Rocks and Boats

Cambodia is turning out to be wicked awesome. They even have the only dark beer I've seen in Southeast Asia - the Angkor Stout. If it looks like a stout, smells like a stout and tastes like a stout, and it isn't another variation on a pilsner, then it is a damn good stout.

Working hard on my ISP (not quite...). I will probably be in Ninh Thuan province, investigating what shrimp farmers think about intensifying their shrimping practices, and seeing if their constructs of progress/profit/risk management match up with the available science on the sustainability of shrimping. My hypothesis is that they won't, and that we don't need to be pushing input- and capital-intensive methods of food production on households that can't risk losing their investments. This article sounds encouraging. One has to be mad delicate in talking about these things, though, because it can sound pretty insulting for a Westerner to tell a poor farmer that he shouldn't follow in his neighbor's footsteps, buy a bunch of pesticides and get rich quick. The consequences that invariably come out of intensive farming methods are often a few years down the line, and therefore just far away enough to not be of worry or consideration - that is the problem.

Other than that, doing some sightseeing at the Angkor temples, learning, almost sinking, shrimping, eating prahoc, and more. Photos here:

A floating house anchor.

Standing on top of a floating croc cage, a la Steve-O.

The Mono-Troll in her cave with the watersnake pet.

Hi Mom, hi Dad.