temple kitsch

Thanks to all of you who emailed or called to see if I was alright. I did have some pretty difficult times lately, especially since the attack happened amid a whole bunch of other things which are going wrong. But I never said it was going to be easy all the time, and I know it will pass soon.
A couple weekends ago I went with Corinne and Clayre out to Phnom Brasset, halfway between Phnom Penh and Oudang. There were supposed to be pre-angkorian temples to see there. We never found those temples, but we did see some pretty interesting stuff. Interesting, not in the sort of historical or architectural sense. More like in the degree of tackiness in each of the temples we visited. And there were many… The first one we saw was huge and still in construction. Nagas served as street lamps and a giant pineapple and monkey welcomed victors and worshipers alike at the entrance of the complex. The whole thing was made out of cement which seemed to be just spray painted in this sort of reddish stone colour like many temples are made of over here. Some of the stuff looked so fake that it seemed like there were just props for a movie set, except a pretty low budget one. Made us laugh. We visited quite a few temples like that. One of the last one we saw was in the finishing stages, and it actually looked alright, once they spray painted the Buddhas in gold and tiled up the inside with moulded bas-reliefs...

Corinne had brought a picnic so we ate outside one of the temples under a hut. She’d brought camembert and saucisson and other French delights. We ate that in front of a concrete replica of the Bayon.
I’m embarrassed but I actually have very little else to talk about these days. Well I do, but going on for pages about how everything is going wrong at the moment would make for a depressing read and would make me feel more self-absorbed than I already feel, so we’ll just skip that. Besides, next week KT is celebrating it 15 years in Kampong Cham. The entire staff and children will be present (around 2000 of us) and the King himself will be inaugurating the festivities. Loads of journalists, ambassadors and VIPs are also gonna be there. It’s gonna be huge. 3 days of performances from the kids, speeches, games and contests. The HQ staff also prepared a little play. I’m in the role of a giant. At first I was a street kid but I got demoted from this position by real life ex-street children. I don’t know if I’ll make a very convincing, or even less scary giant but you know, it’s all in the talent of acting, which I am lucky to be gifted with… Anyway, all that to say that I’ll have plenty to write about when I get back, so it’ll make up for this post.