Chris Todd at the Cambodian National Library, Phnom Penh
Chris Todd from the National Library of New Zealand, Wellington, is spending 2006 at the National Library in Phnom Penh. These are her notes.
16 September to 26 November 2006
Email Chris - she would like to know what you think of her notes and photos
Chris left Asia on the 16th February 2007 to return to Wellington.
The last couple of weeks have been really hectic, with packing, celebrations of various kinds and farewells. The VSA crowd celebrated 2 birthdays with fabulous dinners out and then Waitangi Day drinks as well. I've been to several formal and informal farewells, including a picnic at a hill resort with my "other" library last Sunday. They're the people who I used to work with at lunchtimes and they would always cook beautiful traditional food. Well the picnic was the same - I did wonder when the other 20 people, who would be needed to eat the food, were going to join us. The hill resort, Kirirom, is a national park south of Phnom Penh - part jungle, part pine plantations and several picnic spots near lakes or waterfalls. I've also had dinner with Sophea, my Khmer teacher, and her husband, lunch with a couple fo people from the cataloguing courses, and a formal farewell at the National Library for Beth and me. We both did short speeches in Khmer and were very nervous even after heaps of coaching from one of the librarians.
The tuktuk and moto drivers near my house all know that I'm leaving. One of them had looked up NZ in an atlas and told me that he couldn't live there - he'd be nervous surrounded by so much water and surely I'd prefer to stay in Cambodia?
One of the more spectacular farewell events was Belinda's treat. She took me to a riesling winetasting dinner at Le Royale - the Raffles hotel here. There were 13 wines, including 1 from NZ, a German sommelier to talk about the wines, and a superb dinner. It was a marvellous evening.
Tomorrow I've organised an evening with mainly VSA friends, drinks at FCC, an hour's cyclo tour to finish at a funfair and then we may wander off somewhere for dinner afterwards. There will be 8 or 9 of us and it should be a great night. Monday I'm having breakfast with a small group from the National Library and Monday night there's an exhibition opening, so my last week in Phnom Penh is looking pretty busy.
It's been a wonderful year and I'm going to be sad to leave, even though I'm looking forward to going home. It will be great to meet up with you all again.
People did say that after a year I'd just be getting used to being here. I now feel very relaxed in my little neighbourhood and it's not unusual to meet people I know in the street. My Khmer vocabulary could definitely be better, but at least my pronounciation usually works (except for the word for peanuts for some reason). Of course I hope to come back here, and it's possible that I'll do a bit of work to help finish a French-funded bibliography project when I'm back in NZ.
Dear All,
Just back from vegetable shopping at the local market and had a khmer lesson naming my purchases with my landlady when I got home. Apparently I paid 500 riels (~15cents) too much for my bananas - the foreigners price I guess.
Today I'm also working on a short classification course. At the end of November's cataloguing course I'd suggested a few sessions on more complex aspects of Dewey and yesterday went to the AGM of the library association (I'm now a member!) where I met up with several students again. We now have 12 people willing to spend a few lunch breaks looking at Dewey and I'm putting some final details into the notes for them. It was great catching up with people again - they were such a nice group.
Ikey was here over Xmas & New Year and we spent about a week down on the Cambodian coast. It was a wonderfully varied excursion. Kampot with its charming riverfront adn loads of old colonial buildings (& fabulous food). A trip to Bokor Mountain (1000m and I froze) 4 hours return on the bumpiest road I've seen, on the back of a ute. Felt a bit like one of those Barry Crump toyota ads! Next stop Sihanoukville/Kampong Som - Cambodia's major beach resort. Long white sand beachese lined with open-air bars and restaurants, fancy lights at night, fire-swingers on the beach, loungers and sun umbrellas during the day ... forgot your sunglasses? No problem - at least 20 people more than willing to sell you a new pair! There is a very seedy side to this resort, but fortunately there was little evidence of it where we stayed. We did one trip into a national park - a boat trip down a river lined with mangroves, to a deserted white sand beach and otherwise just relaxed.
Then a small island with a fishing port and village, an iceplant (for fishing boats to stock up) and for visitors, 1 set of bungalows, 3 or 4 restaurants, a small beach (& 4 tourists the night we were there - 3 of us had dinner together). Final stop was a town near the Thai border - Koh Kong - mainly for the trip back to the main road. A most beautiful trip through hills, with jungle down to the road and 4 rivers crossed on tiny car ferries - 1 was 3 or 4 boats lashed together with a platform on top and the minibus just drove on - along with cars and motorbikes.
Over New Year we went to Siem Reap which was at its peak for tourists. But even with traffic jams outside some of the major temples (scary!) it was still possible to find quiet places, and, in the early morning to have entire temples to ourselves.
5 weeks now until my departure. Its starting to feel a bit strange as I think about the people here and what I want to do before I leave and how on earth I'm going to pack!
Hope the New Year has started well for all of you
Love
Chris
Dear All,
Sunday morning, BBC arts programme on the radio and coffee and almond croissant to help the writing flow. Earlier this morning I farewelled by sister Deb., now on her way back to NZ. It was a fleeting visit, a couple of days in Phnom Penh with me and 3 up in Siem Reap, but great to catch up. We did the round of favorite places - Russian Market, drinks at the FCC with its view of the river, Romdeng, the Cambodian restaurant that trains former street kids, and, last night, Sovanna Phum for a combined performance of shadow puppets, classical dance and acrobats. We were joined last night by Sonia and Chris, up for a few days from Ho Chi Minh City - they're off to Siem Reap and then Laos from Monday. So it was a bit like a night out at home (just hotter!)
I've had a busy time since my last group email. A stunning classical dance performance one Saturday morning - a rehearsal for a Khmer version of The Magic Flute story that had its premier last week in Vienna. The dancers were just magnificent and the style formal, exquisite and remarkably expressive for such a restrained dance form. The music was also great - again traditional, but just slightly extended for this new work.
Another visitor from NZ was the singer/songwriter/guitarist Paul Ubana Jones who played twice at the FCC recently. Such performances are very rare here so the place was packed - especially his Friday night show. Seems strange that it is much easier to see classical music here, than modern Western music.
Back on the classical front there was a small music festival this week and I went to hear a great young German string quartet play Haydn, Mozart and 3 20th century composers.
It still feels very non-Xmassy howere, although maybe the 2 parties I'm going to this coming week will change that.
The trip to Battambang was followed by 2 days in Siem Reap. I'm still not tired of those temples it seems. This time I cycled around the main temples of Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom, starting out very early in the morning to avoid the heat.
The early morning was just beautiful and the long avenues of trees leading to the temples have a very special atmosphere. I mainly visited smaller temples that I'd not been to before, but just couldn't resist going into Angkor Wat again - it is just so wonderful. The second day was a long motorbike trip to some of the more outlying sites. The highlight was a place where there are carvings in and alongside a riverbed. To get there it's a 40 minute walk through the jungle - just a track with markers on the trees, like a bush track in NZ. Very few people and really lovely. Getting to the start of the track, the last half hour or so on the bike was on a red dirt "dancing road" ( i.e. lots of ups and downs and potholes)
I returned to Phnom Penh in time for the annual water festival. Three days of serious dragon boat races on the river and at night fireworks and lighted barges on the river.
Around 2 million people (!!) visit Phnom Penh for this festival, so roads near the river are closed to traffice and there are extra police and army everywhere.
Even my part of town, which is fairly quiet, was really busy over these few days. Amanda hosted a great afternoon and evening at her flat with its view of the river, so we were able to sit in comfort and watch the action.
As if 3 nights of fireworks were not enough, 3 days later was Independence Day (from the French) and 2 more nights of fireworks. The last night was last Saturday and a group of us (again organised by Amanda) were on a boat on the river and managed to moor just below the launch site for the fireworks.
We had a spectacular view of everything and were so close that fireworks debris was falling on the boat.
Since then I have been back at work - taking a cataloguing class with 20 librarians from different libraries in the mornings, and at the National Library in the afternoons. The teaching has been really satisfying - a very relaxed group who are good at asking questions and seem to work together very well. I'm fortunate to have a former National Librarian as a translator and co-teacher. I have 1 more week of teaching and then will be back at the Library full-time.
Dear All
The Battambang trip was a real highlight. Relaxing bus trip with time to stroll around the town checking out old French buildings and one lovely pagoda before repairing to a bar by the river (there's always one if you look hard enough!) for our evening drinks. As we'd travelled on different days our first group get-together was dinner in a French restaurant in a beautifully restored colonial villa. I can recommend the chocolate mousse.
The final treat for the day was the bamboo train - or rather trains as with 12 people and 6 motorbikes we needed 2 trains. They are low bamboo platforms on wheels powered by what looks like a motormower engine and they run on the normal railway line. There are only about 3 trains a week and the bamboo trains can be disassembled in a few minutes so there's only a remote possibility of encountering the real thing. Travelling back to Battambang on these weird 'trains', bumping alng the rails with a brilliant red sunset over the rice fields was truly memorable.
There were only 3 of us the next day and we did another motorbike tour looking at noodle-making, spring roll wrapper making, fishpaste (very smelly) and another couple of temples. It was particularly sobering going to the first temple as the father of one of the drivers had been killed there by the Khmer Rouge. Sapon was a yer old when his father died and his mother still lives in the nearby village.It was strange looking at ponds near rice fields and being told that these were burial pits for the bodies and the bones were in a building nearby. While of course you can never forget what has happened here, this kind of experience still serves as a reminder.
The next day we rather reluctantly left Battambang for the boat trip to Siem Reap. The boat was old and slow and I did most of the trip on the roof - used my umbrella when it got a bit hot. A 3-stage trip. First the river and the boat travelling really slowly to avoid boats and fishing nets on a very busy stretch of water. After 2 hours or so we were into a general wetland/flooded area - hard to tell where the channel was, water and the tops of trees for miles. The occasional floating village, quite few water birds, a group of monkeys at one stage. That was most of the trip and only for the final hour did we cross the Great lake itself - open water and very calm. The arrival at the port was mayhem. The boat was mobbed by tuktuk drivers. Fortunately one of our drivers in Battambang had phoned ahead so there was a guy with a sign with my name on it to meet us and take us into Siem Reap.
Saturday morning and shortly I'm heading out for minor shopping and other errands. I've been pretty busy in the last week or so and it feels as if the "season" has started again in Phnom Penh. Last weekend the Phnom Penh Players put on Dario Fo's The Virtuous Burglar - a very funny play that was really well done. The Dutch guy playing an Italian smoothie was hilarious - all gold chains, chest and swagger. There was also a VSA rugby gathering to watch the Wellington-Waikato game - a bit sad for Wellington. Saturday night I went to see The Battery Dance Company (from New York). They performed in a small-ish riverside theatre - the king was in the centre front special seat and I was up the back (still not at all far from the stage - in my US50 cent seat. It was marvellous.
Monday Belinda returned from Australi and the welcome drink of choice was a pineapple daiquiri (or 2) at Khmer Surin - a restaurant near my house. Tuesday another VSA dinner - this time with 2 members of the VSA Council in town. A very pleasant evening at a restaurant owned by a returned NZ Cambodian. Thursday I tried a new yoga class which was just great - so one of today's errands is to buy a yoga mat.Last night went out with Belinda and a friend of hers for gin fizzes at the Elephant Bar, followed by dinner at Romdeng - another great Khmer restaurant.
Still on food - I visited my "other library" last Wednesday and Yim Mory cooked lunch for us. Bitter melon stuffed with minced pork and a second dish - beef cooked in caramelized palm sugar - yum - I have a recipe and will try to make it soon.
At my favourite iced coffee shop in the Russian Market. One of the booksellers has just come up to say hello. I have yet to buy anything from him, but he is always friendly, cheerful and hopeful, and today we had coffee together. A few months ago the thought of eating here would have appalled me, but today I was peckish and had no problem ordering a plate of rice, pork, pickled vegetables and a chili sauce on the side.
The library is kind of quirky, but a great, and very satisfying place to work. I enjoy the cataloguers - they're a great mix. Sophy is my main colleague - she's bright and keen to learn and is my main link with the others in the team. Sokhar is the head cataloguer - she's very clever and one of the few Cambodians with a library qualification - hers is from Kiev. She has a great, cynical sense of humour and fills me in on a lot of gossip!
Chanthy is the systems librarian. He has been really important in my database work here and has the best English of the cataloguing team and has been very cheerful and hugely helpful. Nippona does data entry and speaks only a little English. Sophy helps translate when we need to talk and we have these hilarious 3-way conversations in a mixture of khmer and English about the finer details of catalogue records.
Mr Choeun, a dignified older man with a charming smile, is the French language cataloguer. I have less to do with him than the others and again Sophy is the intermediary. Kessera does subject cataloguing and classification, but is a little shy and understands more English than he speaks.He is beginning to use online resource more to my great delight. Youn does book labelling and her little son, about 4, usually comes to work with her. He can be found curled up asleep on one of the bottom bookshelves or on her desk, when he's not playing outside. This is a very "family friendly" workplace and another 4-yr old - Vesna is here everyday. His "job" is to turn off the aircon at the end of the day.
My work was initially to do with workflows. This means lots of asking people about their work processes and trying to understand how things worked, then seeing if there were ways to make things easier and more efficient. Lots of meetings later, there are some changes that are now part of standard work routines and working really well, so that's been very satisfying for me. It was also a great way of getting to know people.
Now I am more concerned with catalogue record content; working with the cataloguers to give training in the standards they are already using and editing older records for a French-funded project to produce a printed catalogue of Cambodian publications.
I'm constantly impressed at how well the cataloguers do when working with publications in 3 languages and 2 scripts and applying English subject headings and classification systems that are complex for native speakers. My struggles with learning khmer script have certainly added to my respect for my colleagues in their multilingual work environment.
Next week I will be teaching cataloguing to 4 people who aren't cataloguers, one of them the library director. Vibolla, the director, is very impressive. She has a great grasp of systems and processes and learns very quickly. She's also very good at looking ahead in terms of the library's development and is a great person to work with.
I am lucky in the practical nature of my job here and the willingness of the people I work with to try new ways of doing things and to be very clear about what they think will and won't work. There is already quite a bit that I've done that is simply part of business as usual now and that is just so satisfying.
Dear All
A verandha near the Mekong this time - early-ish and we've just ordered breakfast. "Rush
hour"here seems to consist of 2 cyclists, 3 motorbikes and 10 ducks. I
feel so laid back I may never move again.
It's misty and cool - the last 2 days we've had drizzly rain and the temperature has really dropped - no need for fans and I''ve even used a shawl on some of the buses. This whole trip has been sleepy and relaxing - we left the Mekong and travelled across the Lao coffee growing plateau to the Sekong River, not far from Vietnam.
Stayed in 2 small towns there where we were the only tourists in town - it is the low season. In one of these, Attapeu, our dawn chorus was roosters, ducks, geese and pigs. The travelling was mainly by local buses which are frequent, cheap and not too crowded. Basically we would go to the main road and wait for something to drive by and generally they were heading where we wanted to go.
On the way back from Attapeu to Pakse our bus became a truck and the back
3 or 4 rows of seats were stacked floor to ceiling with sacks of cabbages.
Then a motorcycle and tv set were loaded into the aisle and off we went!
We did some great cycle rides in the countryside - the nicest being a trip
around part of Don Khong Island in the Mekong. Flat, quiet and lots of lovely
paddy fields with low hills (which we didn't have to cycle over) in between.
Stopped to catch some dragon boat practice for the Laos November boat racing. From Don Khong we also did a boat trip to 2 other islands- one known for its waterfall and old French railway - the other a backpacker hangout with a shore lined with restaurants and guesthouses - the latter the most unappealing sight of the whole trip. The trip back to Phnom Penh was a 12 hour marathon involving a minivan, ferry, Lao border crossing, another minivan (after a 2 hour wait), Cambodian border crossing, another ferry, a small & very nice bus and finally a decrepit minivan.
I'm now back in Phnom Penh and basically housecleaning and organising before my return to work tomorrow. Friday night I went to a benefit dinner at an Italian restaurant with Liz and Brian (VSA). There is a restaurant here called Friends that trains street kids and they are trying to buy their building to avoid eviction. About 10 restaurants took part in the benefit evening and our choice of restaurant was great.
Hope you are all thriving in the spring.
Love
Chris
Dear All
I'm in a hammock on the banks of the Mekong with a bottle of beer Lao at my elbow. There's been low cloud and rain on and off most of the day and the river is a muddy reddish brown. There are a few small canoes out on the water and it's very quiet and pleasantly cool.
We got here at about 1pm after an interesting trip from Phnom Penh. Started out yesterday at 7.00am with a 9 hour bus trip to Stung Treng, a small town on the Sekong River not far from the Lao Border. Sounds horrendous but we had front row seats, so heaps of leg room, the air con was fine and the music not too loud.
I'm beginning to recognise some of the songs and performers so spent part of the trip helping a10yr old boy with the English bits of lyrics to some of Cambodia's current popular songs. The rest stops came at the right time and the food was okay. Most of the way the landscape was flat, green and wet,but as we got closer to Stung Treng the road was through recently felled forest so there was a felled strip, still with plenty of trees,along the road, and denser forest in the background. It was very beautiful. Stayed the night in a basic but clean hotel in Stung Treng. It's a tiny town and we figured there were about 4 foreign tourists that night. This morning we got a boat across the Sekong and then a car and driver to take us to the Lao border. That took about 1 1/2 hours on a mix of very muddy red roads with pot holes like swimming pools, and new road with proper seal and in great condition.
There's a project to improve the road right through and a bridge across the Sekong and we were coming across bits of it on our trip. The border posts were in the middle of scrub - very low key and quite relaxing. Our next stage was to get a bus ticket to a turnoff to Champasak however after waiting nearly 2 hours everyone (including our ticket seller) realised that the bus wasn't going to come,so they flagged down a passing car and paid the very nice driver to take a couple of passengers. Our bags went into the boot alongside the bag of live frogs and off we went at great speed. It was an excellent road, a good new car and it took us no time to get to our turnoff.
Then a short tuktuk ride to the river(Mekong this time) and a tiny boat across and a walk of about 2 km to our gorgeous hotel. Champasak is tiny sleepy and very pretty and on the banks of the Mekong.The attraction is a temple out of town.It's now Tuesday and I'm just back from a cycle ride to the temple. We were the first there this morning and it was just beautiful. It's kind of Angkorean (without going into too much detail) and on a wonderful site on a hillside and not very restored so tremendous atmosphere.
Cycled back through the little villages and stopped
for lunch at a place where the phrases at the back of the Lonely Planet were
our sole means of communicating (apart from mime!) Wonderful soup and then
back along the paddy fields to our hotel. Amanda is now resting and I figure
it's time for another stint in the hammock.
Love to you all.
Chris