New year rave parties

I have to say that it was fucking excellent. The techno was the best ever and i dont expect to hear music that good again in cambodia. The venue was brilliant. Loads of little rooms and starnge places to explore.All my respect goes to the people who put it on and everyone whomade the effort to go.

SPECT

LIBS

Wow.. I hate to post a reply in such contrast to the glowing post of Liberty, but…I fucking HATED IT!Despite all my friends deciding not to go, and all my colleagues warning me it was going to be a purely Khmer Playboy affair (no offense intended to you PB), I still went.I arrived quite early, about 8pm. The first DJ (Dave I believe), played a rocking set of Drum n Bass. After midnight it went down hill fast. The music after midnight was complete ASS. Although I was pilling off my head, I was still not enjoying myself, and spent a lot of time with my eyes closed imagining all the fun things I could be doing if I was back in Phnom Penh. I kept making up scenarios of escape and a return to PP, but then was mentally devasted to realise none if it was possible due to my remote location.I was sorry I went.

The location, of course, was spectacular. Visually, the buildings make for a perfect rave location.

Unfortunately the temperature..measured on my motorbike as 10 degrees Celsius, and the extremely high velocity winds, were a complete downer, leaving punters trapped inside the building.

The organisers clearly cheaped out on both lighting and sound equipment, which was disappointing. Im sure they cheaped out on Dj’s too, judging by the quality of the tunes being played.

I counted about 30 foreigners there, the rest all being Khmers. There was definitely a danger element present. Anytime me or my friends went into our pockets for candy, we would be followed and casually surrounded by Khmers. It was quite threatening, yet nothing happened, as we changed locations and joined groups… We organised teams of people to go out to urinate together, because of the shady characters spending their night following barangs around, waiting for an oppurtune moment to do something. Going outside (into the freezing cold winds) to go to the toilet alone was an intimidating thought.

I remember long ago when the Bokor party was 80% foreigners, and 20% Khmers. This last party was probably about 5% foreigners..10% at the max, including organisers (who made a killing on overpriced drinks.. $1 for a bottle of water!!!)

I couldnt wait to leave, and was happy to buy my way into a car of sleeping Khmers and get off the mountain by 5am. The party was so fucked, I actually stopped taking candy, cos I deemed it to be a waste of candy for the location…

Even to those who chose to camp outside in wind proof tents, they got to witness the scrub being set alight by Khmers shooting fireworks into the dry bushland.. much to the disdain of the rangers you had to put out the fires. Also was the Khmers on the roof of the buildings shooting their guns into the air…

Even though I hooked up with a few friends there, on the whole I felt unsafe, and felt the party was lacking both vibe and quality.
This IS to be expected though. Last year the organisers were walking around town for days sweating, handing out brochures, and I acknowledge the effort Pierre went to in promoting it… it was a great job he did. Conversely, this year, promotion was virtually non existent, with a less than surprising outcome.

It would be a miracle if I attended another one, mainly out of fear of having another party the same.

Oh… Liberty.. let me know if I have picked you right… by your strong positive opinion of the night I am guessing you are the guy who was CONSTANTLY rockin on the dance floor, looking quite pilled up..in a jacket, with a cream coloured slouch hat… right?

yep that was me!Im glad sby has given thier views even if they are opposing.Im a big fan of techno so that could be part of the reason that i enjoyed it. I did get the feeling that people were trying to rob me and i did notice the amount of dodgy characters but that just reminded me of the type of parties i attended in London so added to my enjoyment.I felt like i was walking on the fucking moon so i kept dancing to ensure i didnt get cold and it worked.The drive home was a bit dangerous but i managed to miss all the multicolored sea creatures that flew past.

I’ll be there next year with bells on.

Actually this Playboy was there.I was the tall dark handsome fellow with a Herculean physique that parachuted naked from the helicopter at midnight.Err, actually, are we talking about the same party ??

“We, the sons of John Company, have arrived”

Bokor is pish. I can’t believe i risked my life going up that evil hill in the oldest car with the worst driver in the world to look at an old dilapidated building. Shite in a bag. There was some celtic football club grafitti on it though that made me smile. The techno and drugs might have made it better but from Seuss’s account of the Khmers following him, feeling unsafe etc i reckon it wouldn’t have been worth the hassle.

by hanky » Tue Jan 04, 2005 9:47 pm