Cambodia 2011 Peace Project Event (Part1 The Story)

PREVI HEAR JOURNAL 2011 ! The Peace Project
PREVI HEAR JOURNAL 2011 ! The Peace Project
DAY ZERO
Wednesday,
9th of
November
2011
Phnom Penh
to Sra ‘Aem
-----------------------------
It’s seven-forty-five in
the early morning and the
temperature is twenty-six
degrees Celsius but the
humidity feels like a wet oven.
The streets of Phnom Penh
are empty except for cats,
stray dogs and garbage. Only
the night’s left-overs linger
on the curbs and the early
birds on their way to offices
pass us here. People look like
cockroaches beginning to
wriggle out of their burrows.
It feels good to be leaving
the hotel and embarking on
another Peace Adventure. We
pass from the Riverside into
the teeming back streets. The
driver seems to know where
he’s going. Where I am going
I’m not so sure! It’s a maze
for me.
The wind is in my hair
and Aone is beside me. I
just picked her up from her
house. I travel with her, the
assistant for the film Blue
Buddha to the Air-Asia office
to buy the ticket for my
return flight to Australia.
The tuk tuk draws up. I get
out while the other two
wait. The woman at Air-
Asia office does not take
credit cards for my ticket,
so it’s necessary to pay
quickly. Then I can receive
a return flight to Australia
after the Blue Buddha
project. I have been away so
long. I need to sit at fifteen
meetings and sort through
tax returns. So Australia
feels like I’m returning to
the Dentist. Previ-Hear feels
like I’m going in for a heart
transplant. They’re both bad,
but Ill live through each!
The city’s population is
still waking up. The boys,
Sambo and Sokkheng will be
waiting at the bus station.
Then the tuk tuk take
us from Riverside to the
Central bus station where
we waited in a huddle with
Sokkeng and Sambo for the
journey to begin but the
bus to the Provincial town
of Previ-Hear doesn’t come.
Our bags are heaped in a
mound around us like four
travelers around a campfire.
We have to carry the twelve
bags of camera equipment
with us to Sra’Am.
Sokkeng and Sambo have
the two Canon 5D Mark 2s in
two nap sacks. A Chloroziel
Camera mount. There are
also Edirolll tape, rollers and
tripods. Aone, my female
assistant has helped with the
logistics and says good
bye to us at the station.
We wait awkwardly
in the out-door area
until the bus arrives
surrounded by beggars,
suit- cases, loud hailer
announcements and
children with running
noses. The bus does
not leave at eight-fortyfive.
It does not leave
at nine- forty-five.
Eventually the bus for
Previ-Hear comes at
ten-thirty, and we put
everything into the
upstairs compartments.
Tith Mao and the art
assistant, So Pert are
meeting us and coming
from Siem Reap by van.
As we drive my
thoughts are a cocktail.
‘We had done
preparation of drawings
in Laos before I came.
Tamar, the art assistant
from Vientiane Laos
and I had drawn up the
Buddha image in pencil
on the large canvas.
Having prepared it we
were ready and waiting
to begin. Nokyak, the
graphic designer
from Laos and I had
developed the image
of reconciliation about
peace. I had then rolled
it and placing it in
tube flown from Wattai
airport to Siem, Reap.”
Both crews are
scheduled to meet at the
same time. Mao will bring
the easels which have been
constructed by carpenters
in Siem Reap, the painting
stand and the canvas,
which has already had the
Blue Buddha stenciled
in. From Phnom Penh
to Sra'Aem by bus and
taxi it was a blur of taxis
and lakes. Everything is
swamped by water. We pass
the Tonle Sap Lake, then
drive up towards Siem
Reap. We don’t stop there
but just pass on through
to the outskirts. Slowly the
landscape begins to change
as we journey North. First
it’s lush tropical trees
and foliage which is soon
replaced by hills and small
shrubbery. As we journey
North it becomes and more
more barren. The palm
trees are replaced eucalypts
in places. Boulders and red
clay replace paddy fields.
The rice paddies give way to
cattle grazing. Mountains
emerge. We meet a
family on the bus that
are traveling on the way
to Previ Hear Mountain.
Their son is stationed up
there as a corporal. They
have plastic bags full of
food, potatoes, rice and
dead decapitated chickens
to give him. The father is
on crutches and seems
crippled. The daughter is
possessive of him and helps
him as they get off at each
stop.
We arrive in Previ-
Hear and negotiate with
people drive us to Sra’Aem
where the other crew
Tith Mao and So Pert are
waiting. Or so we think.
Before this is to happen,
we arrive in Previ-Hear.
It is a one-horse-dump,
masquerading as a town.
Maybe there is one bank,
two restaurants, thirtyfive
noodle shops and
seventy-five motorcycle
garages, with as many
people in cycles driving in
circles nowhere. At least,
that’s how it seems to me.
We’‘re culture-shocked
and zonked from the trip.
We cannot get a bus to
take us on to Sra’Aem.. I
do the math. It doesn’t add
up! We are waiting on the
side of the road with our
bags heaped in a mound.
Sokheng goes off. Then
Sambo. Then they return
with the news.
‘There is no bus until
tomorrow, at three in the
afternoon.‘
‘I'm not waiting till
tomorrow,’ I tell Sambo. ‘We
must pay whatever price
they demand and go today.’
Eventually we negotiate
with the single taxi driver
in this one horse town.
The standard price for
taxis is 25 dollars for a
trip top Sra Aem, but he
is the only taxi drover in
town so he calls the shots.
It turns out to be fortyfive
or fifty dollars. He's
no Mother Theresa. He
wouldn’t even know who
Mother Theresa is. He has
greasy side burns and a
Cambodian version of a
Cadillac with a cracked
windscreen. He drives
fast towards Sra’Aem,
staring blindly at the road
ahead of him without
turning to talk to us. I
don’t talk to him. I don’t
even look at him. This is
my way of addressing the
fact he is greedy and does
not deserve what we are
giving him. The family
with the man on crutches
and daughter come with
us. We pay for their trip!
On our arrival, I give the
money to Sokkheng, who
in turn hands it to him. I
don’t even want to see his
face. The next moment, I
have turned my back on
him and I’m in another
world. He is still in his
body and that is enough
punishment.
Sambo, Sokheng and
I, finally arrive in Srae
Aem from Phnom Penh
at seven-thirty in the
evening . An hour later
come the arrival of Tith
Mao and So Perti by car
from Siem Reap. The
guest house is the only
one in Sra’Aaem. It has