Tales of Seven

Little One

Cambodia

Portrait of a beautiful little girl I found outside a small temple. Her grandmother tended incense and candles just inside.

Picture of the Week

This little creature came up to me in a restaurant in Cambodia, thin as a rail. We shared several shrimp meals over the coming days in what I hope filled his stomach for at least a short spell.

3 Minutes in Cambodia

Photos from my backroads travel in Cambodia in December 2006

Snakes and Hummers

Occheutal Beach, Cambodia

It's called the Snake house and it's a restaurant/dance club tucked away down a side road in Occheutal Beach. All around this maze-of-a-complex are enclosures with varieties of poisonous snakes. A crocodile is chained in an open pool in the lobby. Sitting quietly in tucked away corners are serious, young men talking in Russian, while dark-sounding club music pounds in the background. Parked out front is a monstrous black Hummer.

Entertaining club, or final resting place for all those James Bond movie extras and props?

(pictured below is the snake that watched me while I had a glass of wine)

Photos of the Week

Cambodia, Dec 2006

This little girl had a speech impediment. Her siblings and parents made that circling motion around their ears, signaling that she was 'crazy'. But in the hour I spent at this house, she seemed  a wonderful, intelligent and curious little girl.

Email from a Buddhist Monk

While visting Cambodia this past December, I met a kind monk who has continued to email information on Buddhism. While not a religious person, I admire many of the principles found in Buddhism, as a type of common-sense guidance for how we can move through this world. With his permission, I'd like to share his most recent email here.

How are you today ?  I am fine . what are you doing now?  I wish you have a good luck and success with your job . I wish the weather will be good with you and your people in your country .  Now I would like to tell you the noble eight is the way to end suffering is to follow the NOBLE EIGHT FOLD PATH''

1) Right understanding is means to have a corect understand ing of oneself and the world .Althought we have our own view of the world ,It may not always be right If we nuderstand thing s as they realy are ,we would be able to live a happier and more neamingfull life

2) Right thought means  to think in the right way .Those who harbour thoughts greed and anger will easily get into trouble ,but if we think correctly we would end up the right thing

3) Right speech means  to avoid lying ,tale telling ,gossiping ,backbitting ,idle talk and harsh world .harsh word can wound more deeply than weapon while gentle word can change the heard of a hardened criminal .this show the efford to another in the way we speak .the 'Buddha said pleasand speech is as the sweet as honey ,truthful speech is beautiful like a flower ,and wrong speech is unwholesome like filth ''there fore we should speak word that are truthful ,neamingful and with good will.

4) Right action means not to harm or destroy any life ,not to steal and mot to use sex in a harmful way..

5) Right livelihood neams not to live on work that would in any way bring harms to living being .the buddha said "do not earn your living by harming others ,Do not seek happiness by making others unhappy'".

6) Right effort means to do our best to become a better person.example of this are to work hard at school and drop bad habits such as laziness ,quick temper ,smoking and the drugs.

7) Right mindfulness means to be always awares and attentive ,we should always be aware of what we think ,say and do we must concentrate  on everything we do it well

8) Right meditation means to keep the mind steady and calm in order to see cearly the true nature of the things this type of mentwal practice can make us become more understanding and happier person.

The noble eightfold path can help us prevent problems or deel with any problems we may come across in our daily life .if we follow it ,we are on the way to less suffering and more happiness.

Please send my kind regard to you and your family all.

I am happy to look forward to seeing your email soon

David

David pictured on the left

Pina Colada in Repose

It's a warm night on Otres Beach, on the South Coast of Cambodia and our new point of interest is in the request of mixed drinks....

Here's the typical way this proceeds:

1  The Request: "We'd like to order a Long Island Iced Tea please." (selected an option from the menu).

2  The Response:  3 of the staff go behind the bar and consult a bit. They then vanish into the kitchen for ** over an hour **. We're not sure exactly what's going on in there (there are only three guests at the bungalows and there are no other orders), but we figure it's important. Then, one ambitious soul comes out, looks thoughtful, and selects a variety of alcohols to pour into a wine glass. Neither the type of alcohol nor the quantity of it appear to be figured into the drink design process.

3 The Delivery: He delivers our drink on a tray with a smile. We smile back. "What's in it?", we ask. "Always different", he replies.  Some are drinkable. Some are beyond consideration (and are disgarded into a helpless-to-protest bush). Yet every drink is unique, like a little piece of art.

____________

In a shining moment, we had the best pina colada we'd tasted at this beach come out of our bar. I'd like to immortalize the special creature here.

Pina Colada in Repose -- Otres Beach, Cambodia

7 Little 'Uns'

Big eyed....

.....wide toothed, mischief-filled innocence.

Unabashed looks that direct vision from the outside...

...to the 'in'

A few little 'Uns' from my trip to Cambodia

 

.... and a few more

... and they loved seeing their photos.

Gratuitous Beach Scenes

Otres Beach and Surrounding Islands

While beaches are rarely a destination point for me, I came across a few beautiful ones on the south coast of Cambodia.  I just had to share these 'Corona' moments....

I Can't Believe Anyone Could Drink That!

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

That was my first thought when I saw the faintly yellow liquid in Pepsi bottles - sold at every corner stand in the city. "That's the worst-looking Pepsi I've ever seen!"

This, folks, turns out to be a Cambodian gas station. We're not in Kansas anymore.