Erika Kinetz writes an article about Christmas in Cambodia. Western influence and economic growth have led Khmer teenager to say that “We love Christmas. It’s cool”.
As Cambodia’s economy has grown, so too has the nation’s fascination with this most Western of holidays. Employees at Phnom Penh’s favorite mall, the Sorya shopping center, donned fuzzy red and white Santa hats this week.
johnberkoski has a post about Siem Reap town, telling some little different about it from Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s largest capital city.
However, upon tripping into the central market area, the scene was more reminiscent of a small-town version of Phnom Penh, albeit without as much dirt and visible poverty. The upstart of tourism in the past 10 years in this town seems to have brought much prosperity to the locals.
National Geographic has recently published some photo of Cambodia’s most famous Angkor Wat. The first photograph was taken by Glen Allison; the second one is an aerial view of the religious complex; the third and fourth is a computer illustration. In other news, a new research study on Angkor city, calling for Cambodia to be more vigilant in its efforts to conserve a centuries-old heritage, has been recently published in a U.S. science journal.
Akshay, originally from Mumbai of India, has an interesting post with some stunning still images of the Cambodian capital.
I’ve found my favorite way to travel in Phnom Penh is by cyclos. They’re the opposite of cycle-rickshaw in India as they pretty much resemble a wide wheel chair attached to a cycle. You just take a seat and pay the driver to wheel around the city as you bounce and laugh as the driver pedals you the congested city streets.
Akshay at Trivial Matters has some good pictures of the Great Lake’s floating villages.
I fell in love, of course, with the elemental power and beauty of the waterways of Cambodia. An entrancing waterlogged world, a stream so abundant and all-providing, a true river of life for its millions.
Blogger Andy Brouwer introduces two new books on Cambodia: ‘Images of Cambodia’ and ‘Bun’s Story - Tomorrow I’m Dead’.
Dutch photographer and artist Eric de Vries loves Asia and you can see that love in his photographic books, one of which, Images of Cambodia was published by Cleartrails last year. The 200-page book has de Vries’ black & white and colour photos taken between 2000-2005 and includes the complete series from his 2005 exhibitions in Phnom Penh and the Netherlands.
Bun’s Story - Tomorrow I’m Dead
…is first book, Bun’s Story - Tomorrow I’m Dead, tells the story of the Khmer Rouge takeover and how it affected the fifteen year old Bun from Pailin, who later became a freedom fighter before his flight to the States via the Philippines.
In 2001, Reyum Institute started a research project on paintings in Wats (Buddhist temples). The aim of the project was to photograph the mural paintings found in most Wats in Cambodia as well as collecting data about the temples through interviews. San Phalla, who just graduated from the Department of Archaeology in Phnom Penh, was the first researcher to conduct the field research. Because most of temples tend to replace old paintings by recovering them with new ones, or simply knocking down the buildings themselves, we were faced with the urgency to document as many temples as possible instead of studying each of them in details. Thus we could not study each of them in details.
For more than six years, from 2001 to 2006, San Phalla and other fellow young researchers Tho Pisey, Thon Sopheak visited more than 600 Wats in all over Cambodia and took over 20,000 photographs of temple paintings along with brief notes on each temple. Our choice to document prove to be a good one as today several temples we surveyed have been knocked down and replaced with new structures without any documentations.
Most paintings found in Wats depict Buddhist themes such as Buddha’s last life before entering the Nirvana, or his previous lives, known as Jataka (ten last previous births). But more specifically, there are also scenes from the Reamker (Khmer version of the Ramayana) as well as popular themes such as local folktales.
In 2004, when we started to review the collected data, we came to realize that not only we should organize it so that it can be accessed and used by scholars and the general public, but also the idea of compiling a book and mounting an exhibition based on the photographs came along. The book and exhibition would raise awareness about the topic among the general public. And it is our hope that the data we collected so far would contribute as a resource for further research and advance our understanding of Cambodian culture.
We would like to take this opportunity to express our profound gratitude to all those who have given us supports and encouragement. We wish to thank also the Toyota foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Albert Kunstadter Family Foundation, the Prince Claus Fund for their financial support to this project.
Travel writer Andy Broewer posted a press release on a to-be-published Cambodia guidebook, ‘To Cambodia with Love‘. As an editor himself, he’s been working with many people living and traveling throughout Cambodia. Some interesting travel notes from these people will be compiled for the new guidebook, one that differs from many others that include recommended hotels, restaurants, and places to visits.
The editor of To Cambodia With Love will be…me! For the last few months, I’ve been badgering a lot of people, all of whom live in or have travelled extensively throughout – and are all united in their love of – Cambodia. My desire is to produce a guidebook that reflects that love and affection in every one of its pages. Watch this space for more news of this exciting and unique guidebook.
In recent post of a photoblogger at mythicaldude, you’ll find some black and white pictures of the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, taken in heat of April.
Its too damned hot to be out in the mid-day sun right now in Cambodia, so other than a couple of hours of early morning or sunset light when the temperature is tolerable, I’ve been walking around many of the cool and shady alleys here in the Kingdom’s capital city.
Travel blogger Chel & Sois has an interesting post on a trip in Kampong Cham province in the mighty Mekong river delta, once an important trading town during the French occupation.
We were only there for a day. Within this short time period we visited the local market and had some great food, but the highlight was a bikeride through the countryside, including a visit to a local temple, school, and tobacco plantation. Another cool feature was that we crossed the Mekong river by a bamboo bridge.