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


At Mien Pleung.
hands6

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

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

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

1903, Coney Island, New York. The worlds first snuff film.

A crowd has gathered at the unfinished Luna Amusement Park. The salt air off the beach mixes with the smell of taffy and fresh popcorn. The audience has been promised a sight … 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 was optimistic. I’ll grant you that. The idea that one could take a city moto, more often used by teenage girls to ride around taking selfies, anywhere REAL was laughable.… 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

The road is a blur.

Mountains, rivers, and endless jade-green rice paddies whip by at 70 clicks an hour. Pause to slowly work your way through a herd of water buffalo and then punch it.… Read More

Three months in and the strangeness of Asia has not gotten to me in the way I had figured.  Sure, they call limes lemons, eat dog, and drink beer with ice, but at the end of the day that’s not enough to trigger the homesickness I had prepared for.… Read More

As far back as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to be a gangster.… Read More

Continued from ‘Easy Rider’

The plan was vague, but the ingredients were all there; motorcycles, asian-chicks, questionable meats.  I had no solid plan of attack, little bankroll, and no wingman (or wing-woman, I’m an equal opportunity adventurer and as far as I know menstrual cycles don’t have the same effect on tigers as it does bears).… Read More

Bangkok Thailand, wretched den of vice and iniquity.

Even for those who have never been it conjures images of leering sex tourists and neon drenched prostitutes hanging lazily from the railings of go go bars.… Read More

One of the earliest memories I have of my father is a bedside chat at about the age of 8.

In it he outlined the paths that one’s life can take and how they are often vast and varied. That over the course of a man’s life he may try his hand at many things, some successful, others not.… Read More

Responding to his ad in the middle of the night I found my revolutionary-looking friend, Mr.Ulyanov, was staying only a block away. … Read More

Vietnamese coffee could be used as rocket fuel.

As I write this I can barely keep my caffeine addled fingers steady enough to type and yet they’re so good I’ll probably order another one.  A carryover from the French occupation (1859-1954)… Read More

Never trust a fart in southeast Asia. Wish I’d have heard that little gem sooner.

They say you’re never more humble than when, as an adult, you shit your pants.  Well ladies and gentlemen, I stand before you today as humble as the Buddha himself.… Read More