At the Kep West Wellness Center, the facial starts in the kitchen rather than a jar. Mango for vitamin C, pressed cucumber for the tonic, yogurt, a little lavender. Sam Taroth has already tried yoga and massage here. This time she hands her face to Mao Sophear, the center's Senior Spa Therapist.

At Crab & Co, Kep West's seafront restaurant, Sam Taroth tastes the generous signature seafood grill presented by F&B Manager Sophy Ouch. Fresh Kep crab, prawns, seabass.

Mao Kanha and Phanha Kann, two Cambodians from Kep West, won over cocktail fans at Sora, Rosewood Phnom Penh, with three Kep-inspired drinks. Now served in Kep

Cambodian fighter Sam Tharoth describes her stay at Knai Bang Chatt in Kep: colour instead of grey, 1960s Khmer modernist rooms, and a sea view that kept her phone in her bag.

Cambodian bokator and MMA fighter Sam Tharoth describes her yoga session at the Kep West Wellness Center in Kep: mobility, breathing and a clear mind.

Certified Platinum under Green Growth 2050, alongside Anantara, St. Regis and Niyama: how an independent 18-room hotel clears 90 percent compliance. Compost, organic gardens, mangroves, marine protection with MCC.

The actress and MMA champion came to the Knai Bang Chatt to breathe. She left wondering how little she knew of her own coast — and thinking about what Jef Moons is trying to build there.

On the Saturday afternoon of World Wellness Weekend, the programme leaves the yoga mat and slips into the water. A slow kayak through one of the last intact mangrove systems on the Kep coast, with a planting stop along the way, is the moment the weekend turns from taking care of oneself to giving something back.

A wellness weekend is only as good as its dinners. From 18 to 20 September, the kitchens of The Wave and The Strand serve three vegetarian fine-dining menus built for the occasion — light enough to sleep on, generous enough to feel like an event, and rooted in a kitchen philosophy Kep West has held for years: balanced, local, and never copied from a book.

Most hotels add wellness. Knai Bang Chatt was wellness before the word meant anything — a handful of 1960s seaside villas designed to slow people down. When World Wellness Weekend opens on 18 September, the venue will not be adapting to the programme. The programme is simply a description of the venue.

On Friday 18 September 2026, as the light drops over the garden of Knai Bang Chatt, Lana Yang will strike the first of her Tibetan singing bowls to open World Wellness Weekend at Kep West Wellness. Behind that single, long note lies one of the oldest healing practices known to humanity — and one of the fastest-growing in the modern wellness world.

From 18 to 20 September 2026, Kep West Wellness turns the pier, the garden and the dining rooms of Knai Bang Chatt into a single, unhurried invitation: come and remember what it feels like to have nothing to do but breathe, move and eat well by the sea. Sunrise session on the Kep West pier There is a particular quality of light on the Kep coast just after six in the morning — soft, low, the colour of weak tea — and it is in this light that Kep West Wellness will open its firs

By the sea, three old villas built for a governor, a relative of the king and a senior customs official tell, between them, the whole fate of Kep: colonial splendour, the war that swallowed everything, then a patient rebirth carried by lovers of Khmer heritage. This is the story of Knai Bang Chatt.

At Knai Bang Chatt, we have never believed a stay begins the moment you arrive, or ends the moment you leave. It begins the first time Kep enters your imagination — and it continues long after, in the friendships, the artworks, and the quiet stretches of coastline you carry home with you.

This week, members of the Knai Bang Chatt and Kep West team travelled to Sonja Kill Memorial Hospital in Sihanoukville for a hands-on First Aid and Basic Life Support (BLS) training, building the skills to respond confidently in a real emergency.

In early August, the Kep West and Knai Bang Chatt teams took part in a hands-on sustainability training led by longtime partner Ecolab, focused on eco-responsible housekeeping and F&B operations.

Kep & Gastronomy: August Tides, Fresh Catch brings Kep's finest seafood to the table at Crab & Co

Just a few kilometres from Kampot, between pepper plantations and karst hills, a stretch of water carries a name that is both intriguing and misleading: the Secret Lake. Far from being a simple scenic spot, this man-made body of water holds the memory of a dark period in Cambodian history. Today, Kep West's Discovery Center runs kayak trips here, gliding silently between drowned trees and water lilies, through one of the most striking landscapes in the province.

On the southern coast of Cambodia, facing the sea that lines Kep Bay, three former private villas have become one of the most singular retreats in Southeast Asia. Here, nothing is decorative by chance: every jar, every wall, every light switch carries a story. This is the inside story of Knai Bang Chatt, told the way you might tell the story of a country.

Imported French bouchot mussels, white wine, herbs — and the fries that complete the picture.