Monday Blogcrawl

My Cambodia book now stands at a ridiculous number of words, but is still entirely unpolished and nowhere near finished. My publisher is going to hate me. Here is some Cambodia-related info from the web this past week:

2 million passengers have now visited Siem Reap airport

• Horrible fire at the Siem Reap night market kills eight. May they rest in peace.
• Beng Mealea Temple, one of the lesser-known temples at Angkor.
• A Buffalo at Siem Reap. In fact, Cambodians normally keep cows, and buffalo are reasonably uncommon.
• Will there ever be justice for the victims of the Khmer Rouge?
• There's still very little mental health care available in Cambodia.
• Quite a few people are beginning to question the point of bringing the increasingly elderly members of the Khmer Rouge to court.
• Cambodian Government decides on $3.1 billion in spending.
• A garment training institute to be built in Cambodia. And as job opportunities improve for Cambodians, the low-paying garment industry finds a labour shortage.
• Sam Rainsy's removal from the voter list means that next year's elections in Cambodia will probably not be fair.
• The most gorgeous hyperlapse movie of Phnom Penh.

Monday Blogcrawl

Cambodia has been much on my mind these past days. My dear friend, the artist Chhai Kakkada, opened his brand new exhibition last night at Siem Reap's hippest venue, The 1961. Here is some other interesting news from Cambodia over the past week:

Tuol Sleng Torture Museum, Phnom Penh

• Discovery of a new mass grave site at Do Dontrei brings back memories of the horrors of the Pol Pot years. And a reflection on visiting the torture museum Tuol Sleng - and another one. Brand new photographs of victims of the Khmer Rouge have surfaced and been donated, anonymously. Who on earth had them?
• Where to get Vietnamese Pho in Phnom Penh. 
• USA Today offers some tips on travelling solo in Siem Reap. And while you're there, why not do a cooking class at Le Tigre de Papier? And Words Fusion talks about how tourism is changing Siem Reap - why, you can even get yourself a High Tea there now. There is so much more to do besides visit Angkor Wat.
• Cambodia's Muslims are moving South.
• Lack of proper sanitation facilities is a major cause of child deaths in Cambodia. Asiancorrespondent.com comments on the financial and social costs of this.
• Let's hope the thoroughly adorable Mekong Dolphins are safe at last.
• The UN says we should be investing in Cambodian women.
• Nice to see good news stories coming out of modern Cambodia. Here is a successful young property developer, profiled in the Phnom Penh Post.
• A great video of Phnom Penh traffic. And apparently grilled seafood is getting popular in the capital - maybe you can get some of it at hip restaurant Malis, reviewed here in the Wall Street Journal.
• The owner of an independent radio station in Cambodia is in legal trouble, and LinkAsia reports on the complexities surrounding the case (video). And a reporter records the death earlier this year of environmental activist Chut Wutty, in Newsweek.
• Vietnamese & Cambodian women boost co-operation.
• Some time ago I reviewed Lost Loves, and now Hit Fix tells us it's Cambodia's entry in the foreign Oscars.
• A travel blog of a couple 'gone walkabout' in Cambodia.
• Social media, NGOs and social change in Cambodia.
• Getting things from one town to another has long been a headache in Cambodia, but the Phnom Penh Post reveals that rail freight services have begun again.
• Why not visit Sihanoukville?