I ended up staying the week in Kompong Thom, it was fairly productive as things go… and I managed to escape into a project and see some very old temples… in fact I actually took some photos and will attach them below if the connection is up to it.
Quick explanation… the temple type photos are Sambor Prei Kuk and are pre-ankgorian, that is 7th centaury which I think means over 1400 years old which all in all is pretty impressive, especially as no cement was used… I have decided temples are ok, but I think I actually preferred the forest they were in, some beautiful old trees, a lovely hot smell of wood and flowers, and all was so quiet apart from the beating of cricket wings. The other photos are of Kompong Thom… going there made me realise how flat Cambodia is… it is sooooo flat (well the middle bit I went to anyway)… you can see that the place is pretty green but also dry, the trees are all lush, but the rice fields are stubly empty dry waiting for the rains so that planting can commence. I really like the 'man sawing ice' photo... here in Cambodge the ice comes in large slabs and then people (or often small children scarily weilding axes) chop it up for your drinks... sometimes you see the ice slabs being transported on the back of a motorbike, half covered with cloth as if that would stop the sun melting the thing...
Oh yes and the final photo is marky boy drinking a cocktail… just to prove I did meet him in Singapore!
What else did I want to say… hmmm… oh yes I wanted to write some random thoughts on yesterday. Got up at 6.30 (grrr) to the sound of twinkle twinkle little star… tr la la it was coming from outside and kept going on and on and on… in the end I decided to throw some clothes on and go to the balcony to investigate… it was a funeral procession, a long line of children in white and blue school uniforms, followed by some men wearing white headbands with red (I think) squares painted on them… these men were dropping white material or paper on the street… then came the cortège, which appeared to be a sort of carnival float with dragons on the side… at this point wafts of incense came up to the balcony, and the twinkle twinkle hoot continued… then there were more people following the float carrying incense and flowers… that was about it really.
I worked in the morning, then went to the temples (photos above) for lunch. Here we met this random (quite sweet) old American man who was visiting his sponsored child. He spent a considerable amount of the lunch telling us how his favorite food was hot-dogs, and he bought them in bulk from cost-co. wicked.
At some point in the day I was given an orange scarf, woven by some women in an income generating project (obviously not generating too much income if they’re giving them away)… anyways for those who understand the orange significance it is very orange (in all senses of the word Hils) and I am most excited that it matched my orange flip flops… I have decided that the only way to be truly cooperate is to become a Buddhist monk as then I can wear an orange robe all day…
I got back to PP in the evening and went on a spending spree to buy fruit for my lovely blender (it is still most lovely) this morning I enjoyed the best mango smoothie ever… I also bought some brown bread but it tasted oddly sweet… wont be buying that again…
Last night was also quite bizarre… I still don’t really know that many people my age, but have met some older ex-pats through my friend at work… anyways we went to several bars (one on a boat with really chilled music… and another with a random live band which played ‘Roxanne’) anyway it was all quite enlightening… I discovered vodka ginger beer and lime is a very nice combination, and probably less evil than coke (a cola)… and I spent much time watching the cliché ‘older white picks up young Cambodian hottie… and then had to eat my thoughts (sort of) when I found out they were all married… it was good to be out, especially riding on the back of a moto with a warm breeze running past me… I got back home and managed to lock myself in my bedroom (ooops)… this morning getting out involved some cunning burglary techniques involving eyebrow tweezers and a comb… then I came downstairs to email and found out that 2 of my lovely lovely friends are getting married and I’m muchly muchly excited… now I’m going to eat some rice then go for a swim…
Oh yes one last thing… I was thinking something else… I remembered a quote or something… perhaps its just a phrase ‘thoughts come unbidden’ I think I noticed this in Mongolia… its quite nice, when you have more space and time to think, stuff you think you have forgotten pops into your head ‘unbidden’ … green rural England and the smell of ferns (random I know) … great big piles of snowy mountains and blasts of cold air… the autumn bonfire smell you get when crunching through piles of fallen leaves… yellow daffodils everywhere
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