Phnom Penh City Timelapse

I have been in the US for 39 days now and starting to feel like I am settling down. From the moment I got here I have been navigating through NYC’s train system, busing back in forth between NY and PA, driving down to the Carolinas, jumping from couch to couch, and driving from neighborhood to neighborhood everyday looking for a job.

Finally!

I have a place to call home.

I have a job.

My cat is by my side.

Classes begins on the 20th.

The Rover has landed on Mars.

I’m ready.

I can breathe.

Today was another exciting step in my new life. I am now the proud owner of a Honda Metropolitan Moped! A big time thanks to my mother and father who encouraged me to get one. Perhaps the encouragement came more from my father, I think Mom is still a little nervous nelly about the whole situation, but she went a long with it like a trooper, and I couldn’t be more grateful.

Since I have been moving around so much, I haven’t had a lot of time to reflect. A friend posted this video, and when I watched it, time stood still for me. With the video came a wave of emotion that was undeniable. I love the city of Phnom Penh, and I can’t wait for the day I return. Please watch, it is truly beautiful, not to mention the music by Sigur Ros:

Shot this over a period of 3 weeks around Cambodia’s capital of Phnom Penh using a Canon 550D and intervalometer. The panning shot was created using the upturned base of a swivel office chair lashed to the tripod legs and a flexible plastic door seal marked with length increments to give a somewhat consistent incremental rotation. Didn’t cost me a penny:-) Over 5,000 individual photos were required to produce the 5 minute video.

Phnom Penh is a city moving into the 21st century at an astonishing rate. Western technological and social influences are creating a highly contrasting society between those who embrace change and those who can’t or won’t. Where the west had decades for society to progress in parallel with technology, Cambodian people are trying to squeeze that progression into just a few years. This video represents the pace at which this city is changing.

-David Simon Photography

Night Market

Mom and Dad have made it to Cambodia! I’m thrilled to have them here and to show them the crazy world that I live in. So far they’ve already met many of the people who make this place so special. I took them to Night Market, which isn’t the greatest market, but it’s always packed and you have to have the sugar cane drink and check out all the fried food. Not to mention it’s fun to look at the photos of market thieves that got. My favorite is the guy who tried to steal the giant stuffed animal and the old guy with the smirk on his face.

eleven. eleven. eleven.

 … feeding an achy soul with the beauty that surrounds.

And It Rained All Night

South East Asia has been experiencing the worst floods in decades leaving hundreds of people dead. The Mekong River flows along side of Phnom Penh and is usually a steep drop from the boardwalk. The river has risen so much it is now up to the ledge where I was standing to take this photo.

Before: steep bank you can tell how far the girl is away from me up on the ledge.

Now : water to the ledge

In November, Cambodia celebrates the Water Festival where boat races take place along the river. The city grows exponentially as people from all over the country congregate in Phnom Penh. This year the river is so high and is moving at such high speeds that the biggest festival of the year has actually been cancelled.

Cambodian authorities have cancelled the nation’s largest public festival after at least 247 people were killed in the country’s worst floods in a decade, with huge tracts of land still submerged.

Prime Minister Hun Sen announced the cancellation of the Water Festival that was scheduled for next month.

The three day festival typically draws more than one million people to Phnom Penh to watch traditional rowing races.

The government said that high water levels in the Tonle Sap River that run through Phnom Penh could endanger people competing in the race.

Hun Sen said floods had destroyed 8 per cent of the country’s rice crop and damaged twice that amount.

The government said that money saved from cancelling the festival will go towards flood relief.

This time last year tragedy struck during the Water Festival when over 300 people were killed in a stampede across the suspension bridge to Diamond Island. It was declared by the Prime Minister to be the biggest disaster the country had experienced since the mass killings of the Khmer Rouge regime.

I live less than a 10 minute walk from this now infamous bridge and it’s hard to imagine what it looked like on that tragic day. The bridge is TINY and the amount of water it covers could be swam across in less than 5 minutes. It’s baffling to see such a nonthreatening bridge and know that within minutes it turned into a scene of devastation.

I’m thankful to be safe from the flooding here in Phnom Penh. All of my friends who live in the provinces and have families in the countryside are all safe from harm although they struggle to get around. We have a week off from work during the Water Festival and my plan was not to be in the city. From what I hear the streets close down and people are everywhere all the time. Now that the festival has been cancelled I’m not sure what the city will look like but I am still planning on taking advantage of a few days off to travel around the country some more. The rains are finally starting to subside and hopefully by that time they will have come to a complete stop. Let’s cross our fingers.

Lookin’ out my back door . . .