Feeding Hungry Ghosts

Everyone ready for 

Pchum Ben (បុណ្យភ្ជុំបិណ្ឌ)? 

In Cambodia, the 15 days prior to the 15th day of the tenth month in the Khmer calendar, at the end of the Buddhist lent, or Vassa, lead up to Ancestor's Day or the Hungry Ghost Festival. The last day of the 15 is Pchum Ben and starts a two-day public holiday.

On the first day of Pchum Ben, the gates of hell are opened and the devil releases all the ghosts, some of who are ancestors of the people. Monks chant the sutras in Pali (not Khmer) before the gates of hell open releasing the hungry ghosts. 

As the ghosts with serious sins cannot receive food during the day, food offerings (usually Bay Ben -- balls of sticky rice and sesame) are presented at dawn.

Wat Neang Kok, Cambodia

The story of a story

When J. Lee Porter and I were writing CRYPTO SHRUGGED and researching the Bitpat series, we made a trip to Colombia -- the scene of some of the action. The stories we envisioned were about the global ramifications of cryptocurrency, in big and small ways.

We managed to spend time in both Cartagena and Medellin. Both were great, but in completely different ways.

In Cartagena, we managed to rent a place in the old district, just walking distance from the Walled City. We went there several times, and an idea for a short story, actually based on some experiences Jeff had in Mexico, started to bloom. In Medellin, we talked about how it would develop. At the end of the trip I was flying back through Cartagena, so I got a room in the walled city and revisited some of the places that inspired us.

The short story, INVISIBLE FORTUNE, worked well enough that we made it into an audiobook, narrated by John Witstijn, who did an incredible job.

To let people know it exists, I took the photos and videos I'd taken on the trip and combined them with John's intro to the book and some of my music, to create a teaser that's also something of a travelogue -- an introduction to Cartagena. I hope you enjoy it.