Modern Cambodia is a fearful place. When I say fearful I do not mean that it is without hope, it has that in the eyes of every young garment-worker with an iPhone, no I mean fearful of a return, a slip, back to the bad times.… Read More
… Read MoreThe first baby was born in a cave, or so they tell me. Probably some rocky outcropping near water in what is now the horn of Africa. The 1.8 million years since that first child fought it’s way into a harsh new world has softened things, made them safer and more survivable, but for parts of the world still struggling with modernity, some expectant mothers must not feel far removed from it.
… Read MoreWe meet bleary eyed at sunrise to board the convoy of rented minibuses that will ferry us through the bush to the wedding.
Anticipation is high, but first some of the worst roads in the world must be covered by our slightly tweaked bus driver.
Weddings. The merging of two lives. In the West it’s an expensive day that somehow manages to come off as cheap to everyone else. Paper napkins, disposable cameras, and the Funky Chicken. Vows are exchanged, fathers hide their tears, and little girls dance adorably atop their adult partners shoes.… Read More
Here, within sight of the beach and the hundreds of cheering onlookers it felt as if it might all unravel at the very end. The final hurdle of getting through the last line of breakers and on up to the sandbar seems impossible.… Read More
I’ve always known that a drowning man will pull down their rescuer to save themselves.
I understand it, that final animalistic will to live overriding everything else. At the time there is only that moment – survival or death. Guilt and judgement can come later, and from the safety of shore.… Read More
I’ve come-to lying on my back on the sand. The sky above is grey and the sound of the crashing waves is the only thing to be heard over the screams of a wailing mother.
I feel sick. Like I’ve just eaten at Golden Corral then climbed into a tumble dryer.… Read More
I always imagined saving a life would be a clean, heroic act. A trying moment after which one could, exhausted, bask in the praise of a job well done.
In practice, covered in my own vomit, and filled with unexpected guilt, I found myself unable to meet the hollow gaze of the young man I had just pulled from the sea.… Read More
‘At Mien Pleung.‘
So I can’t get a fruit shake?
It’s common enough to hear out here in rural Cambodia. Generally accompanied by an open hand, rotated at the wrist – the empty hand, held high for all to see, is a near universal Asian symbol for ‘don’t have’.… Read More
The temple complex at Preah Vihear is stunning. Not for the temple itself. No, that sort of grandeur comes from the behemoths of ancient architecture at Angkor Wat.
At only a mile long, Preah Vihear is dwarfed by the towering faces of Angkor, but they say sometimes it’s not the destination it’s the journey, and in this case it’s the truth.… Read More
She’s the ‘Squid Lady’, or Mūc Srey if you’re not into the whole ‘English’-thing. So that’s what you call her.
… Read More
My knees ache terribly. I feel like I’m nine again, crammed awkwardly into a tiny church pew. Instead of a Greek Orthodox priest yelling about damnation in a language I never understood I now have a plinth of brightly robed monks chanting at me about salvation in another.… Read More
The Wayward
There are only three M’s who travel to Asia. Missionaries, Mercenaries, and Malcontents. These are their stories.
‘Nick’, he says.
‘The thing about seventies porn was it looked like dang old every chick had Don King in a leglock’.… Read More
Kerfuffle n. (Cur-fuff-ul)
1. A small mishap or problem.
2. A collection of travelers, squares, freaks, hairies, dykes and fairies, setting off into the jungles of Cambodia in search of a place they have never been, yet inexplicably miss.… Read More
Psychologists say that the most common shared dream, aside from being naked in front of a crowd, is having your teeth fall out.
Herodotus believed that the dream portended death. It’s an easy allegory to make. The passing of time, … Read More
In the West you have to try very hard to be skinny. In Cambodia you have to try like hell to get fat.… Read More
The Khmer Rouge exploded on Cambodian culture like a nuclear bomb. Twenty years of freedom from France had created a bohemian pearl on the Mekong river. Film, music, art, all thrived under the mercurial playboy, Prince Norodom Sihanouk – nurturing them slowly back to life after a hundred years of French imperialism.… Read More
The recent Ebola outbreak in Western Africa has been in the news for almost a year now. More than long enough to filter out to the detached settlers of my small beach.… Read More
It’s 3am in Phnom Penh, and the street children have only just finished their soccer game beneath my window. I guess if you have no place to go when the street lights come on you just get to keep playing.… Read More
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