oNe PhOtO a DaY SePtEmBeR 2022:

 

SEPTEMBER 1st SOMETHING, I SAW: yesterday was a brochure about special screenings of new release Asian films in Phnom Penh.  I immediately noticed this one which is a Tibetan documentary. Tonight, with only a handful of others I saw it on the big screen

SEPTEMBER 2nd PLASTIC: waste is a huge problem here and yet there are cheap, viable, sustainable, aesthetic alternatives readily available. Even this vendor has the requisite plastic cup, lid and straw despite his wares. Baskets, banana leaves, lotus leaves and other traditional alternatives are still being used and I believe actually making a comeback, gauging from the number of times I have received purchases wrapped in lotus leaves. I even found a place to buy them for home use yesterday. Say no to plastic

 

SEPTEMBER 3rd PAPER: I’ve always been a collector (some might say hoarder) of paper items. Even as a kid I loved stationery stores and spent any spare cash there. I especially love to buy postcards and greeting cards but handmade paper, wrapping paper, stickers, origami paper and even fliers get added periodically and used and gifted too. This is a flat lay of part of the current mostly local collection

 

SEPTEMBER 4th SOMEWHERE I WENT: Today I went for a walk along riverside for the first time in over two weeks. How could I resist taking a shot of those dramatic monsoon skies over the Royal Palace?

 

SEPTEMBER 5th HOBBY: One of my many hobbies is writing and after years of travel journals, diaries and poems in 2011, I started writing a blog. Recently it has been mostly PAD photo summaries but I promised myself to write more entries again when we moved to Phnom Penh. So far, I have kept that promise and today I published my latest blog on my experiences of Tibetan Culture

 

SEPTEMBER 6th GREEN + BLUE: = decor. One of the three matching  blue pots I bought to co-ordinate with the hall stand a couple of weeks ago. My mother always said, “blue and green should not be seen without a colour in between” but I never got it and always thought it looked lovely as a combination. Think of a peacock

 

SEPTEMBER 7th BEFORE BED: Every night for over seven years, I have written three things I’m grateful for that day and added photos in the gratitude app. It has had a profound effect on my wellbeing and mental health and I encourage anyone struggling to give it a go

SEPTEMBER 8th AN EMOTION: A little pensive and a little hopeful would be the best I can muster right now. This month’s selfie on the terrace with a prayer flag is now done and dusted

 

SEPTEMBER 9th OPPOSITES: Phnom Penh, like so many others, is a city of juxtapositions so I present the opposites of development versus heritage.

 

Second choice

 

SEPTEMBER 10th I CAN HEAR: monks chanting in the street and through the temple loud speakers most mornings but today is Mid-Autumn Festival. The streets were really teeming with people and droves of monks. This one is chanting and sprinkling water on the stall holders in the market as a blessing

 

SEPTEMBER 11th PAINT: I made an offering in the main prayer hall at Wat Phnom this morning. I find many of the murals in Theravada Buddhist temples very gaudy but the paint in this one is subtle and subdued. Maybe it’s the age or the effect of the constant smoke from candles and incense or maybe things were done differently in the era that this one was founded. The walls and ceiling as always tell the life story of Buddha but these are exquisite

 

SEPTEMBER 12th SYMMETRY: We bought this beautiful Buddha statue when we had just decided to buy our apartment and it’s symmetrical. The Mundra or hand gesture is the Varada mundra pose, which is customarily used whenever a blessing is being offered. It is highly unusual for both hands to be in an identical pose and that was part of its appeal for me. It now lives in our bedroom and the blessing is more than welcome as Ian is spending so much time there healing

 

SEPTEMBER 13th TASTY: This was Sunday night dinner for Mid-Autumn Festival which should be a family feast with mooncakes. We don’t actually like them that much so I made a couple of my favourite Chinese dishes instead. Garlic bolts with eggs and rice and spicy tofu hotpot. Both were very tasty

 

SEPTEMBER 13th ODD ONE OUT: in terms of model, brand, age, condition and parking style too! Parking Phnom Penh style

 

SEPTEMBER 15th A FOOD SHOP: This is a typical local food and everything else shop street-side in the capital. Lots of snacks and drinks and staples and at this time of year the yellow wrapped packages, which contain supplies for the monks. Families buy them to take to the pagoda during the 15-day festival which began last Saturday

 

SEPTEMBER 16th 12:34- At exactly this time today I was sitting on the terrace feet up with a cold drink and a good book admiring the little corner of plants I had tidied up this morning. I like to try to get all the domestic tasks and outings accomplished before midday as it’s then that the dark clouds start rolling in and monsoon rains threaten. (You can just see them at the top left if this shot) Even if they don’t always create a downpour we’ve been caught often enough to be cautious now

SEPTEMBER 17th LUCKY: Today is Heritage Day and the fully restored building which houses the UNESCO office is open to the public. I have long admired this structure and taken many photos from the street of it over time. I was lucky to be able to take a peek inside and was surprised to see how few people availed of this once a year opportunity. It’s stunning inside and out

 

SEPTEMBER 18th CAR PARK: Whilst I think the Khmer are quite skilled drivers, gliding painlessly through random and chaotic traffic. Parking is not their forte. The bigger or more expensive the vehicle the more entitled one is to abandon it wherever is most convenient.  A metre to a metre and a half from the curb or even in the middle of the lane is not at all unusual. This car park was the best one I spotted today based on that fact

SEPTEMBER 19th WHAT’S ON TV: Absolutely nothing at our place ever. I went to a different shopping mall to the one I was intending to visit just so I could get a photo of a TV and was about to post I have never owned or bought a TV when I remembered we currently have this one. When we bought this apartment, certain items were included in the sale - this TV, the DVD player, satellite dish and a microwave oven and fridge (not visible) and some furniture. It seemed very odd to us but that’s the way it’s done here apparently. The day we moved in we banished those items, for which we have no use, to a room we refer to as the dungeon, since it gets no natural light. We actually have no idea if it even works as we have never tried. Currently we are looking for someone to donate all these things and a fridge to but until then the TV is in the dungeon

 

SEPTEMBER 20th TEXTURE: The texture of the exterior of a ripened coconut shell is weird in my view

 

SEPTEMBER 21st NATURE: On Saturday I had the privilege to wander freely around the grounds of the French Embassy when it opened for Heritage Day. The 7-hectare French Embassy Park is one of the largest green spaces in Phnom Penh, containing valuable biodiversity such as 200 trees in 50 different species as well as a menagerie of animals. By going early in the day, I was able to experience the quiet, tranquil atmosphere in the shade and the sheer beauty of nature. It’s hard to believe this private garden is in the heart of a bustling city

 

SEPTEMBER 22nd TREE TRUNK: A random tree trunk I spotted on my wanderings around the streets of Phnom Penh. Looks like some kind of ficus to me

*suprisingly this one was selected for the fab five on Facebook for this prompt

 

SEPTEMBER 23rd CRUNCHY: homemade pita chips to go with baba ganoush and hummus for our gathering of friends to celebrate Ian’s improved mobility, Blessed Rainy Day and the biggest festival of the year in Cambodia, Pchum Ben. There is always a reason to feel blessed and grateful

 

SEPTEMBER 24th I CAN SMELL: the combination of two sweet scents: the one oriental lily bud that snapped off the stem as I carried them home but miraculously opened anyway and the exotic aroma of this new incense I recently bought. It’s Himalaya Mist scent which is supposed to create peace and tranquillity and perfect for our little altar with the Bhutanese incense holder. It’s a match made in heaven and a delightful fragrance is permeating the apartment

 

SEPTEMBER 25th LANEWAY: This is the laneway through which we enter the stairwell to our apartment and these are a few of my regular welcome team who shout “Hello, hello, hello,” to me and usually attempt to repeat anything I say back to them in English. We all get a big kick out of it
The laneways are usually a hive of bustling activity but currently they are eerily empty, as are the streets of Phnom Penh. Today is day fifteen of Pchum Ben, and anyone who can goes home to the provinces laden with treats and festival food, for a family celebration. After visiting the pagoda that is!

SEPTEMBER 26th THE MOON: at dawn from our back balcony. It was a few mornings ago and a crescent but that was the best I could get with my phone. Right now, the moon is elusive with monsoon skies and heavy cloud cover and I haven’t seen it since. I also love the breather bricks on the bedroom wall in this shot

SEPTEMBER 27th OPEN DOOR: The temples have been a hive of festivities for the last fifteen days but today the celebrations are over and they are once again sanctuaries of peace and tranquillity. I took the opportunity to wander through the serene compound of Wat Ounalom just before midday today. There were many open doors but this one leading to living quarters, I believe, really attracted my attention

 

SEPTEMBER 28th MY CULTURE: would definitely have to be coffee culture. Latte, long black, iced or affogato, at home on the terrace or in a quaint little cafe as long as it doesn’t come in a plastic cup I’m always up for a cuppa

 

SEPTEMBER 29th NOT MY STYLE: This formal attire for Cambodian women is worn at weddings, festivals and on other special occasions and they often look spectacular in it but I’m well aware it’s not my style

 

SEPTEMBER 30th SENTIMENTAL: This was taken on timer with the first ever real camera we bought and shared, after spending half our life savings on one-way tickets and this camera, to take up teaching jobs in northern China just two months after Tian’nanmen in 1989. That one-year appointment saw us spend the next thirteen years in Asia and changed the course of our lives forever

 

THE PROMPTS

Laneway Life

As a tourist instinctively, you avoid laneways and alleys with the western perception that you’ll be in danger or possibly mugged in a dark alleyway.

 

Whenever I came to Phnom Penh from Kep I had the same thought. Until one time when we took a shortcut down an alley, in an attempt to avoid the traffic and chaos of walking on the road. All the actual footpath being assigned to moto parking or street-side stalls, of course means pedestrians mostly walk on the edge of the road and take their chances with the trucks, cars, motos, mobile shops and cyclists.

 

This detour aroused my curiosity and forever changed my perspective about Phnom Penh’s hidden laneways and the bustling communities that live both in them and off them.

 

In fact, I would venture to say that they are the safest places to be. Elderly people gather in the eateries, stand in open doorways or sit on the stoops of their own buildings. Young people nonchalantly straddle their motos wearing the latest fashions and hairstyles, hang about listening to music and checking out the style of others. 

Workers gather for snacks, coffees, beers and card games in the early morning, during the midday siesta and for long periods in the cool of the early evening. 

Children sometimes work hard assisting their parents in small businesses or remain close by absorbed in something on a phone screen and whenever possible run, play, hide and get up to all kinds of mischief as well. 

Small businesses abound and you can easily get a bowl of hot noodles, a haircut, a phone screen replaced, a cold beer or a pedicure in a space the size of your average toilet. One thing is for sure they are communities and they not only look out for each other but also watch out for outsiders, intruders and travellers passing through. And as we recently learned come rushing to your assistance if the need arises.

Far from being attacked or robbed in these tight spaces I am often, though not always, greeted with smiles and gestures of welcome. These people have your back whether you know it or not.

These days I not only peer down the lanes to see if there is access to the parallel street but often duck down them and respectfully observe the activities taking place enjoying the inclusion and safer walking zone as I avail of a shortcut. Laneways are the life and soul of the city and are a microcosm of all it contains.

Of course, we now live upstairs off one such laneway and we are by now very familiar with many of the locals, who also do.

 

The laneway through which we enter the stairwell to our apartment extends in two directions and a small gaggle of children live at the ground level. No doubt their parents and possibly grandparents do too but it is the children we most often see and interact with. There are a few regulars, who act as a welcome team and shout “Hello, hello, hello,” to us. The numbers are actually swelling as we usually respond and they attempt to repeat anything we say in English back to us. We all get a big kick out of it.

 

As I have said the laneways are usually a hive of bustling activity so it’s quite odd at the moment. They are currently eerily empty, as are the streets of Phnom Penh. Yesterday, for the first time ever, we actually saw some of our welcome team playing in the street. That’s how quiet it is out there. PP’s population of over two million must have been reduced by over half gauging from the lack of noise and dynamism.

 

Today is day fifteen of Pchum Ben, and anyone who can has gone home to the provinces laden with offerings for the pagodas and treats and festival food, for a family celebration.

 

Come Tuesday I expect life will return to the alleys and streets of Phnom Penh.

TIBETAN REFLECTIONS AND TRAVEL TALES

Reminiscing

Tibetan Culture 

 

31st /8 

Today I picked up a brochure about screenings of Asian documentary films in Phnom Penh and I set about trying to book to see the Cambodian premier of “ Metok” which is a Tibetan tale. Booking was no easy task but I’m so glad Ian persisted on my behalf. He of course cannot go but was happy for me to.

 

It got me thinking about the time I have managed to spend in Tibetan places: Lhasa, Leh, Xia He, Zhong Dian and Langmusi. I cannot imagine it being possible to fly, train, bus, taxi or boat about so freely any more. It seems so long ago now that I was in any of these places but the memories came flooding back.

 

1/9

 

Me thinking I would be the only member of the audience - not true it filled up

I saw the film tonight and thought it was lovely. To me it was filled with familiar visuals. Being a documentary there were no grandiose stunts or hollywood style romanticism just a simple, heartwarming story with minimal dialogue and a powerful message of endurance and resilience, brilliantly understated historic perspectives and stark realism. The cinematography is inspired and understated and has the vibe of a hand held family video.

 

My only criticism would be the English subtitles.  Whilst the meaning was perfectly clear, proof reading would have ironed out the glitches.

 

Ikigai Arts Center film screening 

It has had me reminiscing about my own encounters with Tibetan culture as a traveller.

 

Residential area in Labrang Monastery (1995 we think LOL)

What an absolute privilege it was to see Lhasa when it was mostly inhabited by Tibetans and the traditions, rituals and customs dictated the rhythm of daily life and the Chinese presence though visible was the anomaly.

 

My most vivid memory is staggeringly slowly climbing the stairs to the Potala Palace, long before a public square existed right next to it, in 1986. In sweltering heat and suffering from the altitude those stairs were an ordeal. An elderly couple at least twice my age, breezed past me, effortlessly gliding up those steps in long thick robes carrying butter for the lamps inside and incense and other other offerings and all without raising a sweat! The cool, dark interior of the palace was a welcome relief at the top but musty smelling, damp interiors and the maze of interconnected corridors and rooms was discombobulating and bewildering. At that time there were few tourists and most people present were fulfilling a life long dream. I marveled that we could stroll through the living quarters and throne room of the Dali Lama.  It was possible to wander freely inside and easily get lost. The smoky, dark atmosphere and the heavy scent of melted and often rancid butter certainly deterred any lingering or snooping. I imagine it to be a very different experience now.

Monks studying religious texts in Xia He 

Only months later inspired by that glimpse into a culture so complete unknown, Ian and I braved the terrifying, two-day bus journey from

Srinigar in Kashmir to Leh in Ladakh through a landscape that posed such enormous challenges and dangers, it didn’t seem possible that anything could thrive. Yet a vibrant Tibetan enclave complete with family run guesthouses, cafes, vegetable market, general stores, handicraft outlets and a small school with a vast dry dirt yard and flag pole, emerged from the barren winter landscape. We hiked those free stone walled alleys and rugged mountain paths to choruses of children calling hello or shyly giggling from behind hands covering their faces and occasionally trailing us out of sheer curiosity. No one tried to sell us anything and most were surprised to see us looking at their wares. Many stall vendors in the street were fascinated by us. They often gently touched our arms or stroked my hair with expressions of awe on their faces. A truly magical week evaporated in a flash and a 30 minute flight returned us to Srinigar.

Nomad in the Main Street of Xia He - what looks like her knee is in fact a baby’s head. The baby is nestled in her robes. She had given birth only a few days before having walked for two days to get to town for that reason! 

Some years later we set out for Xia He in Gansu and stayed in a hotel which although incredibly rundown and comically managed had once been one of the winter palaces of the Dali Lama. Walks into town afforded us the opportunity to observe the harmonious relationship between the Muslim Hui people and Tibetans living  in this far flung outpost. Both minority communities lived side by side and maintained their own religious and cultural identities while interacting amicably. Perhaps the open animosity they endured at the hands of the authorities  formed the basis of their unbreakable bond but it looked like genuine friendship to me. Muslims ran stores that sold Tibetan fabric, robes, tents, door cloths, incense, scrolls, prayer flags, and all the trappings of Buddhist ceremony. The Tibetans traded butter, skins, dried meat, knives, turquoise and coral, labour and horses.

 

Nomads camping in the fields between Xia HE and Labrang Monastery we saw them often walking into town from the palace guesthouse.

It was here that we were given Tibetan names by a small group of monks, who   appreciated receiving photographs of themselves rehearsing for an upcoming festival, though trying to distribute the pictures turned into a rugby scrum. We had followed the sound of long horns to find all kinds of musicians in rehearsal and then stumbled upon more rehearsals of acrobatic stunts and dance on a riverbank and taken photographs. We printed them locally and shared. We were dubbed Tshering Dorji and Tashi Dema.

The very monks who named us and who were were later able to identify thanks to this photo! Photo credit to Ian and check out the fourth monk under the arm of the one standing!

 

Several years later we returned and saw and recognized some of the same performance troupe and they were able to tell us the fates of those no longer with them.

 

We also witnessed first hand the famed Buddhist debates, in which the monks engage. The main intention is to “defeat misconceptions on the philosophy of the Buddhist scriptures, to establish and maintain a defensible point of view, and to overcome and disprove any objections to that view”. Although we could understand not a single word, the highly exaggerated gestures, volume and animated body language was fascinating.

Monk rehearsing dance for the performance

Labrang Monastery and the town and surrounding countryside were teeming with pilgrims, nomads and townsfolk attending the festival and we finally saw the performance we had witnessed the rehearsals of years earlier- the first Tshechu* of our lives, not that we knew that that was what it was then. On that return trip timed for that exact purpose we also saw massive restoration of the original structures.

Man circumambulating Labrang Monastery 

While living in Yunnan, it became possible to visit Zhong Dian and we were eager to go. It was spellbinding to see again those now more familiar aspects of Tibetan culture:- stupas, prayer flags, giant prayer wheels, rammed earth buildings and butter lamps provided a visual feast. Chanting, circumambulating, prostrating and praying monks and lay people inside the monastery and street side young Tibetan horsemen and truck drivers strolled with a debonair nonchalance that made us feel anxious for their future.

Monastery in Zhong Dian 1997

On our second visit, years later, we were able to hang prayer flags for the very first time and had a very close encounter with a pair of Tibetan Mastiffs, in addition to seeing the interior of a tradition Tibetan inn, but the newly built four lane highway made me even more concerned about how long this little paradise could survive without being turned into a cash cow. Ironically we took treacherous narrow back roads on our bus journey in and the only other thing we saw on the last stretch of that highway when we joined it, just before reaching our destination, was a yak!

 

Hanging Prayer Flags in Zhong Dian 2005

 

Langmusi is a stone’s throw from Xia He and another enclave of Tibetan culture located in Sichuan. Travelling by car with a couple we met by chance and have now been friends with for over 20 years, enabled us the see much of the nomadic and semi nomadic lifestyle of those living between the two settlements. This trip was my first ever sighting of free ranging black pigs.

 

Zhong Dian 1997

However, the grandeur of Labrang was replaced by a raw realism and at least for us the realization that this civilization was being dispersed, diluted and disrespected. We struggled to find even basic accommodation on arrival and the sprawling dusty township was already pursuing tourism as its best chance of survival. We saw spectacular gorge scenery and met beautiful friendly people but also the harsh conditions and dire circumstances of many were glaringly obvious.

The harsh winters of Zhong Dian and the ingenious method of preserving these rammed earth walls from rain and snow melt - We have been fortunate enough to see these walls being rammed in both Xia He and Bhutan and even lived in a rammed earth home in Samtengang 

The upper level is the house we used to live in in Samtengang 2014 and the concrete is a modern concession to having running water in the kitchen and bathroom albeit COLD running water!

 

We declined the opportunity to attend a sky burial because it just didn’t seem appropriate to turn a funeral into a side show and sell tickets. But the upside was definitely the Tibetan food. My love of momos was born in Langmusi.

Of course Bhutan and our Tibetan friends there also came immediately to mind while watching the film tonight. Maroon robes will always do that. There is obviously a cultural and religious connection between Bhutan and Tibet. It made me think, maybe these were the stepping stones that actually lead us to Bhutan when we most needed it, when the bottom had just dropped out of our world and the road ahead looked bleak, not once but twice.

 

So much of my heart still remains in the Kingdom of the Thunder Dragon.

*Tschechu in Trashigang 2012 for reference -this was when we truly understood what we had witnessed all those years earlier

 

But I can honesty say, there is still so much to be thankful for.

 

Us after hanging our first ever prayer flags. It became a habit and we have hung hundreds of them in every pass in Bhutan we went through and every place we have hiked in the kingdom as well as every home we have ever lived in since living in Bhutan. 

NB: I'm sorry most images are Xia He, Zhong Dian and Bhutan and for the lack of photos of Lhasa, Leh and Langmusi - it was before we had digital cameras and we never converted many of our millions of film photos to that format!