14Khmer Times DESTINATION

FRIDAY OCTOBER 16, 2015

Destination: Knai Bang Chatt

KEP – On the Gulf of Siam, Knai Bang Chatt, Kep’s ‘barefoot luxury’ resort, is defined by what it is not.

Instead of views of jet skis and yellow banana boats zig zagging offshore, Knai Bang Chatt offers views of low slung fishing boats quietly putt-putting out to sea.

Instead of muzac and annoying activity direc-tors, Knai Bang Chatt offers secluded settings for quiet conversations. Discreetly spaced along the shore, three separate dining nooks set the stage for focusing on food, human companionship and natural beauty.

Last Saturday, I had breakfast with three friends at a long table overlooking the water. We were largely oblivious to the fact that only 20 meters away, two monks were quietly leading 30 people in a Buddhist meditation gathering.

In Cambodia, where foreigners often feel like unwilling celebrities, Knai Bang Chatt offers a low key environment where the 70-person staff pad around, performing their chores, resisting the desire to gawk or intrude.

Creating a world where plastic is taboo, Knai Bang Chatt defines itself with wood, stone,

By James Brookejames@khmertimeskh.com

pottery, palm trees and the soft wash of the sea.

Every morning at dawn, hotel workers collect what washes in with this sea. They create an artificially natural Cambodia, showing how things can be.

Clean Environment

This came home to me on Sunday, when I walked along the beach from Knai Bang Chatt, past a vacant beach lot to a neighboring villa. This unpatrolled section of sand was covered with a shocking amount of bottles and trash.

“Simplicity, purity and cultural connection are what we are offering,” says Jef Moons, the Belgian owner. “From my balcony, nature has not changed since the early 19th century.”

Jef, as he prefers to be called, believes his formula has legs.

He is embarking on a $1 million, two-year expansion. He is taking over the adjacent seaside lot and planning to restore the 1960s butterfly roof villa. This will add to his collection of restored modernist villas transformed into guest houses furnished with Khmer antiques.

In addition to offering well-heeled Phnom Penh residents a quiet time by the sea, Jef believes that Cambodia’s coast will increas-ingly complement Angkor Wat. He notes that

there are now 16 flights a week from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville airport, about a 90-minute drive from here, largely along the coast

“When you visit the temples, you are connected to the Cambodia of the 9th to 13th centuries,” said Jef, who also owns the Phnom Penh restaurant Zinc. “But you have to connect to the hearts and minds of the Cambodian people. Coastal Cambodia provides an excellent choice to connect to the hearts and minds of the Cambodian people.”

In addition to offering tours of villages, pepper plantations, ancient caves, offshore islands, Knai Bang Chatt has a strong social compo-nent. It is building new employee housing for the staff. It supports a weaving center, a village school for 300 students and university educa-tions for five local students.

Going Green

Joining the trend of hotels that seek to minimize their environmental impact, Knai Bang Chatt adopted a full recycling program this year.

“I have no food waste anymore – all the greens I use for composting, all the other food we are going to sell to a farmer for his pigs,” the hotel CEO said. “My trash is being reduced by one third. I hope to pay for my recycling director with the money I get from my trash.”

“I am always trying to reduce my carbon footprint,” he continued. “I ask my staff: why was my electricity consumption 15 percent higher, when my occupancy was 20 percent less? Can you please check?”

Befitting the low key mood of Knai Bang Chatt, I decided to forego a guided excursion and simply hired a sturdy tuk tuk. In 10 minutes, it took a friend and me to the main entrance to Kep National Park. After walking an easy, well maintained 8 kilometer trail that girdles the mountain, we stopped at Led Zep Restaurant for lunch on a wooden veranda. Below us, a sweeping view stretched down the green valley to the waters of the Gulf.

While waiting for my Khmer chicken curry, I checked out the décor – fading photos of 1970s rockers and a bulletin board of photos.

A French family had left a photo of two smiling, open-faced boys, probably aged 8 and 10, frolicking in the waters of Kep Beach. It was a memento of the days when the family lived in Phnom Penh.

The notation said simply: “Kep 1960.”

These two boys should now be men in their 60s. They should be happy to know that a new generation of children from Phnom Penh is enjoying – at Knai Bang Chatt and else-where – the natural beauty of what once was called ‘Kep-sur-Mer,” or Kep by the Sea.

A place to relax with uninterrupted views of the Gulf of Siam.A villa at Kep’s Knai Bang Chatt.

Supplie

d

Supplie

dSu

pplie

d