Angkor Wat is just one of the many temples spread across a huge area on the outskirts of the city of Siem Reep, Cambodia.  Although Angkor Wat temple seems to symbolize the area, it’s Ta Prohm temple which appears responsible for its fame through its starring roll in the movie Tomb Raider with Angelina Joli.

All the temples are truly amazing and this site is one of my favorite historic sites that I’ve seen.  If you do follow the tourist trail through the temples, you will find yourself distracted by the swarm of tourists snapping photos down narrow passage ways.  Rounding one corner I was growled at by a Japanese man taking a photo, so I gave him some time before I walked through and was growled at again.  I finally turned to him and asked him if he wanted to see a repeat of WWII (Kidding!).  The good news;  If you want to avoid the crowds you can simply check out some of the temples off the trail which are just as fascinating and the absence of tourists can make them far more enjoyable.

The history of the site is relatively unknown.  Some say battles between then Siem’s and the Burmese led to the cities downfall.  Others claim the land was stripped of all its resources making it uninhabitable.  As with most ancient abandoned cites, I’m sure it’s a combination of the two.  The city which had an estimated population of 1 million depended on a complex yet vulnerable water management system of canals and reservoirs and it was attacked many times throughout history.

Whatever the reason, I’m glad it was abandoned.  If it wasn’t, it would look like every other modern city with a few crumbling ruins left behind.  See the remains of the Bulgarian medieval city wall in the food court of a mall and you’ll know what I mean.

To see the Temples:  Most hire a tuk tuk for $15 to drive them to the most popular sites for the day.  Many opt to see the sunrise which means an early 4:45am departure from your hostel/ guesthouse, but it is well worth it because it’s pretty, and you can get a jump on the lazier tourists and the afternoon heat.  Entry is $20 for one day or $40 for a three days pass.

I took a ton of photos here and had to learn how to make the albums below so I wouldn’t take up the whole site.

Well it looks like I was wrong.  Thankfully!  My clip of “Drunk Kid Catches Face on Fire” didn’t do anything special.  So I’m back to spending way too much time editing a 30 second clip together.  This is Tex and Dave flipping out in Cambodia.  The footage is theirs, the editing was mine and the awesome tune is by Matt Brown – “Slow Down (Coastal Mix)”.  Matt’s Website.

A clear plastic bottle was knocked around in the waves among the cans of Angkor and bottles of whiskey from the previous nights bonfire on the Island of Ko Ta Kiev.  The bottle stood out because the label had been cleanly ripped off and a faded note had been stuck inside.  The note was from a couple traveling between the islands of Koh Pha Ngan and Ko Tao, Thailand about 250 miles away.  All the note asked for was an email to let them know who found it and where, but I wondered if they were looking for much more.  Maybe hoping the bottle found a place where the lonely planet hadn’t built cities full of tourists, where the sounds of waves haven’t been replaced with blaring techno beats.  If so, the bottle had come to the the right place, but I wasn’t going to waste my time or theirs telling them where.  There’s a reason why.

Originally I traveled from a Mini version Bangkok, Phenom Pen Cambodia, where people travel for hundreds of miles to see the Killing Fields of the Khmer Rouge regime and party in clubs where the only females are westerners or prostitutes.  Heading south I avoided the coastal city of Serendipity which ironically means “pleasant surprise” as most run away after one night of stepping over 20 something year olds throwing up in the surf.  About 15 minutes south there’s Otres, a quiet stretch of beach run primarily by a laid back community of expats where you can relax and buy a beer or a joint for a dollar.

Sitting at the hostel on Otres beach, which is more like a wooden structure with a roof and soft padded bowl chairs, a pretty blond Danish girl that resembles Sal from “The Beach” walked in (Birdy).  After a friendly chat we made rough plans to travel to one of the islands off the coast together.  These islands are several tiny islands that you won’t hear about until you get close to them.  All I knew is they are apparently what the Thai island used to be.

A few mornings later I wake up for the 8am boat with a pounding headache and “the fear” (the fear of what you did the night before) because of an argument with a canadian girl (Quebec).  I give myself 20 minutes to decide if I can stomach packing a bag and jumping on a boat.  I think, fuck it.

On the boat I realize the night of drinking grew our island crew from three people to eleven.  Four guys and seven girls total, not a bad ratio on a deserted island.

A boat ride to the island typically cost about $12 dollars per person each way, but we found a way to book a day boat trip with breakfast, lunch, drop off and pick up from the island the next day for $12 each.  On the island we grabbed the only two bungalows available and a decaying two story tree house chained to several trees 20 feet in the air for $5 a piece.

Once settled in on the island the hangover waned enough to get a bearing on the situation and to realize where I was.  Ko Ta Kiev, an empty island off the coast of Cambodia, with white sand beaches, clear turquoise water,and a few bungalows, the infamous absinthe distillery and our crew of backpackers.  The Beach 2 began.

The day was filled with laying around, swimming, making Angkor Watt sand castles, improv’d games of baseball and throwing fruits at bottles for points.  Among the crew there was a beautiful tan Canadian girl (Mel) that was the only appropriate character for my girlfriend in the The Beach 2, but unfortunately, like the first movie she had a good looking French speaking boyfriend who was also good at soccer (Tebo).

That night we started a bonfire, drank whiskey, beer, played games that had many people stripped of their clothes and swam in the ocean lit by swarms of glowing plankton into the early morning.  A night so serene and amazing, all we could do is fight time to keep it from slipping away.

After finally surrendering to exhaustion I woke up on the second floor of the tree house looking over the ocean with the only trace of the previous night, a sand pit with a few smoldering  coals, a makeshift sign that read “The Bitch” (clearly a misspelling) and a few bottles one of which included “the note”.

So why wouldn’t I tell the couple who wrote the note about this paradise?  Because by the time they would get there, the island wouldn’t be.  In one month the bungalows on the island have been instructed to shut down to make way for a Chinese casino that has leased the island for 99 years.  But, I’m not mad.  What made our time together on the island so special wasn’t the people or the island.  It was our individual pursuit to find something more.  A pursuit that has brought us through hell and back.  Endless nights on sleeper trains, through hostels, venturing thousands of miles in aggressive pursuit of the unknown for the mere possibility that a night like ours would happen, and when it did it was magical.  That’s what made our night special.  The only way anyone will find that is by searching themselves.

Right as I was falling out of love with the idea that backpacking is about “finding yourself”, I stumbled across this gem;

“Life is not about finding yourself.  Life is about creating yourself.”

There’s a fine line in the media world between creating interesting content and hurting the very people who made it possible.  What started as a conversation with a bartender on the quiet beach of Otres in South Western Cambodia, quickly evolved in to a wild story about the Khmer New Year.  What should have stayed as a great story to share among travelers quickly evolved into a nightmare to all those involved… thanks to a journalist.

Here’s the story on VICE.com:  “OUR ABSINTHE ORGY ON A CAMBODIAN ISLAND MADE THE SPIRITS MAD”

On the island there is a small Absinthe distillery that is rumored to make the strongest Absinthe in the world (High alcohol and lots of wormwood).  The island is so small there isn’t much in the way accommodations, so many rely on a campground for a good nights sleep.

Take island camping, lots of alcohol, a reason to celebrate and top it off with people on vacation, what do you get… Obviously a quiet night with a good book (or, maybe drinking and sex).  Throw in a journalist with bad intentions and you get this article, with teachers and travelers fearing for their future (this journalist friended one of the people on Facebook and grabbed their names from a photo with everyone tagged.  Some were able to get their names removed).

I’m not even going to get into the article because there is so much embellishment anyone reading it can see she had a motive.  What I will say is it is a shame that some lack the creativity to entertain and inform without sacrificing the very people who helped them.

Although, just in case I missed something, I think it is my journalistic responsibility to go and check out this island’s Absinthe sex orgy myself.   See you in a few days.

PS.  Read about how the full moon party got started… I wonder if in a few years people will flock to this island in a similar way for the “Absence ‘Org’anization Party” with full moons lining up and down the beach… just remember you read it here first.

Not much has happened in the past few weeks…  Had Christmas, had New Years, saw temples, museums, fell in love, got caught in love triangle, watched gang fight, got dragged out of bar because of friends actions, got chased by 20 eight year olds going for my wallet, chased by transexual prostitutes going for same wallet, got off motor scooter that crashed two minutes later… pretty quiet and typical.  Because not much has been going on, here’s an awesome video to kill some time.  Creative, entertaining and filmed by a friend of the owner of the “Wish you were here” hostels on Otres Beach Cambodia.  It’s also one of my favorite travel shorts.  Enjoy!

“Move”.