PHNOM PENH – Hauv Sokhon wears his blue baseball cap low over his eyes as he pokes through the stinking refuse of Cambodia’s most notorious rubbish dump. If he finds enough plastic and aluminium amid the oozing debris, he’ll earn a dollar today. Wielding a metal hook, the 13-year-old has eked out a living at…
Read moreCambodia school siege underlines kingdom’s struggle to recover from war
PHNOM PENH – A school siege which led hostage-takers to kill a Canadian toddler has underlined the struggle Cambodia still faces in recovering from decades of war. Sucked into the Indochinese conflict of the 1960s and early ’70s, wracked by civil war and then devastated by the 1975-1979 genocidal Khmer Rouge regime which oversaw the…
Read moreCambodian villagers cry foul over loss of land to Vietnam
PHUM PREY TUOL, Cambodia – The goosebumps prickle on the arms of Cambodian rice farmer Em Chouen when he recalls how he lost his land, allegedly to Vietnamese soldiers who beat him with iron rods. "I was ploughing my fields when the Vietnamese came and accused me of taking the land," he says, speaking at…
Read moreCambodia’s golden-age architect looks back in wonder
Much of Asia’s architectural heritage is under threat as countries pursue rapid economic growth and often eschew preservation in favour of rapid modernisation. In Cambodia the threat is particularly acute, extending from the World Heritage-listed ancient temple complex of Angkor Wat to the buildings of the 1950s and ’60s, when the newly independent kingdom began…
Read moreA packed weekend in Phnom Penh
It’s rich with history, loaded with atmosphere and jammed with great restaurants and shops, but Phnom Penh is often overlooked by travellers in favour of Siem Reap, the launching point for Cambodia’s famed Angkor Wat. A weekend trip to the capital however, is easily done from Bangkok and yields rich rewards. Phnom Penh offers accommodation…
Read moreUnwavering loyalty for Khmer Rouge in final strongholds
Sitting on the steps of the empty villa of a former Khmer Rouge commander, Cambodian San Roeun passionately defends the mass killers he fought for as a soldier. Pol Pot’s ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge regime swept into Phnom Penh 30 years ago this Sunday, launching a nearly four-year pursuit of an agrarian utopia that would lead…
Read moreCambodia maps out plan to lure tourists to Khmer Rouge sites
The veranda has collapsed, a lone green typewriter sits unused on a dusty table and only two of the 27 staff are here. But Anlong Veng’s tourism office has a grand plan to lure visitors to the final stronghold of Cambodia’s infamous Khmer Rouge. It was to this far-flung district in Oddar Meanchey province, about…
Read moreReclusive but free, Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge leaders wait for trial
Ly Kim Seng stabs her hoe into the weeds threatening her watermelons on land abutting Cambodia’s border with Thailand. She pauses to explain that her husband Nuon Chea, Pol Pot’s deputy during the brutal Khmer Rouge regime, is too ill to accept visitors. A child’s bicycle lies along the path leading to the mango-tree shaded…
Read moreIdling on islands
Life glides by slowly perched in a hammock overlooking the swirling Mekong River in Laos’ Four Thousand Islands. Sipping a Beer Lao and watching the ever-changing colours of the river is meditation not just popular with locals but with an increasing number of independent travellers. Si Phan Don, as the locals call it, is a…
Read moreFree private hospitals saving the lives of Cambodia’s sick children
Pen Naun sits breastfeeding her two-month-old baby in an airy but crowded hospital ward with scores of other fraught Cambodians, many lying on mats covering the terracotta-tiled floor. Receiving free treatment at this gleaming six-year-old private hospital run by a maverick Swiss doctor who plays a cello to help fund its operations, they are among…
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