My AWSJ feature story on Kep, a seaside resort on Cambodia´s southeastern coast, is now available online.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Kep-sur-Mer was a popular beach getaway for Cambodia´s elite, who built villas and modest palaces along the beach front and sipped cocktails to the sounds of Khmer Rock’n’Roll.
In the 1970s the small town on the Cambodian Riviera was abandoned to the vagaries of the country´s long period of turmoil and remained a ghost town until a decade ago.
In recent years, Kep has experienced a slow revival with new resorts and guest house opening, while much of the land around town is being sold off to investors, and what remains of the holiday villas of the past is mostly torn down. A few of the most remarkable buildings are being restored.
This article ran as a cover story in the Asia Wall Street Journal Weekend Magazine last year.
Here´s a link to the feature via the Center for Thai and ASEAN News Study.
Images by Luke Duggleby.