Have Krama, Will Kickbox
The scarf Tony Jaa wears adds to audience enthusiasm, with many Cambodians asserting ‘he’s not really Thai’ but ‘Khmer Surin’. Wearing what looks like an ordinary krama, the martial artist battles through a curiously foreign Sydney to find trafficked elephants in Tom Yung Goong, his second film. (‘The Protector’ in Stateside release). It’s hilarious to have a thoroughly Asian take on Oz. Next up? “Ong Bak 2.”
Available at your local DVD store. Interviews at EI and HK Mania.
Tags:cambodia,cinema,thailand,muay+thai
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Hands
Student work at the Royal University of Fine Art’s South Campus, Phnom Penh.
Tags:cambodia,sculpture
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Visualize Whirled Peas
USA Embassy folks don’t seem to get out much. Doubtless it’s related to the States’ endemic ‘anti-terror’ procedures. Which led to some pub postulation: maybe the reason the American Embassy is so big because there’s a secret discotheque underneath. That’s where all the diplomats tie one on – if you can get an invite.
Really, Cambodia is more safeful and peaceful than it’s portrayed. Safe at least for the USA to approve its first ever crop of Peace Corps Cambodia volunteers. For now, they’re keeping a low profile. First order of business seems to be learning Khmer, second seems to be teaching English.
From their blogs, seems like the usual ups and downs of transition and adaptation.
http://www.peacecorpsjournals.com/cb.html
Once they arrived, they were whisked away to two separate villages (Prey Char / T’Bong Kmom) in Kompong Cham for language training, hosted by local families.
That’s a good move; get them out of Phnom Penh’s expatriate scene. After that, it’s off to the provinces. Curious to know how they select schools for teaching assignments, and what community groups they’ll be working with. I have a sneaking feeling that after a year of study, some Khmer kids will be more au courant with Stateside slang than I am.
Tags:cambodia
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Read Other Blogs
An early start today, thanks to the loud blaring of wedding music at 5am. Weddings, funerals: share the joy, share the pain. With the entire neighborhood.
So while I wrap myself around an extra-large mug of coffee, wrap your head around these bits of bloggery. Go on, it’s good to vary your media diet.
Mandevu takes the 100 Houses Architecture Tour.
http://www.mandevu.net/2007/02/25/100-houses
Plus: priceless image of toilets at Angkor.
http://www.mandevu.net/2007/02/17/changing-technologies
Jeff at Jungle-Bar notes that there is a new map CD out for a very good cause, teaching at Wat Kampong Tralach. http://jungle-bar.blogspot.com/2007/02/cambodia-maps.html
GPS coordinates and more details at:http://cambodiamaps.blogspot.com
Rambling Spoon writes up their fave coffee place.
http://ramblingspoon.com/blog/?p=443
Details are Sketchy comments on the recent shootings.
http://detailsaresketchy.wordpress.com
From Finland: “Phnom Penh is like the Berlin of South East Asia – a hectic but fascinating construction site, slowly coming to terms with layers of turbulent history.” Ouch.
http://www.6d.fi/travel/page.2007-02-22.9549351306
“The one place where all travellers and expats come together is the legendary Foreign Correspondents’ Club (FCC), famously featured in the novel and film “The Killing Fields”. The view from the rooftop bar is a must.” Can I get a witness?
Geek Corner:
Khmer Open Source latest, in dead tree blog Phnom Penh Post.
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/TXT/current/stories/1604/writ.htm
The Development Agenda of Free Software
http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=532&res=1024_ff&print=0
Oldies corner: http://ttwalker.blogspot.com (how ’bout an update?)
Well-intentioned but inaccurate article on the press in Cambodia.
http://panchitaphilosophica.blogspot.com/2007/02/evolution-of-press-in-developing.html
try the recently reissued Publishing in Cambodia report for the definitive story. (Available at the Book Federation).
Dead tree bloggers The Age: Cambodia’s lost village.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/new-world-mysteries-test-cambodias-lost-tribe/2007/02/23/1171734021627.html
Tomorrow: fun with the Peace Corps.
Tags:cambodia
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Skeletal Elephant
Gratuitous photo: wireframe pachyderm, Khien Svay.
Tags:cambodia
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