T he long-awaited overhaul of the FCC's menu is underway with the recent hiring

of Chef Gen. As readers will recall, Gen used to be at the FCC but moved on to

alternative endeavors because her culinary skills were too close to the cutting

edge. Well, she's back, and those who've tasted one of her latest concoctions

Buffalo Bert's Wings - were ecstatic. More delights are in the

works.

Chef Jen seems well-suited for the task of keeping the unruly FCC

crowd satiated. She was recently bitten by her pet monkey and fretted about the

possibility of rabies. No worries. The monkey died shortly

thereafter.

Have times changed? A recent visitor to the fabled Cu Chi

tunnel complex near HCM-ville reports that the old VC labyrinth is drawing

tourists in droves, mostly Japanese. The hook nowadays is the firing range where

you can rent an AK47 and, for $1 a bullet, try your hand at pretending you're on

the front lines. There are also platoons of young Vietnamese girls dressed in

black PJ's and rubber sandals to help out. One visitor speculated that the whole

operation, which includes videos for sale and refurbished underground rooms with

higher, fake ceilings to accomodate tourists may soon be re-named "Cong

World"?

A correction is in order. This column reported on the prahok

truck which sat rotting in the sun for ten days and caused motorists to detour

several kilometers to get away from the odor. Wrong. The vehicle was filled with

pre-prahok on its way to the prahok factory. Once made, prahok lasts and lasts

and lasts.

This report from the DMZ in Korea. Not surprisingly, all one

sees in the de-militarized zone are soldiers. Perhaps a name change is in order.

More importantly, the Gecko's reporter-at-large reports not seeing one soldier

either drunk, asleep under a tree, or pointing his gun at hapless road

travellers with demands for cash.

Those wishing to see some of Richard

Vogel's earlier photographic works can check out the Bayon market. Apparently

Vogel used to take more artistic shots. One of his pictures adorns a

mint-flavored condom on sale in the Bayon's home products

section.

Cambodian handy hint No. 1525: remember to haggle at the Post

Office. One seasoned expat managed to argue down a quote of 8,200 riel for a

letter to Honkers to just 6,500 riel. And after rejecting an inflexible 32,000

riel quote to post a small parcel back to Blighty, she sneaked back to a

different teller at a next-door counter and was told 21,000 riel: same parcel,

same destination.