If You Happen to be Going to Battambang, Cambodia in May

Here is the schedule for our artistic performances in PPS in May 2009.

The show performed will be as follow:

Monday 4 “Wicked kids” 4B
Thursday 7 “Jours d’ecole” 4A
Thursday 14 “Wicked kids” 4B
Thursday 21 “Jours d’ecole” 4A
Friday 22 “Phum Style”
Thursday 28 “Phum Style”

These kids give an amazing show. Visit their website here: www.phareps.org.

Back in Mui Ne

I'm back in Mui Ne after 3 weeks in Saigon, Phnom Penh & Bangkok. When I bought my ticket back to Mui Ne and realized we were coming upon a long "Liberation Day" and May Day weekend--well, I almost bought a ticket back to Bangkok. While I thoroughly enjoy festival days, I strongly dislike Vietnamese holidays. Living in the now resort capitol of the country, it means hordes of pushy, oblivious Vietnamese tourists driving motorbikes and cars, well, that most of them are not qualifies or capable of driving.

Today is the first day of the long holiday, and there is a constant hum of holiday traffic outside the cafe here in Mui Ne. If you don't have your bus ticket already purchased to and from Mui Ne, you can cancel your trip--there's nothing available till the middle of next week. Likewise--rooms that are normally $10-$15 are now $50-$70 for the weekend.

The non-stop rain this week is however dampening the mood. Fortunately I LIKE rainy season.

Lonely Planet Link

My brother today discovered that his website, www.chengdusleeps.com, is recommended in the latest Lonely Planet Tibet guide. We haven't been able to check yet, but presume that means the site is also recommended in the China guide and other related books. Chengdusleeps.com is a sister site of my own www.muinebeach.net, which is recommended by LP's Vietnam and Mekong guides, as well as guidebooks from other publishers. Congrats to Josh.

ThingsAsian Book Launch & Writer's Party, Bangkok

Just got back from a lovely weekend in Bangkok. Normally Bangkok means dairy queen, dunkin donuts, burger king, 7/11 slurpies, and lots of shopping. It used to mean pizza hut and american movies at the cinema too... but we have that in Saigon now. I spent almost the entire time in MBK, and the Siam shopping malls: the "Center", "Discovery", and "Paragon".

The real point of the trip though was a wonderful book launch party for all of us who wrote for ThingsAsian Press' "To Asia with Love Series." I wrote 5 stories for "To Vietnam with Love" (which came out last summer), and I wrote one story for "To Cambodia with Love" (to be publisher later this year). Other new books in the series include "To Myanmar with Love" and "Tone Deaf in Bangkok," by Janet Brown. These are great books, because unlike your average guidebook, quite frankly, they are written by people who really KNOW the countries that they write about. These are largely collections of personal recommendations and secret off-the-beaten-path stuff--not the general write-ups of all the boring major sights like you find in a lonely planet guide. Janet's book, like Joshua Samuel Brown's earlier Vignettes of Taiwan, is more a collection of personal memoir and stories--and equally great. Anyway, met lots of great people, and had loads of fun.

The event was held at Nomad, a Moroccan-themed restaurant and bar with great food, cool atmosphere, and ever-flowing wine. Sukhumvit 12, www.nomadbangkok.com.

I was going to group these and label them, but I realized they are more fun at random, and if you don't know who these people are, well, you probably don't need to.

Swine Flu: Experiences in SE Asia Suggest There's Something They Might Be Omitting

I visited China just as the SARS outbreak began getting serious international coverage in 2003, and I remained in the country until it all subsided. As such, I witnessed first-hand the real story of SARS in rural China--an epic that Western media has yet to stumble upon. Some of that is documented HERE.

The way the media is handling this new epidemic of the swine flu reminds me a lot of the SARS coverage. In general, it's all being overblown, seriousness exaggerated, and it is perhaps being used for political gains, much like the USA used their response to SARS (biased media coverage and government commentary) as a way to punish China for a variety of infractions--including their reluctance to help us with North Korea.

There is however, one serious item that no one is talking about--the cause of death in Swine Flu victims. This flu variant is said to be a recombination of DNA from a variety of related viruses, including the Swine Flu that has caused localized epidemics in China and N Vietnam in the last few years.

And here lies some cause for concern, if this is true. The Swine Flu in China that causes an outbreak in 2005, and a number of times since, is (or at least one variant is) a hemorrhagic fever. It liquifies tissue, causing internal and external bleeding, and death in less than 24hrs. The Chinese government quarantined entire villages when cases were found. Corpses of dead animals were incinerated. It's likely human corpses were as well, though I don't know for sure. The media was not allowed to cover the incidents. How do I know then? Someone close to me was in China at the time, and their neighbor was a butcher who died from the illness. They experienced events first-hand. Some information on the outbreaks is available online, thought it takes a little extra effort to find it with Google, as it never received mainstream media coverage.

It may be that these symptoms have not appeared in this new strain--and if so, thank God. But I do find it curious that no one is talking about the cause of death and how quickly people actually die, once they have contracted the illness.

CNN iReport: Khmer New Year

If you missed the broadcast I'm told you can view the airing of my Khmer New Year photos at this link (my connection is too slow to see it myself, boo hoo): CLICK HERE

Khmer Rouge Trial Update

A grave marker at the Killing Fields
I was fortunate to attend the Khmer Rouge Trials again today, held outside Phnom Penh, Cambodia. This trial is for Kaing Guek Eav, better known as "Duch," the commanding officer of the infamous S21, a school turned torture facility where approximately 14000 people were murdered under his charge.

I was surprised by the low attendance in the courtroom audience. I had heard that public interest was waning since the beginning of the trial, but I still expected more. When I arrived at 8:30, all 470+ seats were empty, except for court staff. As I waited for the proceedings to begin at 9am, about 60 people slowly trickled in. All but a few were foreigners, and most wore ID badges indicating that they were a member of the media, an NGO volunteer somehow connected with the trial, or staff of the court. I recalled a comment made by my friend Sochiet the night before, that “though my grandfather was murdered by the Khmer Rouge, it seemed lost in the past.” He said that for him it was more important to move on. While the trial is certainly a defining moment for many survivors, I know so many people who feel the same as Sochiet. It makes me wonder how many people are really paying attention to the proceedings?


The witness, Chan Voeun, addressing the court
Today the trial revolved around the testimony of Chan Voeun, a dark skinned, frail man at age 56. He claimed to be a guard at the M-13 prison under Duch, the commanding officer. M-13 was apparently a smaller, earlier version of the more infamous S-21, which Duch later went on to administrate. Events occurring at M-13 are outside the court's jurisdiction, but are being re-told to extrapolate a better picture of S-21 and Duch's personality.

M-13 Prison held a total of 70 people—families—mothers, fathers and children. All but three were murdered—most of them tortured to death. Prisoners were kept in tiny cells or underground pits and subsisted on watery gruel. The prison guards fared only a little better, living on thicker gruel themselves. According to Duch, they even slept in the prison pits as well. Voeun stated in his testimony that many (if not all) of the prisoners were eventually killed and discarded in 3 mass graves that he found while secretly hunting a deer behind the prison.


Voeun described gruesome torture scenes in which Duch allegedly used a gasoline rag, lit on the end of a stick, to burn the breasts of a female victim. Crying, he also recalled an event where Duch allegedly shot and killed Voeun’s uncle in front of him. Voeun described Duch as someone who “was happy when he tortured people.” Yet Duch told the court that he is sorry for what he did at M-13—that it all was an important matter and still “affects me psychologically.”

Voeun himself became a prisoner at M-13 after helping 3 prisoners—one of them his friend—escape. He later fled the prison himself and sought the aid of his village chief to remain free.


Duch, now an evangelical Christian, is the only defendant to admit guilt, seek forgiveness and agree to cooperate with the court. Yet ultimately he disputed much of Voeun’s testimony, claiming that Voeun was never on the staff at M-13. While Duch agreed that some of his statements about the layout and condition of the prison were factual, he said many of the stories Voeun relayed were distorted, second-hand information or outright lies. Indeed there were discrepancies in Voeun’s testimony—at times he claimed he was too far away to see whether Duch himself shot his uncle, or the methods Duch used when torturing certain victims, yet at other times he claimed to be very close to the incidents and described them in great detail. Likewise, he claimed that he saw Duch shoot another KR officer with an AK-47, but later admitted that the officer “disappeared” over time, like most of the prisoners.


Court staff reading the original statement of the witness to clarify discrepancies in the testimony
Unfortunately it’s easy to explain discrepancies from both the witness and the defendant merely in terms of the 30 years that have gone by since these events occurred. It’s possible both men could be telling the truth to the best of their memories. Translation also proved to be an evident problem during the proceedings, which are carried out in a mix of Khmer, French, and English (with strong foreign accents). Many questions had to be repeated several times due to difficulty in translation, and at times brief responses had no correlation with the simple questions asked. The defense complained ardently about this.

The trials are not without controversy. Credible accusations of corruption within the court have jeopardized its financial backing from other countries. Only 5 officers of the Khmer Rouge have been permitted by the government to go to trial at this time. Many members of Cambodia's current government are former members of the Khmer Rouge themselves, and guilty of crimes that will never go to trial. Thousands of ex-Khmer Rouge cadres live freely among the population as well.

View this story on CNN

The Pirate Bay's Gottfrid Warg in Cambodia/"The King Kong Defense" Inside Joke Exposed

Gottfrid Warg of The Pirate Bay
Far from his home in Sweden, a pasty, scraggly-bearded expat sits in a Phnom Penh bar in front of a laptop, the waitresses seemingly unaware that the images flashing on CNN above their heads are of their friend and patron.


Cadillac Bar & Grill
Yesterday four young men behind a Swedish torrent-search website known as The Pirate Bay (www.thepiratebay.org) were found guilty of aiding others in violating international copyright law in a landmark court verdict in Stockholm.


Cadillac Interior
Gottfrid Warg, one of the four, is a regular customer at the Cadillac Bar and Grill in Phnom Penh’s riverside tourist district. Many of the city’s best bars, restaurants, spas and boutiques line the street, serving the city’s many tourists and expat community. “Gottfrid lives upstairs. He’s been living here for almost one month--a month on the 28th, but he came here many times before,” commented one of the waitresses. “He talks, talks, talks, talks. He talks a lot but he is a very good man. I like him,” she said.

“He’s a nice guy but he’s really very nerdy,” A local tour operator and acquaintance of Gottfrid told me, “It’s really ironic that he has this Pirate Bay thing. Here he does everything by the book. You know in Cambodia everything is about bribery and corruption, but he won’t play along—he’s completely straight.”

Four defendants: Gottfrid Svartholm Warg (alias “anakata”), Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi and Carl Lundstrom, (the three owners of ThePirateBay.org and a patron) were sentenced to one year in jail and ordered to pay 30 million kronor ($3.6 million US) in “damages” to several international studios, including Columbia, Warner Brothers, Twentieth Century Fox, Sony BMG and EMI. The court case marks a key victory for the big media moguls in their campaign against the portion of the general public who create and use such online services.

The four are free without restrictions while they make appeals. Yesterday's verdict did not include an order to take The Pirate Bay offline, which still remains operational today.

Gottfrid responded to the verdict on an online Cambodian forum: “There's no way they can collect though… In any case, this is the lowest level of the Swedish court system. Appeals will go on for years and years.”

“He’d probably go back to Sweden to face the charges. He’s that kind of guy. I don’t think he’d ever hide out here,” the tour operator told me.

The moderator of a Cambodian expat website, Khmer440, commented: “…how much music we now have which we wouldn't have if it wasn't for what you and your partners have achieved with TPB. All sorts of long deleted albums have now resurfaced with no thanks whatsoever to the big corporations who were happy to sit on them. Basically, it's all about the music and the movies and you've given them to us.”

Only now some of the eccentricities of the trial becomes clear. On the third day of the trial, defense attorney Per Samuelson presented an argument later dubbed the "King Kong Defense":

“…he who provides an information service is not responsible for the information that is being transferred. In order to be responsible, the service provider must initiate the transfer. But the admins of The Pirate Bay don’t initiate transfers. It’s the users that do and they are physically identifiable people. They call themselves names like “King Kong” .... According to legal procedure, the accusations must be against an individual and there must be a close tie between the perpetrators of a crime and those who are assisting. This tie has not been shown. The prosecutor must show that Carl Lundström [another defendant] personally has interacted with the user King Kong, who may very well be found in the jungles of Cambodia...

Samuelson was apparently referring to a real Pirate Bay user with the username "King Kong." The term "King Kong Defense" was quickly popularized by blogs, news feeds, and media reports, comparing it to the Chewbacca defense from the TV series South Park. Apparently however, this was as inside joke because Gottfrid is indeed in Cambodia himself.

As a peer-to-peer search engine, The Pirate Bay allows users to share media files including music, movies, games and other software, but like all such torrent searches, it does not host the files itself. It currently has more than 3.5 million registered users, a remarkable achievement indeed.

“Gottfrid works all night on his computer. He doesn’t sleep at night. He only sleeps for a few hours in the day,” the waitress told me. “He is also my boss. In the afternoons I clean for him. But I didn’t clean for him yesterday. He hasn’t come down for two days. He’s been sick.”


The Cadillac Girls
Gottfrid boasts that he lives above an internet café. Cadillac, which offers wifi connections using prepaid cards, is a cozy bar with wooden furnishings and paneling. A large mirror runs the length of the south wall. Elegant wooden, cushioned bar stools sit around every chest-height table and counter.

Cadillac is no stranger to excitement. According to locals, a few weeks ago, an angry exchange ensued between the American owner, known as “Kadillac” Kenny, and some Cambodian youth outside the bar. A group later returned to the restaurant, held a gun to his head, and pulled the trigger. Thankfully the gun did not go off.

““I was in the bar when it happened.” wrote Gottfrid on a forum, “Apparently Kenny had been rude to some spoiled kids earlier when they parked their Lexus right in front of Caddy… Although a gun was involved, it wasn't loaded, and Kenny handled the whole situation very well… He was hit maybe twice but unluckily his glasses broke. He's recovering well though and there shouldn't be any permanent injury.”

Unfortunately tourist dollars in Phnom Penh also can attract some of the worst that Cambodia has to offer—many of the moto and tuk tuk drivers also peddle hardcore drugs (heroin, cocaine, opium) as well as marijuana, and pimp prostitutes of all ages. Violent crime is not unknown in the tourist area.

According to his website, Gottfrid, age 24, is the owner of Estoy Ltd. Seychelles IBC, a company operating in Phnom Penh and specializing in Software development, Information security, System and network administration and Computer training and private lessons. It appears life for Gottfrid may go on as “normal” for the time being, while the court appeals go forward.

Khmer New Year Part 2

Today marks the third and last day of the Khmer New Year celebration, known as Chol Chnam Thmey.


Today is known as Tanai Lieang Saka. Throughout the day Buddhist Cambodians are visiting local temples to bathe Budda statues, make offerings of incense, donate to the poor, and receive baptisms from monks. Children may also bathe parents and grandparents for good luck and longevity.


Presented here are pictures that I took today from wats (pagodas) around Phnom Penh. Most of the day's holiday activities are confined to wats full of bustling crowds wearing their best cloths and making offerings as Monks chant melodically. The rest of Phnom Penh is quiet as people otherwise remain home with their families or play games in their villages today. By tomorrown many of the city's shops and markets will re-open and life will return to hectic normality.

View this story as it appears on CNN.

Khmer New Year in Phnom Penh

I wasn't able to see the broadcast, and my internet connection is too slow to view it online, but I'm told you can view this story, as it aired on CNN, by clicking HERE...


Talcum Powder Victims

Wat Phnom
On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week (April 14-16) the people of Cambodia celebrate the Khmer New Year, known as Chol Chnam Thmey, with games, family time, visits to local temples, and jubilant celebrations. As with all Buddhist holidays, the 3-day festival is tied to the lunar calendar. By Buddhist reckoning, this year is 2553 BE (Buddhist Era).


The Royal Palace, New Year's Eve
Monday night marked New Year’s Eve. In Phnom Penh, I watched fireworks at the stroke of midnight (apparently 1:36 am in Cambodian reckoning), just south of the Royal Palace, at the convergence of the Tonle Sap, Mekong and Bassac Rivers.


Family Altar for the New Year

A money boat and sand mounds made at Wat Phnom
The evening and morning of the first day, known as Moha Songkran, is a time when families worship their ancestors at special holiday alters, and then visit the local pagoda to make prayers and offerings to Buddha. In temples people erect sand mounds representing Culamuni Catiya, the stupa at Tavatimsa, where Buddha’s hair and diadem are said to be buried.


Games at Wat Phnom

Dancing game at Wat Phnom
Much of Phnom Penh is quiet during the holiday, as Cambodians prefer to go home to their villages for the celebration. However, when I visited Wat Phnom, the city’s temple-mount namesake, I found the center of afternoon activates, with young people gathering to play special holiday games—which included dousing each other with water and smearing talcum powder on each other’s faces.


Village Dance Party
The night of the first day concluded with boisterous parties in outlying villages. I stayed with friends that night in an outlying village where residents held a dance party in the market. Enormous speakers throbbed Cambodian hip-hop as I traded dance moves with a group of lively grannies in karmas.


Wat Phnom
Wanabat is the second day of the festival, and a time to donate to charity. On Tanai Lieang Saka , the third day, people visit local temples to bathe Budda statues and receive baptisms from monks. Children may also bathe parents and grandparents for good luck and longevity.


Boys playing New Years Games

Tasty Treats: Crickets, Silk Worms and grilled birds
Variations of the Khmer New Year are also celebrated in Laos, where it is known as Bpee Mai, and Thailand, where it is called Songkran, although these countries have adopted fixed dates of April 13, 14 and 15 for their celebrations.

View this story as it appears on CNN.com

Filipino Mafia Still at It

Saigon's Filipino Mafia is much less visible, but I discovered they are still out and about in Saigon this week. This is my first visit to Saigon in 1 year in which I did not witness them pulling scams on tourists, but I did see members scouting them out.

First I noted the scouts sitting at the little street side cafes on Pham Ngu Lao, who would run down the street (across from the park) toward Ben Thanh Market to deliver messages to a man sitting against a little tree in the park at the large round-about, across from Ben Thanh.

Secondly were the 3 men sitting on the park bench in front of the Rex hotel, where they often scout out tourists as they walk by.

I don't understand why no one does anything. These people are a menace to tourists. Yet no one cares.

Breakfast at Novela

I had a lovely buffet breakfast at Novela Resort & Spa earlier this week. Novela is a new, upscale resort at 96A Nguyen Dinh Chieu in the center of Mui Ne. Breakfast was a lavish spread in their tropical garden, including omelets, bakes potatoes, fresh baked breads with butter, jam and pate, pancakes, lots of fresh fruits and juices and piles of bacon! The restaurant overlooks the beach, and unlike other dining options in Mui Ne, it's seated high above the road so the outside traffic is not staring you in the face. Visit their website at ww.novelresort.vn.

Interview & Quote

I was recently interviewed for a story on traffic problems in Vietnam. The editor cut the interview down to a quote, but here's the story:

Vietnam: Drink Driving, Motorbikes Make for Deadly Mix on Roads, GlobalIssues.org, Wednesday, April 01, 2009