Cambodian Colour and Craft - and a touch of politics

Cambodia as a country has three seasons: cool, hot and wet.  We were here for the hot – and it was.  Even for us Aussies – 40+ degrees is hot.  Add hiking through temple complexes over rough and dusty terrain makes it worse – we were drinking about a litre of water an hour!  The heat means the sky is hazy rather than clear.  Clearly there was some air pollution by burn offs as well but visibility was still quite good.

The heat haze at sunset

 As we were there in the dry/hot season there was much dead grass and the bright green depicted in the tourist brochures was missing.  However, the Cambodian population is big on colour – this is reflected in their dress and even the national flag.  Useless trivia #1: Cambodia is the only country in the world that has a building (Angkor Wat, naturally) on its national flag.

Cambodia is a constitutional monarchy like us and the incumbent King is 64 and still a bachelor.  This means the heir to the throne is uncertain. The Prime Minister Hun Sen has been in power for 30 years.  He has 10,000 bodyguards and Siem Reap was to receive him shortly so he could join the New Year’s celebrations.

We found colour in the food and particularly in their textiles.  As noted in a previous blog post, the textile industry is their second largest revenue source.  I guess some of that would be lower end mass production, however their handwoven silk products are outstanding.

In Siem Reap they have established an Artisan school where 100 students are selected annually throughout the country to train in traditional crafts such as silk weaving, wood carving, lacquerware and ceramics.  Originally established under a United Nations grant it is now self-supporting through the sale of its goods through the local outlet and their shops at Siem Reap and Phnom Peng.  Some of the talented students have a disability and the school gives them an opportunity to participate in the workforce that may not have been given to them otherwise.  Cheap? No.  Beautiful?  Yes.

Ceramic artists at the Artisan School

Despite the drought conditions experienced by the country during the past two years, there are exquisite flowers and gardens and the upcoming New Year’s decorations everywhere also added to overcome the dusty landscape.  It was sad to miss the occasion but we understand the traffic becomes a bit unmanageable for a few days, so maybe it’s for the best.

Many Asian countries have quite a distinctive smell.  Anyone who’s been to Bali would know what I mean.  Siem Reap had a distinctive smell and it took us a while to figure out it was the fragrant jasmine rice paddies surrounding the city. 

This post was meant to be about the temples.  Tomorrow...