oNe PhOtO a DaY AuGuSt 2023:

AUGUST 1st REFLECTIONS IN A MIRROR / PUDDLE: The reflection of an old colonial building in the mirror finish of one of the most striking new constructions in Phnom Penh. The juxtaposition of architecture. For the first time ever I forgot to post this on the day after having taken it

AUGUST 2nd SOMETHING I SAW: Yesterday we saw “Barbie” and we were the only two in the entire cinema for the mid-afternoon session we chose. That was definitely a first too

 

AUGUST 3rd WORK IN PROGRESS: Very early this morning when I couldn’t sleep I read an article that inspired this work in progress. We have tried so many things to remove the stains on the very old tiles in our apartment but this baking soda hack really works. If anyone had told me I would be scrubbing the kitchen floor with a toothbrush today I wouldn’t have believed it but that’s what I did for a couple of hours anyway.

 

The before and after shots

 

AUGUST 4th HANDS HOLDING A CUP: My favourite coffee cup with my preferred brew for breakfast on the terrace - the usual routine in our household

 

AUGUST 5th OFF CENTRE: I strolled by this Chinese style temple and ventured in to take a closer look. I immediately noticed that one of the pair of circular relief designs was off centre in the entrance wall and given the usual symmetry of this style of architecture I had to snap a shot

AUGUST 6th AN EDGE: In fact, the edge of our terrace where we often stand peering into the street below observing the local hood. On this sleepy Sunday afternoon, it’s pretty quiet out there

 

AUGUST 7th FLOWERS IN BLOOM: The Cuban Ginger flowering on our terrace. After a year in this location it has adapted and started producing masses of flowers which have the most beautiful fragrance

 

AUGUST 8th EMPTY: I always feel sad when I see these buildings with the upper four floors empty and the restaurants at ground level half empty too. It indicates that it will not be long before the whole building is demolished and given that it is in fact the same era as the one in which we live, I know it doesn’t actually take much to restore and refurbish it so that it not only survives but the character of the precinct is maintained and the local communities remain vibrant

 

AUGUST 9th FOUR THINGS: The four Asian dishes I cooked for dinner tonight

 

AUGUST 10th ON THE INSIDE: That’s the only place you can get this perspective of the iconic art deco dome of the Central Market here in Phnom Penh

 

AUGUST 11th CLOSE UP OF TEXTURE: Our early morning trip to the market today revealed honeycomb laden with fresh honey. It doesn’t get fresher than that

*this one was chosen for the fab five on Facebook much to my surprise

 

AUGUST 12th A BOWL FULL: Eurasian Confusion dinner.  “Bon Appétit!” Dinner doesn’t often look like this …… Thank you Cambodia for the rice noodles and fresh veggies, Vietnam for the inspiration and herbs, China for the five-spice tofu and Japan for the dashi, miso and konbu! Of course, there is just a little bit of me too

 

AUGUST 13th A WALK IN THE PARK: This prompt inspired us to pack up a picnic brunch and not only take a walk in the park but to have a picnic too. There is a real scarcity of green spaces here and lack of benches and shade too so this medium strip was about as park like as we could find. We finally ended up picnicking in the grounds of Wat Phnom, which is so much shadier and a bigger, greener space too

 

AUGUST 14th HEART-SHAPED: There is a heart-shaped hole in my life where friends, family members and places I once frequented live: the memories and photographs help

 

AUGUST 15th MAKES ME LAUGH: Given our reliance on digital information of all kinds in this day and age, I’m thoroughly amused by the fact that the two apps in my phone which measure the distance I walk have this level of discrepancy! Who knows what the truth really is; somewhere between the two I guess. Never once have they recorded the same distance and the difference isn’t even consistent. That was at 10am and it’s now saying over 7 kilometres on the app with the lower score but I know now, for sure, that’s just a “ballpark figure”

 

AUGUST 16th I DID THIS TODAY: It’s been a pretty domestic kind of day here with washing, terrace gardening, marketing, cooking and cleaning but we did stop by our favourite dry goods stall in the market for flour and this lovely vendor taught us how to say flour in Khmer and we taught her how to say it in English. It’s the little things ….

 

AUGUST 17th GOLDEN HOUR LANDSCAPE: Today is grey and as the monsoon is once again bringing afternoon storms, I am going with the most spectacular golden hour shot I have ever taken from our terrace. Just a week ago this view presented itself and extended right across the sky.

 

The view looking in the opposite direction taken just seconds later is pretty impressive too

 

AUGUST 18th ON THE GROUND: I spotted this while strolling through the local market today. Luckily, we have a local repairman in the house today so he could tell me what it is-pork tendons and of course they need to dry out in the sun

 

AUGUST 19th A BELONGING: My orange, hand woven basket was one of the first made in Cambodia items I bought myself when we arrived here six years ago. Currently it’s doing service as the swimming essentials receptacle and that’s my happy place in the background. It’s movement meditation, wellbeing and fitness all in one so I dub it “swimming for sanity”

 

AUGUST 20th A HIDDEN GEM: This temple concealed from sight by the high-rise towers and cramped inner city laneway residences is impossible to spot street-side but emerges as a hidden gem from the sky bar we were at last night

 

AUGUST 21st MUSICAL: This old dented brass bell from Bhutan and one from China and another from Cambodia are tied to the locked security door as a front door bell. Unfortunately, we rarely get to hear them ring as we have to collect guests at ground level and escort them up the maze of decrepit stairs or they would probably never find our apartment. I do occasionally ring them just for fun. Despite not being the slightest bit musical I have a lot of bells and delight in hearing them tinkle

 

AUGUST 22nd A BICYCLE: set up as a snack shop and waiting patiently for customers late this afternoon

 

AUGUST 23rd THE COLOUR GREEN: is exactly what locals buy pandan leaves for. They colour sweets and snacks in this vibrant green colour and are readily available in markets all over this part of Asia. I guess the flavour does also play a part

AUGUST 24th A THROWBACK: to 1997 when we were living in Dali, Yunnan Province China. The highlight of many a month was the trip to the local market in Shaping, where anything from a live pig, a set of second-hand dentures, a tie-dyed tablecloth or an antique marble table was for sale. A photo of a photo from that era

 

AUGUST 25th ON THE SHELF: This morning’s excursion involved coffees at a new to us cafe but we managed to resist the sweet treats on the shelf having just consumed brunch

AUGUST 26th CLOUD PATTERNS:  Moody monsoon skies; this morning’s view of the cloud patterns over breakfast from our terrace

AUGUST 27th A COFFEE SHOP SCENE: I have long admired the exterior of this place and we finally ventured in for coffee. The interior did not disappoint but I have to say it lost points big time with me for serving customers inside with iced drinks in plastic cups!! I think that makes it a one off for us

 

AUGUST 28th FRESH: fruit from the local market. Baby pineapples are just the best and presented for immediate eating too. What’s not to love with the whole haul costing less than $4?

 

AUGUST 29th A MOUNTAIN LANDSCAPE: This was always going to be an archive shot considering where we currently live. In 2014 this was our daily view, standing at the front door of our rammed earth apartment on  the second floor in Samtengang, Bhutan. This Himalayan mountain view was breathtaking in every season

*unexpectedly this one was chosen for the fab four on Facebook and the best nine on Instagram 

AUGUST 30th A BEFORE/AFTER: I just loved the architectural features of our apartment on first sight. The various styles of breather bricks in particular are really appealing. However, after living here for over a year the amount of light, which floods the interior from the stairwell was an issue so we recently made this small adaptation so we still enjoy the visual from inside but now at night, we have less light with the added benefit of less noise too

 

AUGUST 31st THIS SEASON: is the monsoon. The heaviest rains we have experienced here in Phnom Penh have been in the late afternoon during this past week. When we are indoors, I’m always happy to observe the wind, rain, thunder and lightning and we are getting better at perceiving an imminent downpour these days and scurrying home to avoid getting soaked

 

 THE PROMPTS 

 

 

 

SOUND BYTES:

Random sounds from the city streets and surrounds 

 

An Aussie tourist- “Just get us there and wait. I’ll buy you a drink on the way back!”

Mr Tuk Tuk driver nods and smiles. “Does he even understand?” I wonder but I fear he does. 

 

Recently, every evening a distinctive upbeat dance music arrests our attention. After several audio attacks, we both immediately jumped up to see the source. A very well illuminated, moto flying the Cambodian flag and its rider sporting the best punk cut I’ve spotted in the kingdom, cruises by obviously hawking wares and I wonder, “Is it Prah Hok?” Still I recognize this person and he has cooperated with my snap a shot agenda, before. That’s nice. The orange suited punk has serious entrepreneurial skills. 

 

We were in a half full train carriage heading for Kampot when the train stopped at a little set of two stairs on the side of the tracks. No platform but a scheduled stop and when the doors opened the hysterical, frantic screaming and crying of a child filled the carriage. The whole compartment watched as this distressed, tiny toddler repeatedly shrieked “Baba, baba, baba,” at the top of her lungs. The resigned mother boarded along with several others carrying bags and containers and deposited the still sobbing, screeching child on a seat very near us and opposite a man who had actually made space for them to join him. Mum went back outside for more luggage and the totally distressed child was now banging on the window. Her dejected looking father was waving and trying not to sob himself outside. Frantic looking around seconds later revealed to this little miss that mum was now nowhere in sight either and the ruckus escalated in volume and switched to, “Mama, mama, mama.” Everyone tried to placate the little girl but she was not to be consoled. No one complained and there was a collective effort to distract and cheer up this little one. Even the two kids, who up until now had been boisterously annoying the passengers, returned quietly to their seats. Soon enough she was exhausted and fell asleep and for the rest of the ride everyone in the carriage stole looks at her, assisted mum and generally came by to check she was OK. I was so impressed with the level of concern and support that complete strangers offered this young mum. 

 

 

Despite living in the downtown area, we frequently hear birds and are more than grateful to be able to. We see them too but mostly we hear them: roosters crowing in the middle of the day or night but rarely at dawn, gorgeous little oriental magpie robins chirping away merrily, massive coucals cawing while we swim laps, sparrows tweeting away as everyday background noise in almost every location, mynahs  noisy and invasive even though the variety we see here are Asian mynahs, yellow vented bulbuls, which we refer to as masked raiders as they dart in and out of trees hunting but rarely make any sound though they are frequently visible. However, it is the great hornbills swooping from highly unlikely locations and swishing by with their wings making a whirring sound like helicopter blades on silencer mode that are my all-time favourite sound bite of the inner city, while over fed city pigeons cooing insistently and seeking out ever more intrusive nesting positions would have to be my least. So, while we do miss the regular sightings of kingfishers in the mangroves, the breeding pair of sea eagles soaring over the crab market and the egrets, herons and stilts wading in the paddies, which we often saw in Kep, with a keen eye and a tuned ear birding is still possible in PP.

 

We were sitting reading on our terrace in the early evening when we suddenly heard near deafening Latino music. Instantly we both peered into the street below where a parked quad bike was a one-man festival of flashing lights and pulsing sound. The very next moment a snaking line of about ten connected rollerbladers swished their way up the street towards the river. A solo, speedster leader was up front. A lookout was alongside the team and keeping watch. The lights in their blades and their neon tops were their only safety precaution. They were moving way faster than the moto traffic and it was quite the mesmerizing sight as they flashed by accompanied by music and then the peloton seamlessly fed into the busy traffic on the riverside and were gone. Next, the quad bike was mobile in the opposite direction and we could follow his progress through the neighbourhood for a few blocks via the booming reverberations emanating. Finally, silence reigned and we returned to our books.

 

One of my favourite sounds in this season is the rain approaching. As monsoon storms sweep over the city we can hear the heavy rain on the tin rooves all around us long before we see it on our own terrace or balcony! I love to watch as the immediate surrounds mist over to almost whiteout conditions as the front advances to the point of reaching us. Then, its necessary to take cover from the eye of the storm and enjoy the spectacle of the lightning, thunder and rain unleashing its fury on the streets. It can be over in a flash or drone on in undulating waves with varying volumes for several hours. While it is a delight to observe and tune in to the music of nature from the dry, comfort of home, it is never any fun to be caught out in the middle of a storm whilst wandering. Just yesterday evening while eating in a delightful courtyard setting, one such storm, which we had outpaced to get to our destination, opened up and the skies literally bucketed down on the near full restaurant. Luckily, we could claim a table under cover and even offered to share with a woman who had been eating alone and was in an identical situation when no more tables were available. We met a new acquaintance and spent a pleasant evening together and as the storm began to abate we went our separate ways. Not so luckily, upon reaching home we discovered the bed room windows we had left open and the pool of water on the floor, damp bedding and stained walls from the blue lining of the blinds, which were soaked through and stained blue in blotches too. Oh well another monsoon saga to be told.