The joys of Cambodia

I’ve picked out ten photos to showcase what were, for me, the never-forget and laugh-out-loud moments, the heart-stopping places and heart-warming days, and my all-time favourite things from my six months living and working in Cambodia. These images are in chronological order – I couldn’t possibly decide which is the most special.

The many and varied temples within the 400 square kilometres of the Angkor Archaeological Park never cease to fascinate and amaze me, with their skilful engineering and their stunning architecture, and though extremely destructive if left unchecked, the kapok trees and strangler figs are an integral part of the Angkor experience. This magnificent kapok tree has buttresses that prove just how skilled an architect Mother Nature can be.

The Silver Pagoda was definitely the highlight of the few short hours I spent exploring Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh and, once I spotted the reflections in the waterlily-filled urns, I couldn’t resist taking hundreds of photos. The combination of the superbly sculpted temples and shrines with the beautiful waterlily flowers, all reflected in the still dark water, was irresistible.

Sihanoukville turned on sunsets like this every night we were there and, as long as you walked past the boozy-bar, sleazy-tourist end of Ochheuteal Beach, you could enjoy the tepid waters and desert-island feel of this gorgeous white sand beach.

The two weeks I spent in workshops with creative artists from around the world and excited children from local NGOs, making the enormous puppets for the annual Giant Puppet Parade, were the most fun of my six months in Siem Reap. The children’s energy and enthusiasm were as charming as they were infectious, and performing as number two puppeteer on the Hanuman puppet on the night of the parade left me exhausted but wonderfully exhilarated – a once-in-a-lifetime experience!

Another day, another temple. The combination of an hour-long tuktuk ride, relatively few tourists, a magnificent temple to explore IndiAnnie-Jones-style, and like-minded company to share the pleasure with – a perfect combination! I had been to Beng Mealea before, I went again in March, I would repeat the day at the drop of a hat!

In Cambodia I discovered the delights of waterlilies, their infinite variety of patterns, the delicate subtlety of their colours. Feast your eyes on these beauties and smile!

Cambodian children are wide-eyed, cheeky, desperately poor, smart, smaller and thinner than they deserve to be, cute, capable, hard-working, affectionate, creative, playful, sensitive.… And one of the joys of my last few months in Siem Reap was managing the transition of Helping Hands, the project these three girls attend, into the Globalteer family. I hope their future is a bright one as they each deserve to be stars!

Even now I laugh when I look at this photo. Whenever my spirits were low – which, luckily, was seldom – I would visit the pond at Wat Damnak where there is a healthy population of these little frogs, and their comic antics would always make me laugh out loud.

If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you’ll be aware of my obsession with the pagodas of Siem Reap. This one, Wat Po Banteaychey, is probably my favourite, though each is special in its own way. I think it’s the combination of splendid architecture, the vibrant technicolour decoration, and the tranquillity of the pagodas that made them my favourite places for exploration and lingering.

Here’s another creature that made me smile, with its hilarious dance-like actions, its ability to change colour when aroused, and its truly impressive tail. Both these Oriental Garden Lizards and the tiny geckos that inhabit every nook and cranny of every building in Cambodia, as well as the Tokay geckos that cry out “okay, okay, okay”, charmed and entertained me, and helped provide me with the memories of Cambodia that I’m sure will never leave me.

Siem Reap’s Giant Puppet Parade

The vulture

“Khnhom koeu tmat (I am a vulture),” shout the kids, as they proudly wheel and carry their giant red-headed vulture puppet around the inner city streets of Siem Reap, their little faces beaming with pride, their smiles wide and bright. 

The Giant Puppet Parade, held in Siem Reap every February for the past seven years, is the culmination of months of planning and three weeks of intensive workshops, with kids from local NGOs and staff and volunteers from around the world helping to build the giant puppets, designed by the parade’s artistic director and master puppeteer Jig Cochrane. And this year I was privileged to join in the workshops.

Firstly, let me stress, these are indeed giant puppets – this year’s vulture is perhaps 30 feet long when all its bits, from top of beak to tip of tail, are laid out and, if extended outwards, the wings would flare out approximately 20 feet. And they are made up of many pieces – the vulture has at least 15 main parts, as well as many feather panels that have been added to its body or were flapped about by excited children on parade night.

And the vulture is not the biggest of the puppets, which this year include the Asian cobra, a porcupine, two frogs, the slow loris, a bee and a stingray, as well as our red-headed vulture. These creatures are all endangered and one of the ideas behind the parade is to raise awareness of the rarity of the creatures, both with the general population and with the children. Where possible, the workshops include a talk to the children about the creature they are making and the creatures are also profiled on Facebook.

As well as educating people about the rarity of these beautiful creatures, the Giant Puppet Parade aims to foster creativity and artistic ability, in the artists and volunteers who come from overseas to volunteer with the project, in the young adult artists from the Phare Ponlue Selpak Art School in Battambang, who help to lead the workshops and, most especially, in the young Cambodian children who take part in the workshops.

This year, children from the projects run by 16 local NGOs took part in the puppet-making process. They were mostly from within Siem Reap city, though one group travelled an hour from their rural village to take part, and they ranged in age from perhaps 7 or 8 to their late teens. Some had worked on the puppets in previous years, others were first-timers so needed more help, and all were just wonderful to work with.

The kids taking part in the first weekend workshop came from the Landmine Museum Relief Centre, and many had been the victims of landmine explosions. Some had missing or artificial limbs, some limped badly, but all were happy, constantly smiling and laughing. It was humbling and inspiring to see how well they coped with their disabilities. As well as encouraging their creativity, the Giant Puppet Parade helps to shine some light in their otherwise dull lives, to let these kids enjoy some much-needed fun and excitement.

And the workshops themselves? Each session began with games – Jig is also a master showman and motivator, and very good at creating the right atmosphere, getting people warmed up and the kids laughing with games like “Zip. Zap. Boing.” Then the puppet making began in earnest, starting with Scotch tape to fasten two or three pieces of rattan strips together. These are the basic construction materials of the puppets and the barrel shapes we then built with these strips are the basic building blocks. The barrels can be small or large, thin or fat, and can be added to to make larger structures, like the heads of the vulture and the cobra. We used globe shapes in the same way – circular strips were taped together to form circles, with more and more circles added to strengthen the whole thing.

Next, the kids taped sheets of various colours of tissue paper over the rattan. Then, the whole was smothered in glue – we used industrial strength PVA diluted with water – and more paper added, to cover the Scotch tape, to intensify the colour and to further strengthen the structure – the glue hardens as it dries.

These structures were decorated in a variety of ways – the kids cut slices and slivers out of pieces of square, circular and rectangular metallic paper to make snowflake and doily designs, then glued these on to the shapes.

The porcupine, for example, was basic white, with plain black circles and squares and gold metallic strips stuck on. It’s a very effective way of decorating the whole and the creatures looked stunning when assembled and lit up from within.

Following the week of puppet-making workshops with the NGO kids was another week when staff and volunteers put the finishing touches to the puppets, fastening together their pieces, adding the moving parts, sound and light, and mounting some on platforms and wheels.

On the night of the parade, the kids and staff from their NGOs, guided by the project staff and volunteers, wheeled, lifted and pushed their brilliant creations through the streets of Siem Reap in a haze of wild excitement. This year’s puppets were bigger and better than last year’s, more people came to watch the glorious parade, and the project was a stunning success – a shining example of how a community arts project can provide a creative platform for disadvantaged children to foster and promote self-confidence through art.

I didn't actually get to see much of the parade myself as I was roped in at the last minute to act as number 2 puppeteer on the Hanuman puppet (one of two puppets with their roots in Khmer culutre) and we were the teaser, dancing around at the head of the parade, playing with the crowd, helping build the excitement and anticipation for what followed. So, I'm already planning on being in Siem Reap next February so I can see it all again for myself ... and maybe help out with the puppet making again, too. It was such a brilliant experience. Why don't you come too?

Hanuman and Sovann Macha

The slow loris