American expat AARON DENNIS ADAIR goes postal in Kampot, Cambodia

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Re: American expat AARON DENNIS ADAIR goes postal in Kampot, Cambodia

Post by Doc67 »

CEOCambodiaNews wrote: Thu Jun 17, 2021 7:05 pm He's made the KT frontpage - fame at last:

June 17, 2021
American national goes on “rampage” in Kampot shop
Image
There was widespread anger in Kampot and social media yesterday over footage and images of a man – identified as an American national – who terrorised a shop keeper and caused damage to her store.

The images and video were posted up by the shopkeeper – known only as ‘Asrey Kampot’ – who was the unwilling target of what appears to have been an unprovoked attack by the man – who was not wearing a face-mask, in apparent defiance of Royal Government rules. It was also noted that he was not wearing a motorcycle helmet – again, breaking the laws of Cambodia.

‘Asrey’ appealed for help in finding and bringing the perpetrator to justice, saying:

Please, the police, please help the international community to catch a foreigner who destroyed my goods and abused my body without knowing the reason. Hope that the police will help to find justice.

Her pleas for justice came to fruition a few hours later, when the man was arrested by local police.
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50875658/v ... mpot-shop/
This is going from bad to worse for Aaron.

What could of been settled between shopkeeper and local police with an apology and a bit of money is now national news. The more publicity this gets the more an example will be made of him. The rights and wrongs of that phenomena is another matter.

These cameras are everywhere so if you have a habit of violent disorder, watch out!
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Re: American expat AARON DENNIS ADAIR goes postal in Kampot, Cambodia

Post by Freightdog »

It would be so much better if the Chinese were the only foreigners creating and getting all the negative publicity. Sadly, this does little for the rest of the expat community.
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Re: American expat AARON DENNIS ADAIR goes postal in Kampot, Cambodia

Post by Khmu Nation »

newkidontheblock wrote: Fri Jun 18, 2021 2:33 am Unfortunately Cambodia seems to attract many with mental illness and/or drug problems. Why is that?
At the risk of over sharing about my private life I think I am qualified to answer your question.

I moved to Saigon and one of the reasons was the availability of heroin there. It was very easy to obtain, 50% cheaper than in my native country and mostly superior in quality.

On top of this as a white person, albeit a woeful junkie, the dealers of Saigon treated me as a special customer. Being much richer than your average Viet addict and being a novelty as white customers were rare (I believe there were no more than 10 white junkies living long term in Saigon during the period I was there) it meant I was able to pick up heroin on credit and pay later. That would never happen back home. I even taught one dealer's son English a few of hours a week and was paid in heroin.

Along with this, junkies lives at home are inevitably a mess and the lucky ones, like me, who have the financial means to travel are always going to hit the road and get out of Dodge. Most addicts have few ties at home and all addicts are totally selfish so not much is keeping them from travel.

All addicts hate their lives so any opportunity to try a do over and they will have a go. In addict circles it's known as doing a geographical. Sure for most it means going somewhere new to clean up. For me it meant going somewhere I knew would be better for me as a heroin addict.

It's easy to find teaching work in this part of the world if you are a native speaker. I started out at international schools, real jobs, and got sacked from all of them. But even during my most extreme periods of using, when I was 20kg underweight, I still picked up regular cash in hand work that was poorly paid but paid nevertheless. And paid in cash, daily. I would teach three hours, collect my thirty bucks which bought me about 0.3g , enough gear to set me straight. Unheard of back home.

Another bonus was I didn't have to deal with my family and non addict mates hassling me about my drug use. Also, as totally selfish as this sounds, it was easier to get money out of my mother and father living in Vietnam than at home.. A phone call, a tall story, a medical procedure I needed and hey presto - 20 minutes later I'm at Western Union collecting $150.

Plus there is the unintended libertarian, laissez faire vibe of life out here that is a result of ineffective governance rather than intent. That's very attractive to many people, even more so to a freewheeling smackhead.

Plus as a junkie you get tied up in the narrative of your own life and there is something far more attractive as being a junkie in a sprawling se asian metropolis than some dead end grey suburban hell back home.

I miss almost nothing of my life as an addict but I am not going to lie there is one thing I do miss - getting on my motorbike as the sun is coming up over Saigon, driving over the river into Q.1, picking up some white heroin off a man in an alleyway who always greeted me with a smile and then heading to a coffee shop for a boot in the toilet followed by a cafe sua da on a terrace watching Saigon wake up and come to life, before heading to my easy teaching job.

versus

standing about in the dark and cold on a bleak social housing estate, waiting for an extremely aggressive young man on a bicycle to show up to serve about 20 other junkies at the same time and having the dude spit the drugs out of his mouth and you having to put them in your mouth to scurry of to a stinking train station toilet to boot in a cubicle and then onto a crowded train for a horrendous day in the office.

It's a no brainer.

And there you have it - a few reasons why alot of crazy people end up here.

( Disclaimer: I am no longer a junkie and have been clean for about 5 years. )
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Re: American expat AARON DENNIS ADAIR goes postal in Kampot, Cambodia

Post by jaynewcastle »

newkidontheblock wrote: Fri Jun 18, 2021 2:33 am Unfortunately Cambodia seems to attract many with mental illness and/or drug problems. Why is that?
Plenty of the local population also seem to have such issues (per the regular threads on here), so they feel more welcome perhaps, availability of drugs much easier & cheaper, and they often don't have loads of money, so somewhere cheap & poor with little law enforcement is also very appealing
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Re: American expat AARON DENNIS ADAIR goes postal in Kampot, Cambodia

Post by La Quenta »

Khmu Nation wrote: Fri Jun 18, 2021 11:49 am
newkidontheblock wrote: Fri Jun 18, 2021 2:33 am Unfortunately Cambodia seems to attract many with mental illness and/or drug problems. Why is that?
At the risk of over sharing about my private life I think I am qualified to answer your question.

I moved to Saigon and one of the reasons was the availability of heroin there. It was very easy to obtain, 50% cheaper than in my native country and mostly superior in quality.

On top of this as a white person, albeit a woeful junkie, the dealers of Saigon treated me as a special customer. Being much richer than your average Viet addict and being a novelty as white customers were rare (I believe there were no more than 10 white junkies living long term in Saigon during the period I was there) it meant I was able to pick up heroin on credit and pay later. That would never happen back home. I even taught one dealer's son English a few of hours a week and was paid in heroin.

Along with this, junkies lives at home are inevitably a mess and the lucky ones, like me, who have the financial means to travel are always going to hit the road and get out of Dodge. Most addicts have few ties at home and all addicts are totally selfish so not much is keeping them from travel.

All addicts hate their lives so any opportunity to try a do over and they will have a go. In addict circles it's known as doing a geographical. Sure for most it means going somewhere new to clean up. For me it meant going somewhere I knew would be better for me as a heroin addict.

It's easy to find teaching work in this part of the world if you are a native speaker. I started out at international schools, real jobs, and got sacked from all of them. But even during my most extreme periods of using, when I was 20kg underweight, I still picked up regular cash in hand work that was poorly paid but paid nevertheless. And paid in cash, daily. I would teach three hours, collect my thirty bucks which bought me about 0.3g , enough gear to set me straight. Unheard of back home.

Another bonus was I didn't have to deal with my family and non addict mates hassling me about my drug use. Also, as totally selfish as this sounds, it was easier to get money out of my mother and father living in Vietnam than at home.. A phone call, a tall story, a medical procedure I needed and hey presto - 20 minutes later I'm at Western Union collecting $150.

Plus there is the unintended libertarian, laissez faire vibe of life out here that is a result of ineffective governance rather than intent. That's very attractive to many people, even more so to a freewheeling smackhead.

Plus as a junkie you get tied up in the narrative of your own life and there is something far more attractive as being a junkie in a sprawling se asian metropolis than some dead end grey suburban hell back home.

I miss almost nothing of my life as an addict but I am not going to lie there is one thing I do miss - getting on my motorbike as the sun is coming up over Saigon, driving over the river into Q.1, picking up some white heroin off a man in an alleyway who always greeted me with a smile and then heading to a coffee shop for a boot in the toilet followed by a cafe sua da on a terrace watching Saigon wake up and come to life, before heading to my easy teaching job.

versus

standing about in the dark and cold on a bleak social housing estate, waiting for an extremely aggressive young man on a bicycle to show up to serve about 20 other junkies at the same time and having the dude spit the drugs out of his mouth and you having to put them in your mouth to scurry of to a stinking train station toilet to boot in a cubicle and then onto a crowded train for a horrendous day in the office.

It's a no brainer.

And there you have it - a few reasons why alot of crazy people end up here.

( Disclaimer: I am no longer a junkie and have been clean for about 5 years. )
Thanks for your story.

I'm never been hooked on H - or even tried it - so its interesting to hear about the lifestyle associated with it. It's always been foreign to me, as i've always been a weed n beer guy and never knew anyone who did H.

Interesting reflections on the east v west thing too. You've hit the nail on the head with the laissez faire approach to life. That's why I am in South East Asia. Back home I feel like i'm living in a regimented straightjacket, surrounded by people with very narrow cultural interests.

There are plenty of nutcase expats in SE Asia, but for every nutcase you meet, there is a really interesting individual you meet too. For me, even though it's not my homeland, I actually find it far easier to make friends in SE Asia. Whereas back home, even though ive got quite a number of friends, I still feel 'isolated'
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Re: American expat AARON DENNIS ADAIR goes postal in Kampot, Cambodia

Post by Khmu Nation »

Yeah, the simple answer is whether junkie or not life is better out in se asia if you are a person (usually a man) of a certain age and background. Now I have quit drugs my life here is pleasant, unfettered, simple. I also have a wife who is not only easy on the eye but she has the values I look for in a woman, she is also a great mom to my kids.

Politically I am a libertarian who absolutely believes in laissez-faire and I also don't believe in things like the welfare state etc which is a feature of life out here.

I got into Heroin to numb the terrible restrictive blandness of crap life in my incredibly expensive home city, a life permanently lived under ominous grey clouds - literally and metaphorically.

I also think 'the west' is showing all the signs of The Fall Of Rome and it's a culture in sharp decline and in some places is on the edge of collapse, but thats a whole bigger topic.

Very grateful to be clean AND to be here - they are without doubt linked I have done a successful 'geographical' as I would never have cleaned up back home.
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Re: American expat AARON DENNIS ADAIR goes postal in Kampot, Cambodia

Post by Bitte_Kein_Lexus »

Khmu Nation wrote:
newkidontheblock wrote: Fri Jun 18, 2021 2:33 am Unfortunately Cambodia seems to attract many with mental illness and/or drug problems. Why is that?
At the risk of over sharing about my private life I think I am qualified to answer your question.

I moved to Saigon and one of the reasons was the availability of heroin there. It was very easy to obtain, 50% cheaper than in my native country and mostly superior in quality.

On top of this as a white person, albeit a woeful junkie, the dealers of Saigon treated me as a special customer. Being much richer than your average Viet addict and being a novelty as white customers were rare (I believe there were no more than 10 white junkies living long term in Saigon during the period I was there) it meant I was able to pick up heroin on credit and pay later. That would never happen back home. I even taught one dealer's son English a few of hours a week and was paid in heroin.

Along with this, junkies lives at home are inevitably a mess and the lucky ones, like me, who have the financial means to travel are always going to hit the road and get out of Dodge. Most addicts have few ties at home and all addicts are totally selfish so not much is keeping them from travel.

All addicts hate their lives so any opportunity to try a do over and they will have a go. In addict circles it's known as doing a geographical. Sure for most it means going somewhere new to clean up. For me it meant going somewhere I knew would be better for me as a heroin addict.

It's easy to find teaching work in this part of the world if you are a native speaker. I started out at international schools, real jobs, and got sacked from all of them. But even during my most extreme periods of using, when I was 20kg underweight, I still picked up regular cash in hand work that was poorly paid but paid nevertheless. And paid in cash, daily. I would teach three hours, collect my thirty bucks which bought me about 0.3g , enough gear to set me straight. Unheard of back home.

Another bonus was I didn't have to deal with my family and non addict mates hassling me about my drug use. Also, as totally selfish as this sounds, it was easier to get money out of my mother and father living in Vietnam than at home.. A phone call, a tall story, a medical procedure I needed and hey presto - 20 minutes later I'm at Western Union collecting $150.

Plus there is the unintended libertarian, laissez faire vibe of life out here that is a result of ineffective governance rather than intent. That's very attractive to many people, even more so to a freewheeling smackhead.

Plus as a junkie you get tied up in the narrative of your own life and there is something far more attractive as being a junkie in a sprawling se asian metropolis than some dead end grey suburban hell back home.

I miss almost nothing of my life as an addict but I am not going to lie there is one thing I do miss - getting on my motorbike as the sun is coming up over Saigon, driving over the river into Q.1, picking up some white heroin off a man in an alleyway who always greeted me with a smile and then heading to a coffee shop for a boot in the toilet followed by a cafe sua da on a terrace watching Saigon wake up and come to life, before heading to my easy teaching job.

versus

standing about in the dark and cold on a bleak social housing estate, waiting for an extremely aggressive young man on a bicycle to show up to serve about 20 other junkies at the same time and having the dude spit the drugs out of his mouth and you having to put them in your mouth to scurry of to a stinking train station toilet to boot in a cubicle and then onto a crowded train for a horrendous day in the office.

It's a no brainer.

And there you have it - a few reasons why alot of crazy people end up here.

( Disclaimer: I am no longer a junkie and have been clean for about 5 years. )
Interesting story and good on your for getting clean.
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Re: American expat AARON DENNIS ADAIR goes postal in Kampot, Cambodia

Post by Pseudonomdeplume »

Khmu Nation wrote: Fri Jun 18, 2021 11:49 am
newkidontheblock wrote: Fri Jun 18, 2021 2:33 am Unfortunately Cambodia seems to attract many with mental illness and/or drug problems. Why is that?
At the risk of over sharing about my private life I think I am qualified to answer your question.

I moved to Saigon and one of the reasons was the availability of heroin there. It was very easy to obtain, 50% cheaper than in my native country and mostly superior in quality.

On top of this as a white person, albeit a woeful junkie, the dealers of Saigon treated me as a special customer. Being much richer than your average Viet addict and being a novelty as white customers were rare (I believe there were no more than 10 white junkies living long term in Saigon during the period I was there) it meant I was able to pick up heroin on credit and pay later. That would never happen back home. I even taught one dealer's son English a few of hours a week and was paid in heroin.

Along with this, junkies lives at home are inevitably a mess and the lucky ones, like me, who have the financial means to travel are always going to hit the road and get out of Dodge. Most addicts have few ties at home and all addicts are totally selfish so not much is keeping them from travel.

All addicts hate their lives so any opportunity to try a do over and they will have a go. In addict circles it's known as doing a geographical. Sure for most it means going somewhere new to clean up. For me it meant going somewhere I knew would be better for me as a heroin addict.

It's easy to find teaching work in this part of the world if you are a native speaker. I started out at international schools, real jobs, and got sacked from all of them. But even during my most extreme periods of using, when I was 20kg underweight, I still picked up regular cash in hand work that was poorly paid but paid nevertheless. And paid in cash, daily. I would teach three hours, collect my thirty bucks which bought me about 0.3g , enough gear to set me straight. Unheard of back home.

Another bonus was I didn't have to deal with my family and non addict mates hassling me about my drug use. Also, as totally selfish as this sounds, it was easier to get money out of my mother and father living in Vietnam than at home.. A phone call, a tall story, a medical procedure I needed and hey presto - 20 minutes later I'm at Western Union collecting $150.

Plus there is the unintended libertarian, laissez faire vibe of life out here that is a result of ineffective governance rather than intent. That's very attractive to many people, even more so to a freewheeling smackhead.

Plus as a junkie you get tied up in the narrative of your own life and there is something far more attractive as being a junkie in a sprawling se asian metropolis than some dead end grey suburban hell back home.

I miss almost nothing of my life as an addict but I am not going to lie there is one thing I do miss - getting on my motorbike as the sun is coming up over Saigon, driving over the river into Q.1, picking up some white heroin off a man in an alleyway who always greeted me with a smile and then heading to a coffee shop for a boot in the toilet followed by a cafe sua da on a terrace watching Saigon wake up and come to life, before heading to my easy teaching job.

versus

standing about in the dark and cold on a bleak social housing estate, waiting for an extremely aggressive young man on a bicycle to show up to serve about 20 other junkies at the same time and having the dude spit the drugs out of his mouth and you having to put them in your mouth to scurry of to a stinking train station toilet to boot in a cubicle and then onto a crowded train for a horrendous day in the office.

It's a no brainer.

And there you have it - a few reasons why alot of crazy people end up here.

( Disclaimer: I am no longer a junkie and have been clean for about 5 years. )
Thanks a lot for your story, man. Great to hear how it is, rather than clueless rants on here from the holier-than-thou codgers complaining about the loser user. Almost any wrong-doing gets meth-associated (they'll say, "probably because it is", but label 1 unjustly and all the correct "guesses" are dismissed). If people are interested in your story (a lot of positive presses), monetise it. A couple of other positives; "Users don't lose drugs" and, there's only 3 sleeps 'til Xmas.
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Re: American expat AARON DENNIS ADAIR goes postal in Kampot, Cambodia

Post by John Bingham »

I found Cambodia sobering. I was never a junkie or addict as such but I did party hard.I lived in London when I first came here and casual drug use by all sorts from company directors to street people was normal.
So when I got here I noticed the place was dark and sketchy. I wanted my wits about me so avoided getting too wasted after that. Also I was about 32 and ready for a change. I'm not any angel, I just got bored of being in a mess. All good.
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Re: American expat AARON DENNIS ADAIR goes postal in Kampot, Cambodia

Post by Pseudonomdeplume »

John Bingham wrote: Sat Jun 19, 2021 6:24 pm I found Cambodia sobering. I was never a junkie or addict as such but I did party hard.I lived in London when I first came here and casual drug use by all sorts from company directors to street people was normal.
So when I got here I noticed the place was dark and sketchy. I wanted my wits about me so avoided getting too wasted after that. Also I was about 32 and ready for a change. I'm not any angel, I just got bored of being in a mess. All good.
you are one of the lucky, or smart, or lucky to be smart, ones. You can get hooked on a clear head and productivity. Or for addictive natures, like mine, swap the bad for good, like workaholic, or (what's that you get from exercise?), even sexaholic however, the latter could get expensive, so you might want a partner.
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