It is always the same, the day before departure, I feel a tinge of sadness, cannot explain why, it is the sadness of a good bye, a temporary permanence now uprooted if that is possible.
I had stayed in Siem Reap for 10 days and it is extraordinarily long for me to stay in any one place. But the results were good, I was able to rest my mind and my body and was able to think clearly and put down some words.
In anthropology we have a nice concept of LIMINALITY which I think about a lot. It was formulated by the british anthropology Turner even though a dutch anthropologist had thought about it before. It is the state of mind or social situation when you are neither here or there.
Also I had to go around saying good bye to people. Khmer are wonderfully sweet and they show their emotions on their faces.
Stephane delapree a French naif art painter with a gallery in the main street and I had spent some time together and shared two lovely meals at KHEMA, a french restaurant (khmer roots). At the Mexican Restaurant we shared a Margarita.
OUR JUICE LADY OF SIEM REAP
just as you cross over the bridge, coming in from Wat Damnak area, there is a lady who has a stall selling fruit juices. Her name rhymes with Soc Trang and she is so warm and welcoming and always loading me up with fruits and other gifts and refusing to take payments for them! The poor are more generous than those who hold on to their bounty.
Please pay a visit to her and say Hello.. you would enjoy the encounter. She has a daughter who is in 9th Grade and speaks English but an be seen immersed in her smartphone which seems to be so common in many countries including Cambodia.
Siem Reap is full of shop fronts offering massages. They are not truly massages but the poor girls from the countryside with a little training try to squeeze the swelling out of your tired legs or backs. The same young lady gave me leg massages on consecutive days and I went to say goodbye to her and of course had a leg massage. (in Indonesia they call it Reflexology, but there it seemed to be a little bit more physiological)
Hong and I had become friends and each day I managed to squeeze in a NICE khmer Fusion meal at PAU near the hotel. Felt a little sad saying GoodBye.
The manager of the restaurants (there are two PAU in Siem Reap) was present and was equally expressive about a good bye.
I do hope i get to see these good innocent people.
PAU restaurant near my hotel Beyong Yangon Boutique Inn
I had become friends with the new manager Jean Lou from France at the Mollop Organic restaurant just a stone throw away from Beyond Yangon Boutique Inn.
This young girl was always present there and I said goodbye and told her that I would come back again (already this year this is my third visit)
Had a chance to say Goodbye to the lady who owns the laundry and her 4 year old daughter.
So this is the circle of friends in Siem Reap. Just everyday people struggling with their lives and keeping alive their dreams.
There are many more expatriates now than before. New persons I met on this visit (foreigners) were the french manager of Mollop Jean Lou, the two Cubans, the French manager of Khema, Celine.
And at Beyond Yangon Boutique Inn, I am always warmly welcomed by Ko Maung Maung and his wife and three children.
It was Ko Maung Maung who gave me my Burmese name, Aung Khant.
His youngest son, confessed that he did not know that I was his uncle and since then, always greeted me with a Mingalarbar.
I had stayed in Siem Reap for 10 days and it is extraordinarily long for me to stay in any one place. But the results were good, I was able to rest my mind and my body and was able to think clearly and put down some words.
In anthropology we have a nice concept of LIMINALITY which I think about a lot. It was formulated by the british anthropology Turner even though a dutch anthropologist had thought about it before. It is the state of mind or social situation when you are neither here or there.
Also I had to go around saying good bye to people. Khmer are wonderfully sweet and they show their emotions on their faces.
OUR JUICE LADY OF SIEM REAP
just as you cross over the bridge, coming in from Wat Damnak area, there is a lady who has a stall selling fruit juices. Her name rhymes with Soc Trang and she is so warm and welcoming and always loading me up with fruits and other gifts and refusing to take payments for them! The poor are more generous than those who hold on to their bounty.
Please pay a visit to her and say Hello.. you would enjoy the encounter. She has a daughter who is in 9th Grade and speaks English but an be seen immersed in her smartphone which seems to be so common in many countries including Cambodia.
I do hope i get to see these good innocent people.
This young girl was always present there and I said goodbye and told her that I would come back again (already this year this is my third visit)
Had a chance to say Goodbye to the lady who owns the laundry and her 4 year old daughter.
There are many more expatriates now than before. New persons I met on this visit (foreigners) were the french manager of Mollop Jean Lou, the two Cubans, the French manager of Khema, Celine.
And at Beyond Yangon Boutique Inn, I am always warmly welcomed by Ko Maung Maung and his wife and three children.
It was Ko Maung Maung who gave me my Burmese name, Aung Khant.
His youngest son, confessed that he did not know that I was his uncle and since then, always greeted me with a Mingalarbar.
