Kung Future is a tiny NGO working in Phnom Penh off the smell of an oily rag, with landless Cham people who live on their boats at the conflux of the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers. This week Kung Future reported the death of a two year old boy who fell off the boat he … More Every Time I Go On A Plane
This week I lost my housemate and friend to Bangladesh, where she will work with the Rohingya refugees escaping indescribable violence in Rakhine State across the border in Myanmar. We spoke a lot about them and about Cambodia before she left. It always looped back to ourselves, our appreciation for our extreme luck of birth … More Eye Is For Ice
When I lived in Kampong Cham during the two years between 2013 to 2015 there was one swimming pool in this town, about 5 metres long and knee-deep, belonging to a local hotel. In the past two years two swimming pools have appeared here. “The Chinese” built a large town pool complex with four different … More Perspectives
Wat Opot and Phter Koma have been the tip of the iceberg of our holiday so far. I am traveling with a nursing friend who left Alice Springs a few years ago, who I’ll call Caz and the sister of my neighbour, who I’ll call Kelly. Kelly’s 8yo son “Caleb” is with us so we … More Tourism With a Local Edge
It’s proving hard to find inspiration for my blog right now. But lots of interesting things are happening so I’ll try and do a travel blog just to keep the page alive. I’m not especially inspired so be warned :). I’m writing this from Leon in north-west Spain, where I’m spending time with “the Spaniards” … More La Buena Vida
The problem is all inside your head, she said to me The answer is easy, if you take it logically I’d like to help you in your struggle to be free There must be 50 ways to leave your lover ~ Paul Simon The market town of Skun in Kampong Cham province, Cambodia, is one … More Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover
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
Needing a bus ticket to Kampong Cham, I asked the hotel receptionist in Phnom Penh to organise one for me. Soon enough, via an agency, my ticket arrived by motorbike courier. Phnom Penh to Kampong Cham, 2-15pm, Seat 15. With no record of which bus company, I asked “Is this Capitol Bus?” and she replied … More You Know You’re Back in Cambodia When…
About half a million of Cambodia’s 15 million population are employed in the garment factory industry. These workers make around $80 per month. Export from this industry earns the Cambodian economy around $5 billion per year. In recent times garment workers have been lobbying for a pay rise to $160 per month. Today at least … More Attacked by a chicken
It’s probably ignorant of me but I don’t think I had ever heard of boules, also known as pétanque before last week when a French colleague gave a set to the office as a Christmas gift. Since then I see it everywhere. It seems to be a sport du jour across Kampong Cham, probably across … More Boules, Badminton and a Broken Bamboo Bridge
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