Sorry it’s been so long folks. I kept putting it off and then posting anything seemed far too monumental. So I’m taking the advice of some wise friends and just writing whatever in order to get back in the saddle, on the horse, insert whatever metaphor floats yer boat here.

Oh, speaking of boats…

Last weekend I went on a news booze cruise for the multitudes of Phnom Penh-based English-language journos. This includes freelancers and wire writers and Asia Life staffers, but mostly it includes the warring factions of the Phnom Penh Post and the Cambodia Daily.  Think Sharks vs. Jets and you’re not too far off. Except, as far as I can tell, it’s rooted in history and, far more awkwardly, nearly completely one-sided. (Wherein the Post organizers won’t stop saying how absolutely lovely it is to see Daily folks on board, and the old-timers of the Daily admit it’s been years since the cruise boycott has been lifted.)

The Post and Daily basically represent the main news media scene of Cambodia, and between the two they do a really solid job covering most everything, but there’s also a greater mediascape evidenced by cloggers. Yep, Cambodian bloggers have their own prefix. It’s still very much a nascent pursuit, but they are very much here and squirming their way into areas the government is hard pressed to control.* (Case in point: after the Daily was told to stop distributing its controversial Burma Daily newspaper insert, the government okayed its being printed online.) Clogging is, admittedly, rudimentary—Cambodia was completely sans Internet til 1997—but it’s maturing rapidly and speaking for a populace that is otherwise nearly voiceless. 

And… oh my gosh.  Apologies for the geeking out. I suspect this is boring to all but myself. So, below, the boat we traveled on! We ate chicken cooked on it and drank beers and swam in the filthy Mekong and chatted with the US embassy press officer who was eminently cool and spoke Khmer more or less fluently after a mere 8 months and let us in on the dirty secret of the Phnom Penh posting (write a comment and maybe I’ll share).

*Though, it should be noted, not incapable of. More than a few sites are altogether blocked on Cambodian ISPs. DAS has some great coverage if you’re curious. Apparently they all hang out at the shiny new KFC down Norodom.