Some of you may recall my first review of a Glenn Wool comedy presentation, done last year when Mr. Wool visited the Kingdom of Wonder for the first time. I use the term “review” loosely when describing that particular piece of writing because it wasn’t a review so much as…
The body of former king Norodom Sihanouk was cremated last Monday. It was quite a momentous occasion, and although a supposed one million people lined the streets when his body was repatriated from Beijing in October, the funeral procession attracted far fewer people. Many streets were blocked off and it…
This documentary follows the lives of Srey Leak, Cheata and Mey Nea, three young sex-workers in the capital. Working in a huge up-market karaoke parlor by night or streetwalking, and living in a decrepit room in a slum the rest of the time, it portrays a life that very few…
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 pavement for almost the first time outside of their fancy…
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 day “It must have been great taking acid and running…
A lot of people here in Cambodia judge others by their cars and vehicles. Many do this going by checking the model and year, and I guess it colors my thinking too, but I go more by behavior, and the value of the car rarely has a direct relation to…
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 of infrastructure built under the French protectorate. The first buildings…
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 there aren’t so many opportunities for wildlife. Of course, like…
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 to say was the simple: “Don’t let it get to…
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 I first had an opportunity to visit in 1996, I…
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