Sketches of Cambodia

Late September 2013

It is drizzly at dusk. The sky is cloudy and gray. I like to be out of the hubbub, and be alone.

The night is descending. Straight and tall coconut trees thrust into the sky. Hanging down from the walls are green vines with perfect heart-shaped leaves.

The road is very narrow and long, disappearing into the far distance. In the distance, headlights of vehicles are shining and twinkling. In the dimness, many people are riding bicycles or motorcycles very fast, eager to go back home. How tranquil and peaceful, yet there is a slight sense of sadness in the darkening road.

 
Along the Street
This area seemed to be a hodgepodge. But, it generally gave an impression of disorder, crowdedness and poverty.

Along the street, it was very common to see shabby iron-board shacks with square windows pried open. Iron boards seemed to be patched together here and there. Sometimes, the black cooking smoke rose out, and tainted the iron boards. There were also many cemented bungalows. In one place, the road was drowned in black water puddles.

Various sorts of clothes were hung along the street. Small stalls sold assorted small groceries. Garbage was piled here and there. Now and then, green vines wandered out from the top of the iron board, or several lean and straight palms thrust out into the light blue sky.

But, amidst the spread of shabby houses, there were also some nice painted and several stairs houses with tall round pillars and nice balconies and banisters.

Women, wrapped in long skirts, sat outside along the street, chatting or doing some chores. Children were skylarking on the street. A group of cheerful teenager boys were kicking the shuttlecock together. And dogs trotted about.

In all the irregularities and dustiness, there was an atmosphere of familiarities, vivacity of life, leisure and cheerfulness. In the west, the sun glowed golden.

 

2013/10/20
In the afternoon, I walked about. It was a lazy and leisurely Sunday afternoon. Some slight clouds smeared over the blue sky. Leaves fluttered slightly.

The sun was scorching. But, it was nice and cool in the shade of buildings.
By the broad broken road were lines of beautiful western-style three-stair houses with pillars, red paints, and balconies decorated with pots of green plants. By the side of the school, there was a muddy by-lane lined with some shabby looking houses. Iron boards were put together to form walls. Many kids were chasing and frolicking in the outside, and the grown-ups were playing cards or chatting, familiar scenes everywhere in the world.

11.9
I took a walk outside in a lovely afternoon. The day started to cool off. The sky was light blue.
A street was lined up with lovely houses and neat paved yards. Sometimes, a car parked in the yard. Boughs of flower branches reached out from the wall. There was also a small pond. Across the pond, the bank was tightly packed with a lot of low iron-board shacks. And in the distance were the spiny towers of the temple. The golden and sparkling sun dazzled.
I walked on, and came across a very large piece of waste land, where a few plants grew. Clumps of grass stems swayed in the wind. I saw a big gray spider scurrying away. I wanted to take a closer look, but couldn’t. Obviously, it could feel my presence.
I saw a tall mimosa plant. On the stalk, there were a lot of thorns. I touched the green leaves, and those parts all closed up. It felt so magical. By the side of the waste land, there was a large green pond where a lot of green plants crowded together. It was so crowded that there wasn’t any space where I could see through. At the edge of the pond were clumps of reeds. I could see the round cubicle of dark brown furry seed swellings.
There was also a sprawl of morning glory flowers. The flowers were soft and white. Some already faded, and some were only buds, and some partly opened.
The sun sunk down, and in the west were patches of rosy and grayish clouds. And I walked back.

 11.12
The atmosphere is light gray and a little dim even though it is broad daylight as carpets of gray clouds are hanging low in the sky.
In the bare and gray tree branches stretching across like a web, the vines of sponge cucumbers are climbing and twisting around. Big shining palm-like leaves hang here and there. By the big gray tree trunk, there is a small stalk of green plants with delicate and symmetrical leaves.
Everything today goes for a magical story or a cartoon.
The frame of picture that is run across by the eyes, like in the background of puffy white clouds, the single wine dangles with fresh green palm-leaves.
Pots of green plants crowd in the yard, beyond the wall, is the stretch of low triangle-shaped iron-board house structures.

2013. 11.18

The late afternoon is so beautiful and serene.

The sunset is a very lovely time, because it is so cool, and everything is so lovely under the darkening blue sky, and soft light. 
Under the sky, there are iron-board houses of different colors. There are some dark green and some pale gray wooden houses with windows like a pair of eyes. Here and there, big trees thrust out from the crowd of houses, and cast out a shape of deep green.

I walk on the big patch of waste land. On both sides of me are ponds. One pond is thickly covered with a kind of unknown green plants. But, here and there, big lotus leaves thrust out higher than the cluster of small green leaves of those unknown plants. At the edge of the pond, I could see several large lovely lilac flower stalks. The sand by the pond is buried with many spiral shells.

The view is broad. Somehow, the houses, the pond, the trees, and the sky overhead, the slashes of pink clouds all make very enchanting, serene and lovely pictures for me.

The moon is hanging in the light blue sky, and underneath, on top of the iron board, there are some slight stalks of grass. I could see the clear cut outline of those small grass.

2013/11/19

The sky was light blue and smooth, with scarves of light clouds slashing here and there. Everything under the sky looked very serene and lovely, and peaceful.

The houses were lined up by the pond. The wind was so cool, blowing me all over. The light gray iron-board house had two big square green windows, and looked very cute.

And I saw a very big gray lizard moving from the flower stalk to the green leaves. It then lied there motionless, and it had a very long tail. By the pond, pouts of sand jutted here and there.

2013/11/20

The sky was light blue with fleecy clouds. The wind was so cool, blowing over a patch of wild plants. It felt so simple and dream-like.

And I sat by the side of the pond, and stared at the mass of green grass and shrubberies clustering together. There were some mimosa plants with soft and fuzzy lilac flowers and flat green beans. There were also sprawling patches of white morning glories. Some morning glories were purely white while others had deep purple hearts. It was so touchingly beautiful to see a purely white morning glory flower amidst the clustering green leaves. I spotted a small damselfly perched on a grass blade. The damselfly looked like an arrowhead because the tip of its tail was red, while the rest was all black.

At the left side, there was a very big tree sheltering against the shining sun. The sunshine flickered through the branches.

A tree stood in front of my door. It was all bare, but, the thin branches looked like a gray maze against the blue sky. I could see every distinct stroke of the branches. It was so impressively beautiful and lovely. The vines of the sponge cucumbers twisted around the bare tree, and covering it with big green palm-like leaves, shining and green in the sunshine.