Here we are again at the end of what must be one of the oddest years in living memory and yet we seem to have survived it and seen the world change in ways that we had not even conceived were possible. Let me begin by saying that I hope there have been some fun times and memorable moments this year despite the difficulties and the challenges.
Like so many others we have had a rather quiet and uneventful year, and now consider ourselves to be fortunate that we are able to say that. Although the pandemic situation in Cambodia has been largely contained with fewer than 360 recorded cases to date and no fatalities, it has of course impacted on daily life and business and the economic repercussions are enormous for a country almost totally dependent on tourism and foreign, largely Chinese, investment. The first community transmission was about 3 weeks ago and while it at first seemed to have been contained and traced, isolated pockets of positive cases are now appearing in several of the most outlying provinces. I for one am hoping that vaccines save the day and that sanity prevails and people avail of them so that travel can once again become an option.
It is in fact hard to know if the stats are accurate or not but we continue to be cautious and rarely do much beside teaching our monks, shopping and having a few friends over. We still attend markets as sellers for a local NGO but there have been very few this year and none of them successful. Most vendors only spend what they themselves make so the same few dollars circulate among the same few people. IWA, who we go for, is more concerned about keeping their name in the public arena so sales are not so significant and remarkably enough a few of our eco-wraps to support the monks always sell.
We are happy with our decision to remain here and have felt it to be a rather fortunate position to be in. Up until a couple of weeks ago we were still teaching our delightful little monks, who after three years are actually not so little anymore and of course are an ever-evolving and changing group: some of the original twelve remain but new arrivals come and old buddies leave and some of them even return. Such is the nature of the situation these desperately poor kids find themselves in and we really still don't completely fathom what inspires their decisions. There have been short breaks when schools closed and then when we made a short domestic trip but mostly all was going well. Even when school didn’t reopen, we decided to continue as there are only eight to twelve of them and there is so little else in their lives.
That of course changed in late November when I slipped in water in the main hall of the pagoda and fractured my left kneecap. I was convinced it was only dislocated. I actually don’t even know if that’s possible but I’m ever the optimist and was shocked to hear talk of surgery when we finally arrived at a hospital. Ian claims to have expected it from the onset! Nonetheless I was lucky and counting my blessings when surgery was performed only seven hours after the fall. One screw, two pins and a figure eight loop of wire now hold my kneecap together and I’m trying not to overdo the physio exercises while being diligent and committed to regaining the complete range of motion and flexibility. It’s a tall order at my age but I am hoping that cycling, hiking and swimming will again be possible sometime in January. Did I mention that I am the eternal optimist? We also hope to return to teaching the little monks at that time but we are reassured that we are not forgotten and are sorely missed by the fact that they have visited us at home and performed blessings twice in the last month.
For almost nine months of this year we had a house guest, who we had invited to stay with us when he lost his job in January. When the pandemic struck it seemed no-one else would have any need to avail of our guestroom this year although well over a dozen people had had intentions to do so, so he simply stayed on. In October we decide to ask him to leave. I’m not sure if it was a case of “all things must pass” or “all’s well that ends well” but we are glad to once again have our quiet little haven to ourselves and privacy restored, especially now that I am in recovery mode and largely housebound.
I guess the big highlight of our year was in October when we were able to take a two-week domestic trip. This was originally the plan in March when it was intended to be my birthday trip. At that time, we made it to the capital and then started to rethink when there was a very real possibility of travel between provinces being banned or restricted. Having no desire to be stranded in either Battambang or Siem Reap, we hightailed it back to our cosy little home in Kep and decided to wait out the storm. Like many other people at that point we were of the firm belief that all would be well before the end of the year.
Not so, but the situation in Cambodia was and thankfully still is far from dire so we managed to ignore both birthdays and celebrate our wedding anniversary with domestic travel instead. Despite it being the wet season, it was a fabulous time to be on the move. We had good weather and not too much rain and managed to visit all the places we had hoped to with almost no other tourists in sight. This was both a blessing and a shock. The largely empty streets and many closed businesses in places usually teeming with life was eerie and the Angkor Wat Temple complex in particular a very eye-opening experience. Monkeys, snakes and all manner of other wildlife seemed to be taking up residence and reclaiming their dominance. I was, in fact, somewhat frightened of both the monkeys and the snakes when we were the only people anywhere to be seen. An atmosphere of sadness pervaded the quiet in many of the nearly abandoned temples. This was our third visit and it still awes and amazes but it felt decidedly disconcerting to see so few other travellers there or in Siem Reap itself.
Kep, and Cambodia in general, is very much a great place to be even while nursing an injury. I am taking refuge in good books and having read almost every English book available in our dear friend Yary’s library, I am now back to digital reading and enjoying the ride through classics and new titles. We are happy here and in fact better off than we would have been in Australia as hindsight has proved.
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Let me end by wishing you all very happy celebrations over the coming weeks. There is still a lot to be thankful for and I fully intend to make the most of the time to spend with the dear friends we have here. I have my fingers crossed for a better, more joyous and freer world in 2021. One that might involve more than local travel and many more social gatherings with time to spend on the things we love. I also hope that there will be plenty of good food and wine, good cheer and a lot to celebrate.
