One person's impressions of a Koh Rong visit in 2015.

Spiralling Down the Rabbit Hole Of Paradise Lost and Ketamine Spiders
Pietro Buzzanca 18 May 2017

I cross the border from Thailand into Cambodia, and after a sleeper bus shared with Canadians popping Valiums as if they were jelly beans, I am on a speed boat headed to the island of Koh Rong.

The boat docks. All the passengers are herded to X bungalows, where we are shortly briefed on a few fun facts about Koh Rong, like the presence of snakes, and the hours at which the generators stop running, cutting electricity on the island. Then I hunt for a room. I go cheap, a tad too cheap, so I spend my first night sleeping in a shack overlooking the garbage dump. The bedsheets stink of someone else’s tropical sweat.

I wake up the next day, change room, and start getting my bearings. I find out that Bar X. is a drug bar, where you can get your choice of psychotropic substances, and that most businesses on the island hire backpackers as staff in exchange for food, board, and free booze. Some even throw in a space cookie and a bag of weed every quarter.

Koh Rong is street drugs paradise, and as soon as the sun starts setting, dilated pupils take over...

There are some pretty funny quotes from the messed up people he meets.

“On this island, you are either high, drunk, sleeping, fucking or on your way to do one of those things…I love chocolate, I love cheese too. I love to take bites from a cheese block and put it back in the fridge, my mum always gets mad at me when I do that at home…”

CEOCambodiaNews wrote: ↑Fri May 19, 2017 3:48 pmThe bedsheets stink of someone else’s tropical sweat.

Sure, tell yourself that - it's sweat. Mrs Stroppy and I were having to pick the "sweat" off the provided sheets on a sleeper train in Vietnam a few years ago. You never forget.

koh wrong

frank lee bent wrote: ↑Fri May 19, 2017 4:48 pm koh wrong

What could possibly?

Username Taken wrote: ↑Fri May 19, 2017 7:06 pm

frank lee bent wrote: ↑Fri May 19, 2017 4:48 pm koh wrong

What could possibly?

In the Kingdom of Wonder (Why)?

frank lee bent wrote: ↑Fri May 19, 2017 4:48 pm koh wrong

Yet it sounds koh right.

A Cambodian night watchman emerges from the darkness. We are inside a resort, keeping the guests awake. He shouts

“You are no good to me if you stay here! You loud! Go away!”

We gather our things while the man keeps on shouting at us. He is aggressive. From behind the tree line, two more Cambodians emerge, their faces covered by a balaclava. They have teasers and they are making them crackle. In the night, we can see the blue sparks. One of them is holding a machete, reminding us that Cambodia was a conflict zone until the early nineties and that most people past their thirties has witnessed a genocide.

That sounds fairly ominous.

I think we all know there are druggies, alkies & idiots all over Cambodia, just have to hope they quickly kill themselves, and allow the decent people to enjoy their travelling.

StroppyChops wrote:

CEOCambodiaNews wrote: ↑Fri May 19, 2017 3:48 pmThe bedsheets stink of someone else’s tropical sweat.

Sure, tell yourself that - it's sweat. Mrs Stroppy and I were having to pick the "sweat" off the provided sheets on a sleeper train in Vietnam a few years ago. You never forget.

Hawt.