HOI AN & AN BANG, VIETNAM
The weather here has been great for the beach, so most of our time has been spent there. It was a little more humid the past few days, so I have been trying to remain sufficiently hydrated. Daylight savings time happened in the US, but not here, so at present we are only 11 hours ahead of EST, as opposed to the previous 12. For friends and family who knew my grandfather, Berber, you might recall this sort of birdcall/cooing noise he would make on occasion - I'm not really sure how else to describe it. Our neighbor, who I think is a grandfather himself, across the street here in An Bang makes a nearly identical noise, which I realized is because he keeps mourning doves, and he talks to them. Keeping them safe in cages at night, he lets them out in the mornings, chatting with them throughout the day.
On the 16th, we are headed to Siem Reap, Cambodia for 5 days before moving on to Kep, a small fishing village in the south of Cambodia for 6 days. In preparation for heading to Cambodia, which I woefully know little about, I read The Elimination by Rithy Panh, a survivor of the Khmer Rouge. Panh was forced into many horrific hard labor jobs for the Khmer Rouge, some more gruesome than others, all across Cambodia in a span of four years. He was able to eventually take refuge in France with his remaining family after the Vietnamese defeated the Khmer Rouge in 1979. Since that time he has become a documentary filmmaker, and has spent years interviewing and filming members of the Khmer Rouge, many of whom evaded capture for a number of decades. The account of his personal experience combined with the revelations of his interviews culminated into a unique perspective, and one which I believe gets at the truth of the terrifying four years and lengthy recovery effort for Cambodia.
I am presently reading The Mekong, by Milton Osborne, which details the history and manner in which Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand have been connected by the river and its tributaries, and well as how for centuries those channels have connected Southeast Asia to the rest of the world. There is definitely a lot of history I have to catch up on regarding Southeast Asia. One interesting thing I learned is that "explorers" (aka colonizers) from Spain, Portugal, Europe generally insisted upon wearing the stiffened velvet attire that was common in their native country while in Southeast Asia, which honestly sounds unbearable.
If you have any book recommendations, please do feel free to share. I am covering a lot of ground pretty quickly in the reading department.
