Changes in Kampuchea-Krom

My family and I escaped my home in Slapang commune, Preah Tran Peng province Kampuchea-Krom when I was about five years old. Back then I brought along with me only a blur memory of our sufferings in our village. Twenty-three years later I returned home. I’m seeing the same suffering my villagers endure until today.

It seems nothings have changed – small houses built with bamboo and palm leaves. People are still working on the land including rice farming while others dug up the rice paddies to turn into shrimp/prawn ponds. Young and old speak Khmer to each other wherever you go (except to the market largely occupied by Vietnamese). And we still have our Wat (Buddhist temples).

But a lot have changed. The new paved road opens ways for easy transportation into the city. Lured by mobile phones, TV and motor cycles; teenagers as young as 12 head to Saigon to look for opportunities leaving behind their family, farmland. There is now a shortage of labour to work in the farm. People are faced with the two choices – sell up for cheap or leave the land empty and move to find work in the city.

Away from the village, I have been living in Prey Nakor (Saigon) for the past four months. When I first got here, I was told there are many Khmers here but I couldn’t work out a way to identify them until recently – just look out for anyone with slightly darker skin and work as labourer such as your motorbike parker, cleaner, house maid, construction worker, etc.

To sum it all up, simply Khmer are still second class citizen without the lands we once used to have.

Oc om bok in Prey Nako

I was invited to join the Oc om bok party organized by the Khmer students in Prey Nako (Saigon). They had a meeting before hand with motivation speeches given by a distinguish Khmer elder here  as well as the head monk of Chanrainsy pagado and the ar-char (priest?). Unfortunately because the speeched were given in Vietnamese or so called universal language (pea-sa-sa-kol) here, I was only managed to get a gasp of what they were talking about. They were motivational for the students never-the-less. There were some special guests there too from the local government/party.

After the serving of num bonh chok (Khmer rice noodle) on serve and as om-bok followed by rom-vong. There were around 120 students there but I heard there are around 600 Khmer students studying at various universities in Saigon. People told me last night the party was big, up to a thousand people and lasted til 3am!

Rom vong at Chanrainsy Pagoda, Saigon

Postcard from Kleang (Soc Trang)

I was fortunate to be able to go and watch the dragon boat/tuk ngo during the oc-om-bok festival in Kleang (Soc Trang) on the 24th November 2007. Here are some photos, enjoy!

The crowds are all over the river bank with standing room only. I would estimate around hundreds of thousands.

Teams are practicing preparing for the race.

The team turning around prepare for the next race.

Head of the boat for team 19. I couldn’t remember which temple it was from.

Catching up

I arrived in Prey Nakor (Ho Chi Minh City or Saigon, I will use the name interchangeably but you know where I’m talking about) on the 16th September 2007. Time flies in the almost a month I have been here. I feel as though I have only been here for a couple of weeks. I had the chance to visit Hanoi and Ha Long bay, just a few days to relax before I started work.

I’m getting used to the heat, my skin are much browner now and I bet people now can tell that I’m Khmer. Talking about identification, I’m told there are a lot of Khmer in Prey Nakor but I could not identify any of them. I could guess that anyone with a darker skin tone are Khmer but I could be wrong as some Vietnamese are brown too, plus a lot of Khmers here have light skin tone also.

I was first overwhelmed by the traffic congestion but since learning how to drive a motorcycle, it’s becoming the norm battling through the busy street of Saigon. I had a few close calls driving around as I’m not 100% confident on the bike. I normally drive around at night because it’s cooler; during the day I sometime take taxi when it’s crouching hot and the pollution is bad.

The night life here in Prey Nakor is great. Discotheque, karaoke bar, live concert and so on keeps me entertain. Food here are cheap, I think I’m putting on weight. My friends said I would probably loose weight when I’m here, but I don’t think that will be the case

Last weekend I took a few days off work and went to visit my relatives in Preah Tra Peng (Tra Vinh) province. I was hoping to catch the Don Ta festival but apparently I got the day mixed but and turned up a couple of days early. When I was there, there were heaps of people who work in the Saigon return home to celebrate Don Ta, it was great to meet up – well…about 14 of us went to have coffee at the local market, it was quite dark and I couldn’t really see all their faces. I wonder why there were no street lights in the area or even in the market, I mean they have running electricity cable on the street. Even though it’s dark, kids still walk around and hanging out with friends. There’s a sense of security there, where in western countries you wouldn’t dare to walk in the dark where it’s quiet.