Vietnam overkill

You've got to love this story in the VietNamNet Bridge website, which puts the Cambodian press in the shadows. As far as I can make out I'm the only official press journalist from Cambodia covering the football competition at the moment. And it looks like I'm going to have my work cut out getting a word in edgeways with the hordes of Vietnamese reporters that have descended on the SEA Games. At the last count over 300, yes 300, Vietnamese journalists are already in town, to cover the football and the other sporting competitions, which begin on 9 December. VTV has sent 180 reporters and sub-editors, whilst VTV television, who covered the BIDC Cup in Phnom Penh recently, have sent 80 reporters and technicians, with another 40 staff covering the Games back in Vietnam. I think you can safely say they are taking this competition very seriously. On Monday morning I collected my press pass and I think it was the first one to be issued, though as soon as I collected it, a fleet of Vietnamese cars pulled up, camera-clicking journalists piled into the press center and all hell let loose. They took a picture of everything that moved, and didn't move, including my press pass. They didn't understand why a barang was covering the Games for Cambodia.