Irreverent, informed and downright eclectic crime fiction and reportage from Southeast Asia and beyond
Charles Sobhraj, one of the world’s most notorious serial killer celebrities, also known as The Serpent and The Bikini Killer, is said to have murdered a string of back packers and tourists in South and Southeast Asia in the 1970s. In 2003, Charles Sobhraj was arrested in Kathmandu, Nepal, for a 1975 murder. In 2004, [...]
Marc Eberle’s The Most Secret Place on Earth (The CIA Covert War in Laos), co-written by Tom Vater, has been nominated for the prestigious “Jade Kunlun” Awards of the 2010 World Mountain Documentary Festival of Qinghai, China. The film has been nominated for the “Best Director” category. The Most Secret Place on Earth (The CIA [...]
Do Not Sleep Here “Today, you dead,” the Cambodian soldier hisses into Matt Dillon’s face and throws the American actor to the ground of a dilapidated room. Seconds later, James Caan and a group of gangsters shoot it out on a patchy lawn in front of a dark, imposing building, while doom-laden fog drifts up [...]
The UN tribunal in Cambodia, set up to investigate crimes against humanity allegedly (a very small allegedly, the accused are all guilty) committed by the Khmer Rouge, finally passed its first judgment today. The Khmer Rouge, a radical communist rebel movement, are responsible for the death of some 1.7 million people. Between 1975 and 1979, [...]
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The seers have been consulted, the dotted lines are signed, the back-line is being oiled and squeaked as I write this. Leonard Cohen, poet, writer, singer, sometimes zen monk and full-time visionary is opening The Mekong Sessions, a concert series to be held in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, on November 27th 2010. Proceeds from [...]
The excellent instrumental surf guitar punk band The Klong Riders recently performed a nostalgia set at The Overstay, formerly a brothel, currently a squat, scuzzy guest house and sometime concert venue in Bangkok, Thailand. Plenty of beer spilled on the cracked linoleum floor, plus sonic terror and an audience as enthusiastic as a castle of [...]
Working in Cambodia, no matter where – and this includes the Angkor Archaeological Park – is always an opportunity to witness the unusual. Animals are transported in all sorts of bizarre and, by our progressive and enlightened standards, cruel ways around Asia, but the pig-on-a-motorbike routine is a favorite. Farmers travel for miles along often [...]
“In the morning, when I wake up, I drink a coffee and I read the paper. What is today’s bullshit, today’s lie? I never believe anything that’s written in the papers, they’re like cartoons. They’re entertainment. They don’t tell the truth.” Former massage parlour kingpin Chuwit Kamolvisit says Thailand’s political establishment remains as hypocritical and [...]
Sorry, this entry is only available in Deutsch.