Over the past decade I have spent at least five months a year traveling through China, Vietnam, Burma, Cambodia, India, Thailand, Laos and Southeast Asia collecting eastern antiquities such as furniture, textiles, Buddha images, Hill tribe artifacts and anything old and unusual I find along the way. As a compulsive traveler and collector, the task of searching Asia for unusual antiques and bringing them back to my gallery in New York has given me the ultimate job. Having recorded my travels, I finally decided it was time to share some of my experiences.

My name is Mark Calafatello and I am the owner of EMR Imports, we specialize in Asian antiques.

 

 

On my first trip to Cambodia I met a man named Claude in Sihanoukville and we became instant friends. He owns a restaurant and a few very nice bungalows overlooking the ocean, which I highly recommend. Claude is an adventurous spirit and has many toys not readily available in Cambodia, like an ultralite for example. One afternoon we rented beat up off road motorcycles and blasted down wiped out logging roads to a waterfall. On another day we rented a local boat and went scuba diving. Claude also brought along a chef from his restaurant who prepared an extraordinary lunch while we were exploring the sea. I am sad to report that the scuba was uneventful, but the freshly prepared lunch on an uninhabited island has stuck in my mind ever since. The future plan in my mind was to travel up the coast of Cambodia camping on islands along the way up to the Thailand border.

 
  After seeing the beauty of the coast and the lack of any type of development I dreamed of exploring some of the uninhabited islands. In January 2001, I was finally able to put together an island adventure on the coast of Cambodia. I was traveling with a group of ten friends, which made this dream even more fun. After provisioning a large wood boat with hammocks, coolers full of food and beer on ice, we headed out to find our own private island. The most anticipated provision was a 15-kilo pig that we were planning on roasting as soon as we found an island to camp on.
I had included scuba gear for all of us in the hold of the boat under the deck, just in case we found a suitable spot. After a few hours of traveling quite slowly on an old wood boat, we decided to try our luck at finding a sandy spot to land the boat. This turned out to be quite a difficult task, at least for us, and we had to try a few before finding a suitable island. Roo Buckley, a friend who luckily happen to be a certified world class chef, had hand selected our pig early that morning and we began to dig a pit for the fire. We wrapped it in banana leaves, dressed it with spices and buried it in the coals. I was envisioning scenes from The Lord of the Flies as we enjoyed a feast later on that night.  
  The following day we took our boat around the island and found a village on the opposite side. So much for uninhabited! We stopped and found a restaurant, markets for food and some professional services. Here we were hours away from anywhere and we pick an island that has a barber and a dentist. So, naturally we all decided to get haircuts and shaves. It didn’t take long for us to be at the center of activity in the village. I am sure the fact that we were singing and playing guitars was an added feature. I am happy to report that the dentist was nowhere to be found and therefore unable to provide any services, but we were all clean shaven with fresh haircuts.
Later we returned to have a meal and set up tables on the dock. We started becoming a problem for the local authorities who, no doubt, did not want all the commotion in an otherwise very quiet place. Claude was instrumental in making sure that we didn't overstay our welcome. The village was so small that by being there we overpopulated it. After dinner on the dock we took the boat back to our side of the island and met some musicians who had heard that we were playing music earlier that day. They found our campsite and were waiting for us to return. All of the musicians pulled out their guitars and we sang American and Cambodian songs for most of the night.  
  Our final destination was the border of Thailand. I have done this crossing before and knew that it is very primitive. Passing a wood shack on the Cambodian side with uniformed men cooking inside, walking up a muddy beachfront you arrive at immigration with a gate into Thailand. The plan was to clear customs and get permission for our boat to drop us off on a remote Thai island not far from the crossing. There is a weekly ferry that goes to this island, which makes it difficult to visit. By being dropped off by our boat we could check it out for a few days and take the local ferry back saving us days and a few hassles. Once we passed our passports to the Thai officials for entry and explained our request things got a little dicey. We were told that our journey would require permission from officials who had to be called so we had some fruit and waited. We had no other choice since our passports were in the hands of the Thai officials.
It was here that the animosity between the two countries really showed itself. We were asked for the boat's papers, which no one could read, as they were written in Khmer, the language of Cambodia. None of this would have mattered except the closing time for the boarder was near. Eventually we gave up on bringing the boat, and the Thai officials got bored of punishing us for our ridiculous request, and we walked into Thailand.  
    Thanks for stopping by, I hope that you've enjoyed reading about my adventures in Cambodia as much as I enjoyed having them! If you'd like to hear more and see more visit us at EMR and explore more of my Asian adventures.