Travelogue
Who Killed Chea Vichea - 1 February 2012
US documentary film maker, Bradley Cox once said “hero” is one of the most over used words in the English language. Interviewed about his 55-minute documentary “Who Killed Chea Vichea” which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010, Cox commented “I don't know if I ever met an honest-to-goodness hero in the flesh until I met Chea Vichea.” Filmed over five years and following events as they happened, the documentary is seen as a gripping account of power and corruption, and the quiet resistance of a people facing overwhelming odds. The film has been put by Amnesty International on its list of the Top Ten Movies That Matter. To date, the film has not been allowed to screen in Cambodia. The film’s producers say the documentary is “probably the only time in the case of Cambodia, where a film follows a single emblematic event like this from start to finish, as it unfolds” and it’s strength they say, is that by focusing the film on a single example, the story comes down to the human level, “which is necessary because the power that the Cambodian regime wields works on the human level.” Chea Vichea was the leader of the Free Trade Union of Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia. On 22 January 2004 he was shot dead on a Phnom Penh street. His murder, the subsequent bungled police investigation and wrongful imprisonment for five years of two innocent men by a corrupt and incompetent judiciary has always left unanswered the question, who killed Chea
Hollywood in Cambodia - 16 January 2012
Cambodia has proved a challenge for film makers over the years. For most movie goers, the enduring cinematic image is that of Roland Joffe’s The Killing Fields, set during the Khmer Rouge era, though the film itself was shot entirely in Thailand, and slated for its Hollywood depiction of events.Other films however, did make it to the
The Curious Case of the Kings of Cambodia and the Kims of Korea - 7 January 2012
I’ve only set foot in North Korea once. It was cold, bleak, and I was surrounded by heavily-armed military-types with their eyes shielded by sunglasses, and they were just the South Koreans. On the surface of it, Cambodia and North Korea have little in common. Separated by distance, ideology, climate and language Cambodia has
Tourism in Cambodia - Palace Closed but Killing Fields Open - 12 December 2011
It was a Saturday morning and I cut down the short street from Preah Sisowath and Boulevard Samdech Sothearos to the Royal Palace, on the Phnom Penh riverside. From the side of the road the tuk-tuk driver asked where I was going. “Palace closed” he said “but Killing Fields open” and grinned.I have been to the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh once
Strength Through Oi - Cowboys and Expats in Cambodia - 30 November 2011
One of the interesting things about living in Cambodia is some of the expats you meet. There are some weird and some wonderful foreigners who have chosen, for a variety of reasons, to relocate to the self-styled Kingdom of Wonder. Some are here out of genuine love of the place. They’ve come here for everything that’s different about
The Museum of Bats - 20 November 2011
The National Museum of Cambodia sits along the western side of the large square in Phnom Penh also bordered by the Royal Palace, Street 178 and grand French colonial mansions near the Riverside on Boulevard Sothearos, not far from where the Tonie Sap River merges with the Bassac and Mekong rivers. It is the largest historical, cultural and
Return of the King - 8 November 2011
The Kingdom of Cambodia has the last remnant of royalty in the territories that were part of what was once known as French Indochina. The Emporer Bo Dai abdicated in Vietnam in 1945, and the communist Pathet Lao, ironically led by a former royal, had the entire Laos monarchy locked up in 1975. Cambodia is awash with public holidays
Takeo - Land of the Lobsters - 28 October 2011
Takeo Province lies to the south of the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh. To the north and east it borders with Kandal, to the west with the provinces of Kampong Speu and Kampot, and to the south with Vietnam. It has a predominantly rural population of almost one million, jammed into an area barely 3500 kilometres square. Takeo is often referred to
Water, Water Everywhere - 17 October 2011
Though situated miles inland the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh is dominated by water. Previously the city was known in Khmer as Krong Chaktomuk meaning "City of Four Faces". The name is derived from the “X” formed by the junction of the three rivers that meet in the capital; the Mekong, Bassac and Tonle Sap. Cambodian history too has been
