Tag Archives: dermot sheehan
Last Orders for Phnom Penh’s Drunkest Vietnam Veteran
Well he came home from the war with a party in his head and an idea for a fireworks display and he knew that he’d be ready with a stainless steel machete and a half a pint of Ballentine’s each…
In the Cambodian Clink
Imagine a place so filthy, infested and decrepit that the Khmer Rouge didn’t want to use it as one of their torture chambers, so used it instead as a pigpen. That place was T3 prison, one of the first pieces…
An Irishman, a Screwdriver and a Phnom Penh Rat
As you might expect in a sweltering tropical climate, creatures of all sorts abound here. The city center is a bit barren; it has plenty of trees but not much else as most ground is built on or paved and…
Comparing Cambodia
At a moment of huge frustration a few months back, I asked a work colleague and old friend for some advice, something I unfortunately have never really done, and besides I’ve never listened to anyone’s advice anyway. All he had…
Phnom Penh: My First Visit in 1999
I first heard about Cambodia when I was very young, it was in crisis and I learned about it through various films we were shown in school and also via the kids’ show Blue Peter money-drives on the TV. Although…
Street Fighting Techniques in Cambodia
I have only witnessed a handful of street fighting incidents or violence in my decade here in Cambodia. A couple were simply mentally unstable people going off, like one night near Psah Kandal where a guy was swinging around a…
Gawping at Death in Cambodia
I saw my first corpse at the age of about five. One of the local teens, who I knew to hang out with, and who I remember sometimes making a bit of a ruckus with his friends at night, was…
Phnom Penh Pet Peeves
Many people arrive on these shores and feel instantly enamored by the place, and as they settle in are often ‘rosy-eyed’ and forgiving towards any unfamiliar customs or behavior they encounter. It is only far later, when everything becomes commonplace…
Kien Svay Waterpark
Out to Kien Svay for the first time in quite a while, I kept looking for the giant spires of the unfinished pagoda that had taken ten or more years to construct. I never spotted it, just the usual places…
Phnom Penh Pathos Part 1
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Wild Turkey Man was a real grifter: he had some great tricks going. He’d hit the front of the palace running at 7.25 sharp, just as the first tourist coaches arrived. Wow, were those guys green, they’d just hit Cambodian…