Globalisation

A random photo of Greek juices found in a local Cambodian shop. Exports are looking good!

All kidding aside, I noticed that most of them(not the ones pictured) are pineapple. Greece's climate does not permit pineapple cultivation so they are probably imported from Brazil or maybe even Cambodia, packed and shipped back here. How fucked up is that. 

The Buddha Connection

Meet Dheri. After having spent the last 8 years in Phnom Penh studying and enjoying the nightlife and fast rhythm of the capital, he was asked by his parents to return to Kaoh Rong and help them out with their shop since he's the only one in the family who speaks some English and can communicate with the foreigners. He misses living in the big city, with its over-abundance of beautiful girls among other things, but out of respect to his parents he will stay here as long as it takes.

The other day, Dheri and some of the villagers were stitching banknotes to a banana tree branch in order to make an offering to a temple in a nearby isle and me-always the curious one-asked if I could join them. 

After getting the permission from the oldest of the group and buying my part of the offering-soft drinks together with straws for the monk,candles and incense wrapped with banknotes for the ceremony-we got aboard a small boat and were safely taken to the island by our capable but no more than 14 year old captain.

Between my non-existent khmer and Dheri's broken English, I didn't exactly understand when was the old pagoda destroyed, maybe during the Khmer Rouge years, and the new one leaves a lot to be desired, made of tin, bricks and plastic. The whole affair was very relaxed and down to earth, maybe because it was my first time participating in such a ceremony I had expected something more mystical but that's just my western-bred brain, fed with cliché-covered films for too long.

It was this down-to-earth atmosphere that in the end didn't make me feel like an intruder, what with everybody laughing now and then, chatting, the kids teasing me and the grown-ups showing me where to sit or stand.

After the incense was lit, the floor cleaned and the soft drinks offered in a silver platter to the teenage monk, everybody sat down and started praying and chanting for what seemed like an eternity, in which time the sun set and the mosquitos came, mercilessly attacking my body. Getting all worked up and ready to kill every flying creature in the island, I slowly started getting away from the ceremony so as not to annoy the others. And then, in-between the prayers I heard hands clapping and as I turned I noticed to my disbelief at first, that as everyone was praying, hands in front of their faces and all, every now and then they would try to kill the flying buggers and immediately return to praying position. We are only humans after all...

The beauty of the whole affair was that after the ritual was over, everybody stayed there for more than an hour to keep some company to the monk-at least that's the impression I got from the relaxed tone of the conversation- who lives in the isle alone.

And then we were off to our island, and its ever-present thunderstorms in the background. 

Paradise defined, then destroyed...

About 15 miles west of Sihanoukville lies a small cluster of islands. The biggest of them, Kaoh Rong, is the typical postcard-quality destination, covered with a rainforest that pushes its way to white sand beaches with palm trees and turquoise waters. There is only a handful of bungalows situated next to 4 fishing villages and that's it, not bad for an island the size of Hong Kong. One of the dive shops-conveniently called “The Dive Shop”- has built a school and some of its dive instructors teach english there, a pretty nice gesture if you ask me. There is an overwhelmingly large amount of dogs, most of them friendly and well fed and I was later told that Khmers do eat them, with a preference for the black ones since they supposedly bring luck.hmm...Anyways, apart from the occasional water buffalo passing by there is not much else happening during the day, it's swimming, snorkeling, reading, maybe walking a bit, visit the neighboring beaches, come back, eat, rest(!), swim some more and wait for the night to come and with it some alcohol and the inevitable heated discussions about the future of humanity.

Unfortunately the one thing you can't stop is progress, and in this particular island it's coming in the form of a luxury resort that will cover most of it, together with an airport, casino, golf, hell, they might even make a ski resort while they are at it. So visit the place while you can, it won't be there for long, not in its current form anyway.