Battambang

Photos by Amee Evans Godwin - more photos here!

In Cambodia, there is a steady smell of burning. It doesn’t really go away, but abates in the dead of night when the a/c and the ceiling fan and blessed sleep remove its acrid reminder of the poor places. By the side of every road is a small fire often with a tiny toddler stumbling about it – in fact, children burned from household fires is a constant source of visits to the hospitals, for those that actually seek treatment. The fires feed on weeds, hay, corn husks, coconut shells, a bit of trash, the smell is sweet and sad and disturbing and not faintly nostalgic.

In Battambang, the smell did not really abate, but the smog cleared a bit. We were able to travel by moto without constantly covering our mouths and noses with scarves or buffs. We hoped the provincial city would be more old style Cambodia as in French Indochine. And the word was that there was more French architecture intact there than most places. We stayed in La Villa, a restored French villa with 8 guest rooms, it was wonderful. It had the large rooms with high ceilings, old style metal ceiling fans, narrow stone walkways, steep stairs and they put us in an old dormer rooftop perch with a shared private balcony.

In the first minutes following the long busride from Phnom Penh, we met Mr. Mo, an English speaking tuktuk man who offered to take us around. He was very cheerful and youngish, we accepted and ended up spending three very nice days in his company.

The first day we visited a circus school for underprivileged kids (are any kids in this country 'privileged?'). We tuktuked out to a small country road and a few clicks down was a large outdoor complex of buildings. The Phare Ponleu Selpak school was created by refugees in camps on the Thai border during the Khmer Rouge period. These 10 or so folks envisioned a school for teaching music, dance, art and circus to Khmer children. They are supported by several French foundations and are regularly visited by teachers of circus arts and other disciplines.

We stopped first at the music class where an older man was teaching a group of 7 or so kids traditional Khmer classical music with the Areak Ka ensemble instruments. They were very welcoming and offered me a chance to try some of the instruments, which I made feeble attempts at to their polite enjoyment.

Next we came to a platform where a theatre class was going on with a teacher and several high school aged students. They had made masks and were being workshopped in some basic mask acting/movement techniques. Several of the male students were extraordinary physical comedians and I was really impressed. Eventually eyes turned on us for the exercise and I was grateful when Amee was the one chosen to participate by one of the boys. Her sweet and silly moves as a tiger were really delightful. We moved onto the circus hall where many kids were practicing juggling and acrobatics. I wished I were Sippy Doug, or that he was here so I would have something to share. They were doing great work.

The next day we returned for their public performance and art gallery show. The talent was overflowing in the circus tent behind the school. We became friendly with the English teacher and he agreed to meet us the next day for breakfast at our hotel and a Khmer language lesson for the three of us. We learned a nice bit of Khmer which has helped us a lot in the last days. I’m sure if we stayed for several months here we could eventually get this language which can sound like amphibian to the Western ear.

The next day we visited a rice paper commune where various neighboring families make the rice paper that you have eaten in fresh spring rolls. This was really special to watch, the smoldering stone oven stoked by the shirtless assistant using husks of rice, the ancient looking woman steady at her task, pouring the liquid rice, cooking the crepe sized sheets and flipping them onto the spools for drying. The whole scene had a kind of mysterious, ancient quality to it. They can produce 1000 of these per day but earn only about $6/day from them, though it is their own business.

We also went to some Angkor period temples in a beautiful countryside area about 30 clicks out of town, the ride was amazing with smiling kids waving hello from their old bikes on the dirt roads. We were ‘guided’ by some real cool cats from the neighborhood who took Bodhi under their wings and had a decent amount of English. We ended our stay and prepared for a downriver trip to Siem Reap via a small ferry boat.

Though Mr. Mo spoke very little during the three days, as he dropped us at the ferry boat to Siem Reap, his heart seemed to pour out: “I live in a very modest room with my wife’s family now, but when you return you can visit me in my own home and eat dinner with me and my family. You have my number, please remember me!”