When you think of Cambodia; Angkor Wat, cheap bear, hot weather and Tomb Raider come to mind – but not shooting ranges with cows as the target – and definitely not getting eaten alive by a pack of wild monkeys. But that’s exactly what happened to Jason Durham from Texas.
Having never even left his home state, Jason really had no idea of what the world was like outside of the US. But one day when a friend told him that he had shot a cow with a rocket launcher on his trip to Cambodia – he was intrigued.
Though he couldn’t point to Cambodia on a map, and had possibly never seen a world map in his life, he decided he would travel there. The raw temptation of killing a large mammal with a rocket propelled grenade was too good to pass up.
When he arrived in Cambodia he was overwhelmed by the extreme humidity, poverty and the fact that no one could speak English. Still jetlagged, he quickly hopped on a bus and headed towards the shooting range in northern Cambodia.
With zero safety briefing or training, the staff simply handed him a bazooka and brought an unsuspecting cow out of the cattle stall.
Just as he pulled the trigger and fired off the RPG, a troop of Northern Pig-tailed Macaques came out of nowhere and ambushed him, ruining his shot and saving the cows life. The staff was apparently on lunch break so Jason was left to fend for himself.
When the staff returned, they surprisingly found the cow still alive, and a troop of 12 monkeys dragging Jason away into the jungle. There was not much the staff could do at that point. They returned to finish their Samlor korkor and wash down a few Angkor beers. Jason remains missing to this day.
