From heroin addict to nirvana: A eulogy to the British monk I met months before he died

VICE, July 30, 2013

"I nearly died before I became a monk," 61-year-old Bhante told me. "Too much heroin."

Something killed Bhante, but in the end it probably wasn't smack. He was found dead in a Cambodian pagoda earlier this year, and the immediate cause remains mysterious. But his efforts to lead a monastic existence in Southeast Asia – a decision that once rescued him from a life of crime – appear to be at least partially to blame for his death.

For the last 14 years he lived in Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Laos and Cambodia as a Buddhist monk, under the name Bhante Pannavudho. But he soon learned that being one of the few white bhikkhu living in an entirely foreign culture was no easy path to serenity. Despite being there to conduct charitable work among orphans and the poor, country after country in Asia tried to kick him out, driving him to despair and the brink of suicide.

Read more: From heroin addict to nirvana: A eulogy to the British monk I met months before he died | VICE.com

Is Walkabout Cambodia's Sleaziest Bar?

VICE, Dec 1, 2012

I'm in one of the most disgusting freelancer bars in Cambodia. "It's like low tide," my Eton-educated companion snidely observes. Gazing out at the flotsam and jetsam of Phnom Penh's expat scene, I'm forced to agree. 

Smack in the middle of Phnom Penh's busy nightclub area, Walkabout is a bar and hotel that really doesn't have much going for it. Other than the fact it's open 24 hours and is the preferred hangout for dozens of the city's methamphetamine-ravaged prostitutes – or, as Cambodians euphemistically call them, taxi girls – and the sex pests who love them.

Read more: The Walkabout is Cambodia's Sleaziest Bar | VICE.com

Our Absinthe Orgy on a Cambodian Island Made the Spirits Mad

VICE, Oct 12, 2012

Cambodia as a whole is pretty fucking strange, but the islands that run along its coast are so secluded, so completely disassociated from the mainland, that it’s easy to understand why bizarre things often end up happening there. Like when a group of Westerners on the island of Koh ta Kiev lost the run of themselves in a booze-fuelled, karmically-toxic orgy.

Read more: Our Absinthe Orgy on a Cambodian Island Made the Spirits Mad | VICE.com