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Cambodia - Khmer Dance
On
the flight from Seoul to Singapore, I had the array of in flight entertainment
that Singapore airlines is known so well for. In addition to watching
the usual array of movies,Essentially they had a documentry on how this
artform has been brought back, despite the destruction in
So on the second night after my hosts dropped me off back at the guest house, Dan mentioned that I should go to the Solvana Plumm, a local dance theatrie, which had both puppet theatre and khmer dance. It happened to be within walking distance of the guest house. It was petty much exactly what I had wanted to see after the video on the plane.
So the Shadow Puppet and Dance theatre was held outside, under a canopy, in the evening. There wasn't that much noise coming from the street. They had a troup of five or six musicians playing live music. It reminded me again of the eastern pentatonic scale.
The story was very traditional, mixed a little bit of contemporary humor. The traditional tale in Khmer is to tell exerpts from the Rahmanyana, a Hindu epic tale, of kings and armies, beauty, love and destiny.
The performance consisted of both traditional dance, and the large shadow puppets, in this case the performers used both the front of the screen, and the back.
However,
knowing that the tourists are the source of their income, and knowing
that they still are nonetheless a professional dance company. They should
have simply announced for "no flash photography" the performers
would be happy to come on stange after the performance for photographs
and to explain the puppets and demonstrate.
Later that evening I'd thought about everything I'd seen, and what kind of country I'd come to. Amidst the guilt for spending a few days away from the office in Malaysia. I wondered if anyone cared.
In Cambodia, there seems to be three kinds of gasoline that can be bought.
#1 - That which is sold from Caltex, and the other big oil companies. it looks like a normal gas station that you'd see around the world. At the time I was there it was selling for like 95 cents a litre.
#2 - That is sold from a 55 gallon drum, with a spigot on top, usually by the side of the road. Apparently this was being sold for like 90 cents a litre.
#3 - That which is sold from a litre, or 1.5 litre sized water bottle, by the side of the road, where the guy is also furiously trying to fix the flat tire of either a motorbike, or somthing else. I didn't even bother to figure out how much this was being sold for, but I would imagine less than #2
Now I think I figured out why there's two grades. One which looks kind of greenish, and the other which is a brownish red. I think the green is the standard unleaded. And the other is premix, since most of the motos look to be the small 75-125cc jobs that are probably two stroke engines which need gas that's mixed with oil, in like a 25:1, or 50:1 ratio.
So the idea that a segway scooter is going to revolutionize cities, is just garbage. A segway, is just a scaled down electric bicycle. and besides cities already use them, they're the 50cc scooters which you see througout most of Asia. Not to mention, that slowly these are being replaced with battery operated electric models.
#2
Strange thing about Cambodia
Living like a king in Cambodia, probably is not that hard. Given the low standards for so much of the country. I would define it this way. House in the city behind a gate. You probably have someone who comes over every day, five days a week to cook and clean for you.
My friends have someone who comes to their house and takes care of their kid, in fact they've taught her some english, and although she was illiterate when she started, now she reads Khmai fine. I just wonder how the separation between the househelp, and the family is maintained. Usually American couples make the mistake of bringing the help too much into the family, while it should be just viewed as a job.s
If you've got a car, I guess it probably wouldn't be too much of a stretch to have a driver too.
So on one night during my trip, I'm sitting in Dan and Ann's house. The power goes out. It's still 90 degrees plus in their house. Their thermometer, is kind of ironic. That it was designed to measure the temperature of the bathwater when you bathe an infant. So it starts at 90 degrees, and goes up in 1 degree incriments. Even with the fans going on, it was 91 degrees in their house. Without the fans, it's going to be unbearable in the house, so we go out on the porch.
Looking at the porch, there isn't much light, but I can hear some diesel generators starting up, and the compound across the street from their house has power. I can start to smell diesel exhaust.
Then although there probaby isn't enough power to run an air conditioner, I start hearing Khmer Techno-pop. Apparently the neighbors are still going at it with their karaoke machine. Sigh...
updated April 23, 2006