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All Cambodia Krong Kaeb Kep-Sur-Mer

Kep-Sur-Mer

An abandoned Cambodian resort that mirrored the downfall of the country as it was happening.

Krong Kaeb, Cambodia

Added By
Nichali Ciaccio
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About

Kep-Sur-Mer, or Kep by the Sea, (typically shortened to “Kep”) was born by royal decree in 1908 and spent its early years as a station climatique, a seaside escape for French colonial bureaucrats and their families, but now the abandoned luxury homes form a seaside ghost town. 

The relative stability following Cambodia’s peaceful transition to independence from France in 1953 encouraged international investment and the development of a Cambodian elite. During this boom, Kep became the premier seaside resort as the elite built villas along the gold-orange coastline. Known by various monikers such as “Cambodia’s Riviera,” or, “The St. Tropez of Southeast Asia,” Kep even flaunted a casino during its heyday. The villas took on a number of contemporary influences, from French colonial wrought iron to Le Corbusier-inspired modernism to New Khmer assertiveness. Cambodia’s aristocracy, including the charmed “Playboy King” Norodom Sihanouk, turned Kep into a Cambodian version of Gatsby’s West Egg during this period of Cambodia’s “golden age.”

And like the glitzy Long Island of the 1920s, Kep-Sur-Mer's dream couldn’t last. Cambodia’s bourgeois began the abandonment of Kep after the Lon Nol coup in 1970. The modernist villas began to fall into decay and Kep saw fighting during the Khmer Rouge takeover, which finally put a stop to any future growth. Some reports suggest the buildings were specifically targeted for destruction by the Khmer Rouge and stripped of valuables by the occupying Vietnamese army following 1979.

Today the villas remain overgrown with flora and some, the ones not squatted by local residents, are structurally intact and worthy of, though not necessarily safe for, exploration. Their state of picturesque decay may not last long, however; increases in tourism to Cambodia have brought characteristic increases in foreign and local investment and development. Kep may yet see another “golden era.”

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Ghost Towns Abandoned

Community Contributors

Added By

Nichali Ciaccio

Edited By

TravelGal, claus donau

  • TravelGal
  • claus donau

Published

February 11, 2014

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Sources
  • http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/travel/escapes/14talk-cambodia-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
  • http://www.npr.org/2012/10/15/162955076/king-sihanouk-an-artist-and-architect-of-cambodia
  • http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/04/travel/cambodia-in-and-around-kep-open-but-undeveloped.html?pagewanted=3
  • http://www.lonelyplanet.com/cambodia/travel-tips-and-articles/76687
Kep-Sur-Mer
Krong Kaeb
Cambodia
10.487779, 104.289666

Nearby Places

King Sihanouk's Seaside Palace

Krong Kaeb, Cambodia

miles away

Bokor Hill Station

Kampot Province, Cambodia

miles away

Phu Quoc Prison History Museum

Phu Quoc, Vietnam

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Krong Kaeb

Krong Kaeb

Cambodia

Places 2

Nearby Places

King Sihanouk's Seaside Palace

Krong Kaeb, Cambodia

miles away

Bokor Hill Station

Kampot Province, Cambodia

miles away

Phu Quoc Prison History Museum

Phu Quoc, Vietnam

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Krong Kaeb

Krong Kaeb

Cambodia

Places 2

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