Way Out of the Office

For the next month I’ll be exploring the coast of Koh Kong province in Southwestern Cambodia with Ryan Libre. This is one of the most remote areas of Southeast Asia, so don’t expect posts until around January 15th, when we hope to reach Sihanoukville.

As regular readers know, this is a trip that Ryan and I have been planning for some time. It wasn’t until last week, however, that our little expedition took on a new sense of urgency. Oil and gas fields have just been discovered off the Cambodian coast. This would be big news anywhere, but it is of existential importance to impoverished Cambodia. How the oil bonanza plays out will be crucial to the future of the Khmer people, but one thing is already certain: Cambodia’s lost coast is about to change.

Happy Holidays to all. For friends expecting my usual naked Christmas card, abject apologies, but I’ve been too busy traveling this year. You’ll have to make do with the digital version above, taken on Koh Tonsay, near the border between Cambodia and Vietnam.