Travelogue
The Walkabout Bar and Hotel in Phnom Penh - Dark and Dingy Does It - 29 October 2014
The Walkabout Bar and Hotel in Phnom Penh is somewhat of an expat institution, albeit a rather seedy one. Some might say it’s got character of sorts, with the majority of its regular patrons usually fitting a particular stereotype. Spending time in there can be an interesting exercise in people watching, though it pays not to make eye contact with many of the customers. The men don’t want to be noticed and the women, mainly Vietnamese prostitutes, take a glance as an open invitation for business.The bar has been referred to as “Cambodia’s sleaziest bar” but that’s a bit unfair, besides there are other more deserving contenders for that title. Others refer to it as “a good honest den of iniquity open 24 hours” and “probably the Penh's dodgiest western bar”. While still others have said it’s as an UNTAC bar still sporting much of the same ambience, a reference no doubt to the bar’s origins when thousands of UN-personnel descended on a war-ravaged and poverty-stricken nation with dollars to burn.The Walkabout brands itself as “the only place in town serving ice cold beer and great food 24 hours a day, 7 days a week” but that’s not true. The Pickled Parrot does that also but it’s not a dive. Like Martinis and Candy Bar, the Walkabout is full of “taxi-girls” and often pudgy expats casting furtive glances about the place. The décor resembles a grimy railway station or police holding cell, and is probably best not viewed under a strong light. Dark and dingy does it
War Remnants Museum in HCMC - 29 September 2014
The War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City is a somewhat harrowing experience. The displays and images are a sobering reminder of Vietnam’s recent violent history and demonstrate what belligerent industrial nations can do to largely peasant ones. They record a raft of human emotion, suffering, persecution and orchestrated destruction from
Reunification Palace - The Dragon's Head - 31 August 2014
Near the centre of present day Ho Chi Minh City sits the Reunification Palace, a relic of Vietnam’s more recent past and a symbol of its present, and probably future too. HCMC, or Saigon as it’s still widely referred to, has many iconic buildings. There’s Notre Dame Cathedral, City Hall, the Opera House and the wonderful Central Post Office
Sihanoukville on the Costa del Cambodia - 1 August 2014
In an attempt to avoid going stir-crazy in Phnom Penh, you can take a bus to Sihanoukville, Cambodia’s only deep-sea port and leading beach resort area on the Gulf of Thailand. The French named it Sihanoukville, the Cambodians Kampong Som. Some expats refer to it as “Snooky” and others, largely Anglophiles, refer to it as the
Chiang Mai - Rose of the North - 4 July 2014
In the far north of Thailand sits the city they call the Rose of the North. Foreign tourists have been travelling there for years, its history however, runs far deeper than that. Chiang Mai sits at the confluence of cultures. The past and present, has been dictated by ethnicity, culture, language, trade, war, religion and empire. Chiang Mai
Getting the Travel Blues - 31 May 2014
One of the best things about travelling used to be the people you met doing the same things you were. Some of the most interesting people I’ve met in life have been those out there, where your lives intersect. As Jack Kerouac pointed out; travel is useful, it feeds the mind.Travellers' meetings can be those in which one learns more about
Jim Thompson and the Order of the White Elephant - 7 May 2014
When I first visited Jim Thompson’s house a decade ago, I was already much taken with the idea of living in Asia. After seeing the house I was sure I wanted to return. I was envious of Thompson and what he had created, a farang in Asia living his dream, comfortably off. There was also Thompson’s murky past as a WWII operative, full of intrigue
Letter to the Jakarta Post - April 2014
I travel widely in Southeast Asia and recently visited Indonesia after an absence of several years. I was disappointed with the state of tourist infrastructure at the budget end compared with other countries in the region. In particular hotels are of poor quality and overpriced. For 250,000 rupiah (US$27) in Vietnam, Thailand or Cambodia you
Anti-Government Protests in Bangkok - Taking It To The Streets
On Sunday, 22 December 2013, Thailand’s opposition parties staged major demonstrations in the country’s capital designed to disrupt traffic and tell the government they wanted major reform of government processes. The crowds promised to be among the largest ever assembled in the history of the Kingdom. They had already announced they would be
