Dervala Doesn't Stay At The Hilton

Dervala kicks off my September Best Bloggers Honor Roll. She's my September 1 Blogger of the Day.

If you haven't read much of Dervala Hanley's blog and I tell you she does a lot of travelling and is one of the best travel writers I've ever read, you might think she stays where the rest of us stay. But, boy oh boy, would you be wrong.

The first buildings turned out to be abandoned villas that were once owned by King Sihanouk, part of a complex called the Black Palace. Now they were completely gutted. Everything had been stripped and sold during the famine, and only the walls and marble floor tiles were left. They were pocked with bullet holes and covered with graffiti. Even the shell, though, still looked ready for Architectural Digest—some French playboy's villa on a mountain, with a magnificent terrace that looked all the way down to the sea. The sun was sinking behind the pines and miles away we could see little boats head out into the Gulf of Thailand for the night's fishing.

Here's more of her amazing night camping in a palace.