Cambodia's New Money

Apparently this is the new residence of the bossman of Cambodia's Royal Group, Kith Meng. Royal Group is behind the terrifically financial ANZ Royal Bank, Mobitel and CTN television (where too much out of tune live karaoke is never enough out of tune live karaoke). Anyway, who cares? This house is just unbelievably fucking huge. There was the Colloseum, there was Angkor Wat, and now there is this; what we believe to be Kith Meng's house on Norodom Blvd, Phnom Penh. Check out the fucking size of this house!

4 Corners recently ran a story on land issues affecting Phnom Penh. Among those who had inky ABC journo fingers pointed at them (for contributing to the problem of the landless poor in Phnom Penh through dubious land deals) were (blam!) Royal Group and (zing!) the Australian Embassy. But who cares? Check out the size of this house! It's massive. Blue Whale massive. And wait til it's finished. I'm guessing it will be even bigger when it is finished. Things tend to get bigger as you near completion. Take blue whale pregnancies, for example, or 'blogs'.

Or patronage systems. This seems like a good place to add that there is a rumour around town that Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen once tried to adopt Kith Meng as his son. I think it had a lot to do with how much he deeply loved the man. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was mostly about their emotions. These days, men are expected to be emotional, as well as business savvy. Anyway, their emotions weren't strong enough to legally unite them as, um, Prime Minister and adopted mega-illionaire son-guy, so they remain sadly apart to this day. At least as far as the law goes. And they say those North-South Korea family separation stories are sad!

Truth be told, Kith Meng is a remarkable story - son of a wealthy father killed off by the Khmer Rouge, shipped off to Australia as a youngster, returns to fucked-up mother country to do serious business, and kicks ass. Power to him, I guess.

Anyway, check out the size of this house. It's so big that you could legally adopt some blue whales, pump in Atlantic sea water, and still manage to lose them! A year later, you could stagger home drunk, take the wrong elevator, accidentally end up in the east wing, and rediscover them, frollicking, chasing krill and spouting off, oblivious to the fact that they live in the home of a (we suspect) Cambodian-Australian businessman. "You bloody whales!" you'd mutter, as you closed the door and headed back down the stairs. The house is so big, that it is not impossible that it could be two more years after that before you re-discovered them, by which time they could have produced at least one offspring, given the right breeding conditions.

It's probably worth using this space for a shout out to the other Royal Group, the ROYAL FAMILY OF CAMBODIA. They may be irrelevant, but they sure are um, relevant to any discussion of Royal Groups in Cambodia. I personally think it bloody cheeky to pinch the name 'Royal' when you're actually not a god-king. Mind you, their house isn't all that impressive.