Cambodia's Lost Coast

On Christmas Eve we crossed into Cambodia and spent two months traversing the wild Southwest frontier of this war-torn country, meeting crab fishermen living in bark huts, sex-tourists, at least one axe murderer and an eco-army paid by Angelina Jolie.  We traveled by kayak, jeep, bicycle, thumb, and every kind of boat; when there was no other way, we walked.  

We found very beautiful things and very ugly things, but the overwhelming impression we took away was one of impermanence.  Next Christmas, the coast we experienced will no longer exist.  By then, a hardtop road will cut through the jungle and oil companies will have begun drilling offshore.  On island beaches, newly trained resort staff will have swept away ashes of campfires lit by nomadic fishermen.  Some lives will get better; some lives will get worse.  People will have more things.