Friday, May 16, 2008

Kep overgrown.

Though the presence of luxury Landrovers and sparkling new condos attest that Kep is on its way to becoming a hot destination again, for the moment the oceanside jungle still conceals ruins of the past. Rooms that once hosted cocktail parties and lavish dinners now shelter lizards and moths. The soil in the province is famously fertile; so fertile that even abandoned properties grow as lush as tended plantations. Banana palms cluster in shaded alcoves, jack-fruit trees burden their heavy fruit among exposed beams. On the other side of Cambodia, Angkorian ruins are held in the grip of strangler trees; that overgrowth is mirrored in this seaside paradise, as once elegant compounds are swallowed by the hungry forest.

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