Francois Bizot worked in Cambodia as a young Frenchman in the 1960s and 1970s. An ethnologist employed by the Angkor Conservation Office, he restored ceramics and bronzes from the temples and researched Buddhism. He lived in a village near Angkor Wat with his Cambodian partner and their infant daughter when, in 1971, he was captured … More The Gate
Sar Kheng has been the Minister of the Interior for Cambodia, and the Deputy Prime Minister, since his communist Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) lost the election in 1993. You did not mis-read that. I did say “lost”. At a cost of $2 billion to the international community via a heavy United Nations presence during 1992 … More Khmer Rouges Visits Australia
As a tourist in Cambodia you get a one month visa upon arrival, with the option to renew for another month before you are required to leave the country. My time to exit the country was due next week and this was playing on my mind. Then last week one of the orphans was summonsed … More Malaysian Musings
Just a quick funny to demonstrate the service you sometimes receive here. Most if not all of the wait staff in restaurants along the riverfront in Kampong Cham are young villagers who have been employed because they have some level of English, which can range from a skerrick to fluent. They earn between $80 to … More Cambodian Rosë
Every day of the year seems to be dedicated to the awareness of an issue, even an International Day of the Toilet! Which is not as ridiculous as it sounds given that billions of people do not have a toilet and are forced to defecate in the open. 10 December (yesterday in my hemisphere) was … More International Human Rights Day
Many stories came out of my year in Cambodia. I feel particularly close to one of my patients and I am not sure I ever fully told (my part of) her story. At 25yo this young woman who I will give the pseudonym of Phan, was admitted to our ward weighing 21kg. Her father carried … More The Story of One Patient
There’s something quite exotic about the streets of Phnom Penh, especially at night when I regularly get a sense of being inside a historical South East Asian novel, which I don’t ever recall reading. The closest I can think of is the film The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel which is set in 21st century India. … More Here in Subcity
As a young teenager in the mid 1980s Mum sent me off to boarding school and suffered severe consequences for her sins. Noone is capable of shedding such sorrowful and persistent tears as the teenage me was. Then in 1989 I traveled to London and spent the following six years living, working and studying in … More Crying for Cambodia
Today I had my first contact with someone in Australia introducing me to the beginnings of what I hope will not be a quagmire of red tape around trying to raise desperately needed funds for our small but functional home of 12 HIV orphans. This evening I visited the children and had my arms draped … More New Beginnings
This afternoon one of my colleagues came to the house and brought his young children to meet me. The cycle home before our meet-up was – as always – interesting. I stopped in at the bank on a corner where crowds were gathering on the road at the roundabout. Through the masses I could see … More A Hungry Ride Home
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