DESTINATION CAMBODIA

Walter's back with his lively and perceptive take on one of the world's hottest travel destinations.

From the rich tropical city of Phnom Penh, the wonders of Ankor Wat, the oddly loveable country town of Kampot to Sihanoukville named after the movie-directing and womanising former King, Walter takes the reader on another colourful adventure in one of the world’s hottest new destinations. With his friends Simon, a taxi-driver and unlikely middle-aged gigolo, and Lan, a leggy Vietnamese transsexual, he explores Phnom Penh’s underworld. He seeks out his old friend Pek, who has mysterious scars, in amongst the Chinese merchants and the proprietors of Vietnamese coffee houses and Khmer restaurants. Resting in the bars and cafes that line the banks of the river, he notes the strong French influence from a colonial past. Walter attempts to gain an introduction to the bachelor King, once a ballet dancer, whose mother Queen Monique is a former film star and Eurasian beauty. He also befriends Mak Suong, a gifted young writer who has scandalised Cambodian society with a racy and wildly popular new novel about the lives of gay men in Phnom Penh. After exploring the extraordinarily vibrant Khmer hip-hop scene, founded by expatriate Cambodian gangsters deported from American prisons, Walter retreats to the cool courtyard of Wat Koh, an enormous Buddhist monastery in the centre of Phnom Penh, with his friends – both monks. Sim is a big and buffoonish country bumpkin who flirts with girls who come to visit and dreams of leaving the monastery to marry. While morose and constantly brooding, Sakol unloads his troubles to Walter, revealing how he is haunted by the demons of war, cruelty and murder from Cambodia’s dark past. Walter Mason's distinctive voice, knowledge of Cambodia and wicked sense of humour meet in this riotous celebration of a remarkable and resilient nation, which has become a great tourist destination. Walter has several blogs, gives regular talks and has a strong feel for popular travel writing as shown in his previous book Destination Saigon.