Showing 1 - 10 of 14
Pot heads of the surfing gods
Spectrum, Luke Hunt, Published on 29/12/2013
» For some, it was the time of their lives. Chasing double overhead barrels along the exotic surf beaches of Bali, where a few dollars would buy an abundance of marijuana and a lifestyle that was the stuff of big wave legends.
Kabul's traffickers are in for the long haul
Spectrum, Luke Hunt, Published on 17/11/2013
» Kabul's black market for illegal travel is still doing a brisk trade despite the crackdown from Australia's newly installed government on people smuggling. However, the logistics required to circumvent the authorities and ensure a safe trip have become more complex and smugglers are under pressure to maximise profits. Fake passports, forged visas, tickets to Southeast Asia, sometimes via the Middle East, and boats to Australia and elsewhere are often available for about US$25,000 (788,000 baht) a head, more than double the costs the smugglers first charged when they began plying the Kangaroo Route in the late 1990s.
Youthful daring challenges the status quo and dirty tricks
Spectrum, Luke Hunt, Published on 28/07/2013
» Throughout Cambodia's election campaign the politically outgunned opposition has put in an astonishing performance. Fuelled by youthful exuberance, flash mobs of up to 3,000 form and trumpet the virtues of change as supporters ride in twos, threes and fours, through the capital on motorbikes.
Asean hazed by self-Interest
Spectrum, Luke Hunt, Published on 08/09/2013
» The dreaded haze has made an unwanted return across large swathes of Southeast Asia and for the second time this season politicians have been found desperately wanting in their inability to find a solution to the horrible haze which is costing the region billions of dollars.
Gambling with Kampot's colonial charm
Spectrum, Luke Hunt, Published on 05/05/2013
» Hidden in the clouds on a mountain overlooking the provincial capital of Kampot in Cambodia's south sits a relic of a long-gone French colonial era. For decades a Catholic church, possibly the oldest in the country, remained abandoned here as wars were waged for decades on the flat lands below.
The great Cambodia land grab
Spectrum, Luke Hunt, Published on 19/05/2013
» Ask Sreap Samoen where are the communal grazing lands? Where can local villagers fish and grow crops? The 50-year-old woman with a weather-beaten face points into the distance and says: "It's all gone. The company has it now."
Ly Yong Phat, the King of Koh Kong
Spectrum, Luke Hunt, Published on 03/02/2013
» Thai-Cambodian relations have been defined high in the Dangrek Mountains ever since troops from both sides began clashing over the 12th century ruins at Preah Vihear five years ago. Further south, where the Kaoh Pao meets the Gulf of Thailand, it's a very different story.
Fracks in the system
Spectrum, Luke Hunt, Published on 24/02/2013
» Impoverished countries hoping to strike it rich by developing their limited oil and gas reserves are being urged to move quickly or risk having their expectations clipped by fracking, which is depressing market prices while adding life to old fields once thought to be exhausted.
2012 - When Asean felt Beijing's bite
Spectrum, Luke Hunt, Published on 30/12/2012
» Twenty-twelve should be remembered as the year in which China acted on its long-standing claims in the South China Sea, took off the gloves and arraigned its intimidating military and diplomatic arsenal against its neighbours to the south. Gone were the usual glib lines that China only gives foreign aid and soft loans to countries in need, with no strings attached. Cambodia _ for years a benefactor of Beijing's largesse _ was bullied onto China's political front lines, acting as a spoiler against fellow Asean countries attempting to forge a united front against Beijing's territorial and maritime ambitions.
Muslim acceptance in Laos stark contrast to Myanmar intolerance
Spectrum, Luke Hunt, Published on 02/09/2012
» Just over a decade ago the tiny Islamic population of Laos, like Muslims everywhere, watched on in horror as al-Qaeda carried out its suicide attacks on New York and Washington. They were then flabbergasted as a tide of Western opinion turned on them.