Vannah spoke in a low, hoarse voice, pausing occasionally out of deference to my hurried scratching of notes on a tattered piece of receipt paper. We had met in the Mekong Crossing for a drink, and were huddled around my usual table in the back sipping from cans of beer and leaning close, exchanging conspiratorial whispers. The globe lights cast ( Read more... )

Cambodia is a fascinating country. To visit here would be a wonderful thing, to see Angkor Wat in Siem Riep, to stroll through Phnom Pehn, perhaps even to come out here, to sleepy Kompong Cham to see the temples and meet the friendly locals. It is a place of wonders, excitement and smiles ( Read more... )

One meets interesting characters in the Mekong Crossing, a place I have come to think of as "Joe's Bar" rather than its official name. I had retired there after my interesting and disasterous moto driver excesses, and had sipped gin as the sun set slowly over the river, sinking reluctantly into the horizen as if it longed to stay upon its cloud- ( Read more... )

Well now, that was a Cambodian experience. I think I am too drunk to write of it with coherency and skill, but I will attempt it anyway, in the interests of posterity. It is barely six in the evening and already all fucked up ( Read more... )

I was sitting at the bar last night with Joe and a Belgian fellow, sipping our beers slowly and smoking Ara cigarettes, when conversation turned to Cambodian driving. Cambodian driving is quite a thing to behold, as here it is not so much about the journey, it is all about the destination ( Read more... )

I was enjoying a meaty breakfast of fresh greens, fried beef and refried instant noodles this morning with my friend Kahn, and watching the TV out of the corner of my eye. It was showing some montage of Thai boxing, and I was vaguely interested, but then it changed to Cambodian music videos (all helpfully decked out with Khmer script subtitles for ( Read more... )

Yesterday my compatriot Steven and I woke with the sun to prepare for our journey to Phnom Pehn, the capital city of Cambodia. We performed our morning ablutions mostly in silence and dressed with the grave air of men about to embark on a mission of monumental significance ( Read more... )

Yesterday was a bleak foray into aural hell. The Cambodian revelry of the previous morning was but a pale shadow of the astonishing sonic landscape carved into the night by enormous speakers and megaphones that Steven and I endured with strained expressions and throbbing heads as we lay abed last night ( Read more... )

Yesterday was an interesting day. Steven took off work an hour early and came to meet me here at Cham House. We strolled to the local Star Mart to purchase soda and cigarettes, and I bought a condom named "Mr Happy's Hat" which prominantly features what appears to be a happy smiling condom. If it did not cost $50 to ship a package out of Cambodia, ( Read more... )