SHAKEDOWN AT THE BORDER OF RICHES

This faux 'Tropicana' casino is on the Thai - Cambodian border

I'm in the far east of Thailand, right on the border with Cambodia. I've only left Cambodia an hour ago, on what is known as a 'visa run'. Since my Cambodia visa is running out, I came here only long enough to cross the border to get a new passport stamp. Now that  I have it, I'm free to return to Khmer land. I'm in Thai territory only long enough to get a lunch of tom yam soup.

Finishing lunch, I walk back towards the border post. Passing souvenir shops, I get my Thai exit stamp at immigration, and I'm back on Cambodian land in the northwestern border town of Poipet. And yet, I'm not officially back in Cambodia at all. I'm in a strange 'no man's land', and it's filled with casinos! 

I once saw another Cambodian town dominated by casinos called Bavet,  but the setup  here is different. In Poipet the Cambodians built casinos packed tightly together, pushed almost up to the Thai border post. As I walk out of Thai immigration, the Cambodian immigration post is way out further beyond the casinos, almost a quarter mile down the road. Ingeniously, this allows Thai gamblers to walk onto Cambodian soil, gamble their money away, and then walk back to Thailand without having to get a Cambodian visa or passport stamp! This whole stretch of casinos, is basically a legal no man's land. Since you have no arrival stamp while you gamble in Poipet, you are not officially here!

I'm leaving Thai territory

Long before there were casinos here, there were periods when this was a no man's land due to armed conflict. There has been more than one gun battle fought along this border between the armies of Thailand and the Khmer Rouge. Even before then, there had been a standoff in Poipet between King Sihanouk's army and Thailand, as land dividing the two neighbors was in dispute. 

Some lands remain contested, but at least here in Poipet, both sides are content (at least for now) to let the only invaders be gamblers and tourists. Poipet is so oriented towards Thai gamblers, that the most accepted currency in town is the Thai Baht!

I don't fell like emptying my wallet today, so I pass by all the casinos, and walk into Cambodian immigration to get my visa. 

I pay the required US $20 in cash, and hand over my visa to the border policemen. Once it's processed, they refuse to give it back. I soon realize this is a shakedown; the two corrupt policemen behind the counter are trying to overcharge me for the visa! They are asking for double the price, demanding the extra money in Thai Baht. 

A strange strip of casinos stretches between the Thai and Cambodian border posts

I persistently repeat, again and again, that I don’t have any Thai Baht. After a few minutes of this back and forth argument, and with a growing line of impatient travelers behind me, the two corrupt border agents finally give up. 

They grudgingly return my passport. I walk back into Cambodia, and break into a smile over my small victory. 

I didn’t tell them that my extra money is in US dollars!

PEDOPHILE FIGHTER OF NHA TRANG

Nha Trang street scene, near the beach

One night I was out dining in a restaurant in the south, when the largest Vietnamese man I had ever seen approached me.

He asked,  “Would you take our picture?” 

I obliged, and taking his camera, snapped a photo of him and his wife, a beautiful blonde American. He had to be one of the tallest, most muscular men in all of Vietnam. I had no doubt that he was Vietnamese, but he spoke perfect English. I recognized him, but decided not to intrude on his privacy. I had just encountered Vietnam’s most famous refugee of today. The burly man was Dat Nguyen, former linebacker of the Dallas Cowboys in the National Football League.

The Vietnamese have a name for former refugees like Dat, that have returned to Vietnam. They call them Viet kieu, which means ‘returning Vietnamese’. Most of these refugees have returned in the years after the economy liberalized. Some like Dat Nguyen come back only to visit, while others move back for the long term and invest in local business. The Vietnamese who never left tend to view these returnees suspiciously, although they still do business with them.

In Nha Trang, I met a very unique returning refugee named Kim. She was one of the Viet Kieu who came back and stayed. Being of Chinese descent, her family fled as refugees in 1980, after the border war with China. At  the time the Vietnamese government was repressing the country’s ethnic Chinese.

“I lived in Canada,” Kim told me, but her stay there wasn’t permanent. After reaching adulthood, she returned to Nha Trang in the 1990’s as a teacher, and later opened a bar. Settling in for the long term, she became part of the community.

One day outside a pagoda, she was speaking to a Vietnamese street child, and was horrified to learn that the youngster was a child prostitute. Investigating further, she came to learn that child prostitution in Nha Trang had become a serious problem.

By 2002, Nha Trang had become a seedy location for pedophiles to meet their victims. The beach was littered with syringes, used condoms and other rubbish. The town had become a foreign pedophile magnet.

Unbelievably, local police paid little attention to the problem, even though some of these children were human trafficking victims. They had been brought down from a poor village in the north, forced to sell postcards in Nha Trang. When Kim tried to have some of the pedophiles arrested, the police told her, “What do you care? They’re not your children.”

Frustrated at their unwillingness to pursue these perverts, Kim and her Australian boyfriend began fighting the pedophiles themselves, sometimes literally. In more than one instance, they physically attacked these men.

“The police started calling me ‘Crazy Kim’, she told me in her pub. “That’s why I call this Crazy Kim’s Bar.”

'Crazy Kim' speaks to the children at her annual Christmas Party

As she sought to have the pedophiles prosecuted, she fed information to the local police, foreign police, and even to Interpol. Her Australian boyfriend helped with her crusade for a while, but he eventually left. The lack of action by local police was frustrating. Still, there was some progress. Two pedophiles who had been visiting Nha Trang, were convicted and imprisoned in Germany.

International media eventually brought the problem of foreign pedophiles in Vietnam to the world’s attention. In 2005, the infamous rock star Gary Glitter made headlines when he was arrested and convicted for abusing two underage Vietnamese girls in Vung Tau, another beach town further south. He was convicted, and spent two years and nine months in prison before being deported in 2008.

As Kim got to know the street kids better, she learned that none of the children were attending school. So she expanded her assistance to include education, and she opened a room adjacent to her bar as a one room schoolhouse.

Crazy Kim’s Bar also began selling t-shirts, emblazoned with the warning message, “Hands Off the Kids”. Some of the street children began wearing the shirts as well.

Seeing my interest in Kim’s work on behalf of the children, Kim said to me, “Next week we’re having a Christmas party for Nha Trang children. Would you like to come?”

How could I refuse? Most Vietnamese are Buddhists, but the spirit of giving at Christmas isn’t just for Christians. It’s a time to share with everyone, especially with children in need such as these.

I came to the party, and what a sight it was. The children packed the bar’s back room for the festivities. As I greeted Kim, one boy who looked about eight walked in, and immediately approached her. He gave Kim a big hug, before joining the party. As he walked away, Kim told me his situation. “His mother is a prostitute.”

Nha Trang's children enjoy themselves at Crazy Kim's Christmas party

Not all of the children attending were street kids, this party was inclusive. For the children from tough backgrounds, today was a day they could forget about their problems. Kim left me to attend to the party, and I watched the celebration in amazement. The children received Santa hats, and donated presents. Older children helped the younger kids with food and refreshments. For entertainment, they had a DJ, karaoke, and a hip-hop dancing show. The children ate it all up. A good time was had by all.
 
In recent years Nha Trang's beachfront has been mostly cleaned up, both of trash, and the pedophiles. Now it’s clean, suitable for family vacations. The beach is popular with foreigners and Vietnamese alike. 

With Nha Trang’s public image vastly improved, the beach town hosted the 2008 Miss Universe Pageant. Won by Miss Venezuela, the event was broadcast worldwide. With that kind of exposure, it’s no surprise that Nha Trang has become the most popular beach destination in all of Vietnam

Through Kim’s work protecting the children, and through her efforts to draw  public attention to the problem, the number of foreign pedophiles visiting Nha Trang has declined drastically. Today, her classroom continues teaching the kids, only now many of those attending are not just abused street children, but also kids from poor families.

Now in her 40s, Kim has put on a few pounds since those early years. She doesn’t have any children of her own, but one thing is certain. Kim’s efforts to protect Nha Trang’s street kids have saved countless Vietnamese children from sexual abuse. Vietnam's foreign pedophile problem has not been totally eliminated, but thanks to Kim, it has been reduced.

Who says that one person can’t make a difference?