[Phnom Penh, 11/4/23] It’s 7AM, and I’m sitting in Cafe Amazon, a Thai chain. I’d rather be at Nil, but it doesn’t have wifi, and I wouldn’t want to hog one of its two tables. Forty hours ago, I arrived in Sihanoukville. With its unfinished highrises, pricey hotels, casinos everywhere and not enough homes, it’s a disaster of a city.
"Most planned cities or even neighborhoods have turned out disastrous."
Yeah but that doesn't stop developers from trying. Brasilia, designed by a Jewish Communist architect, is one of the funniest: created as a socialist utopia, it has large, weird-shaped but ultimately soulless buildings where politicians work and live, that are only reachable by car, while most of the population lives either in huge cement blocks or around the city perimeter in ugly shantytowns.
The Barbican in London, with its ugly brutalist architecture, is another example of a dehumanizing planned neighborhood.
That's funny. When I read Linh's sentence, Brasilia was the first place that came to my mind also. I'm sure the new paradise they are planning for northern California will be much better!
There's that masked woman again. Advertising expensive western products.
I love train travel, too. When I was a kid, after my father died, my mother would take me and my brother to Florida from Connecticut by train. (She had that childishly irrational fear of flying.) This was over the spring break vacation in early April. The last snow of the long New England winter was melting as we boarded the commuter train to Grand Central station. We left New York around 10 a.m. and by nightfall we were passing into the Carolinas. At day break we were among the Spanish moss and verdant pine forests of south Georgia having passed from winter to summer in one night. At that time the area between train cars was open to the air. I loved to stand between the cars and feel the fresh southern air on my face. Those were the days.
Since you wrote that Sihanoukville was a backpacker destination just a few years ago I went to Google Maps and was intrigued to see the city also referred to as Kampong Som. Since Kampong is 'village' I went to Google Earth, opened the historical Landsat imagery and was aghast to see how much that corner of Cambodia has changed since 1984.
From lush jungle-covered hills stretching as far as the eye could see, to cultivated plots linked by highways and serviced by vast new industrial estates. It was like watching a time lapse of a wolf turn into a diseased mangy cur.
Otres Beach, a few miles out from the center of Sihanouk. A lawless little beach full of drugged out hippies at the edge of the world. A weird place, I came to visit for a weekend and stayed a month. Trippy, kinda magical place; but also some dark energy.
The one (unpaved) street in Otres was beset with street dogs. Walking a few thousand feet home at night could be daunting. You learn to pick up a rock - or pretend you have one, if you can't find a rock nearby - and threaten the dogs. Or pay a moto driver to drive you a distance you could walk in five minutes.
They ran a weekly rave party in the jungle behind Otres. Called the Kerfuffle. Held at an abandoned amusement park in the jungle. Where the ferris wheel and little roller coaster had been resuscitated. Safety last!
Pretty trippy arrival too. You ride there in a moto - the Cambodian style of motorcycle-pulled wagon taxi, that always reminds me of a hearse. And he just drops you off at the edge of the jungle. Pretty fucking creepy. But in the distance you can vaguely hear thumping music. So you walk thru the dark jungle - if it's your first time, wondering if this is really the right place. Until you come to the clearing, where you can see the ferris wheel and a couple hundred partiers.
Well, that's gone. The Chinese bulldozed it to build casinos.
I also like traveling by train, but not because it allows you to watch poor neighbourhoods. It's just less claustrophobic than both buses and planes, and it usually gets you a cleaner, nicer view of the place you're visiting, allowing it to see its changes from region to region. It's also better to observe other people, difficult in buses and impossible in cramped planes. Traveling by bus, you will mostly only see cars and trucks in huge, anonymous freeways, and traveling by plane, it's too high and fast to see anything at all. (But driving is also a good option, especially if you avoid the large freeways and travel through smaller but more scenic roads).
It is interesting that while so many countries in the so-called "Global South" are littered with Western fast-food names, here in the US, those same names are increasingly having trouble making a go of it. For instance, yesterday McDonald's in downtown San Francisco called it quits after 30 years at that location. The reasons? "The economics of running a franchised restaurant in San Francisco continue to be a challenge, particularly in a downtown that is impacted by high office building vacancy rates and visitor trends that have not recovered since the pandemic...San Francisco continues to be a very tough place to own and operate a restaurant business, irrespective of price point." Better yet, the spokesman said traffic at the restaurant had dropped off a cliff, and that “office building vacancies, the environmental atmosphere of downtown sidewalks and a tepid return by tourists and conventioneers all drove the decision" to close the restaurant.
You took the words right out of my mouth when you labeled Biden's installation as being the ultimate "fuck you" to US voters. Incredibly, polls show (if you believe them) that at least 3 out of 10 (and a substantial majority of Democrats!) still say they think he's doing a good job. This must be the real-life equivalent of that movie character who is an ordinary guy and finds himself at a gathering with high society types making snarky remarks intended to insult him, yet he is too thick to realize he's being insulted.
Interesting that all of the American depravity and violence and the Chinese commercialism can't dent the essential humanity of a people. Jesus said that the poor would always be with us and that they would be the first to find God in the spiritual realm. It is being played out in real life in your essay, Linh.
one of the best you have written, I think because you acknowledge the part trains play in all our lives. Never replicate a train journey by auto, or even a flight, tho' oceans are difficult... Maybe you shouldn't go if you have water to cross... I understand that there are sub continental indians who acknowledge this reality in their religion... It could be True Truth. What effect would that have had on Colonial Expansion, Expansion and wars (of conquest).
The joy of youth with the girl and her baguette. The misery of middle age in the woman with her fancy clothes and trinkets (plus her oversized fear of death).
You might enjoy reading the late Dr. Erich Fromm's book, "The Sane Society" mostly about the collective insanity of the West in general but The States in particular. It's an old book. Probably first printed 40 years ago.
Fromm and his mentors Freud and Marx were not always right but they were serious thinkers. I may be missing something but there seem to be few of their caliber around today.
The jump from Cambodia to South Africa caught me somewhat off guard. Couldn't ascertain what is going on there even after re-reading the part. Other than that, I love reading the Postcards, cheers!
Hi everyone,
Here are only a few of the many unfinished or dead buildings in Sihanoukville:
http://linhdinhphotos.blogspot.com/2023/11/unfinished-building-on-11-7-23.html
http://linhdinhphotos.blogspot.com/2023/11/dead-casino-on-11-7-23-sihanoukville-2.html
http://linhdinhphotos.blogspot.com/2023/11/from-sidewalk-i-could-only-see-very-top.html
http://linhdinhphotos.blogspot.com/2023/11/unfinished-building-on-11-6-23_7.html
http://linhdinhphotos.blogspot.com/2023/11/unfinished-building-on-11-6-23.html
Linh
The last two links have been merged. Thanks for pics though. Humanity is fascinating.
I just fixed it...
"Most planned cities or even neighborhoods have turned out disastrous."
Yeah but that doesn't stop developers from trying. Brasilia, designed by a Jewish Communist architect, is one of the funniest: created as a socialist utopia, it has large, weird-shaped but ultimately soulless buildings where politicians work and live, that are only reachable by car, while most of the population lives either in huge cement blocks or around the city perimeter in ugly shantytowns.
The Barbican in London, with its ugly brutalist architecture, is another example of a dehumanizing planned neighborhood.
That's funny. When I read Linh's sentence, Brasilia was the first place that came to my mind also. I'm sure the new paradise they are planning for northern California will be much better!
https://norcalpublicmedia.org/2023090191178/news-feed/billionaires-want-to-build-a-new-city-in-eastern-solano-county-they-must-convince-voters-first
There's that masked woman again. Advertising expensive western products.
I love train travel, too. When I was a kid, after my father died, my mother would take me and my brother to Florida from Connecticut by train. (She had that childishly irrational fear of flying.) This was over the spring break vacation in early April. The last snow of the long New England winter was melting as we boarded the commuter train to Grand Central station. We left New York around 10 a.m. and by nightfall we were passing into the Carolinas. At day break we were among the Spanish moss and verdant pine forests of south Georgia having passed from winter to summer in one night. At that time the area between train cars was open to the air. I loved to stand between the cars and feel the fresh southern air on my face. Those were the days.
Since you wrote that Sihanoukville was a backpacker destination just a few years ago I went to Google Maps and was intrigued to see the city also referred to as Kampong Som. Since Kampong is 'village' I went to Google Earth, opened the historical Landsat imagery and was aghast to see how much that corner of Cambodia has changed since 1984.
From lush jungle-covered hills stretching as far as the eye could see, to cultivated plots linked by highways and serviced by vast new industrial estates. It was like watching a time lapse of a wolf turn into a diseased mangy cur.
What are we doing to ourselves?
Otres Beach, a few miles out from the center of Sihanouk. A lawless little beach full of drugged out hippies at the edge of the world. A weird place, I came to visit for a weekend and stayed a month. Trippy, kinda magical place; but also some dark energy.
The one (unpaved) street in Otres was beset with street dogs. Walking a few thousand feet home at night could be daunting. You learn to pick up a rock - or pretend you have one, if you can't find a rock nearby - and threaten the dogs. Or pay a moto driver to drive you a distance you could walk in five minutes.
They ran a weekly rave party in the jungle behind Otres. Called the Kerfuffle. Held at an abandoned amusement park in the jungle. Where the ferris wheel and little roller coaster had been resuscitated. Safety last!
Pretty trippy arrival too. You ride there in a moto - the Cambodian style of motorcycle-pulled wagon taxi, that always reminds me of a hearse. And he just drops you off at the edge of the jungle. Pretty fucking creepy. But in the distance you can vaguely hear thumping music. So you walk thru the dark jungle - if it's your first time, wondering if this is really the right place. Until you come to the clearing, where you can see the ferris wheel and a couple hundred partiers.
Well, that's gone. The Chinese bulldozed it to build casinos.
Marvelous expression of 2 of your themes. 1, the illusion that mask our poverty. 2, life that still grows.
I also like traveling by train, but not because it allows you to watch poor neighbourhoods. It's just less claustrophobic than both buses and planes, and it usually gets you a cleaner, nicer view of the place you're visiting, allowing it to see its changes from region to region. It's also better to observe other people, difficult in buses and impossible in cramped planes. Traveling by bus, you will mostly only see cars and trucks in huge, anonymous freeways, and traveling by plane, it's too high and fast to see anything at all. (But driving is also a good option, especially if you avoid the large freeways and travel through smaller but more scenic roads).
I share your references to death and dying, I see it too in the not too distant future. Time well spent. Can¨t see it being much of a curse. Be well.
It is interesting that while so many countries in the so-called "Global South" are littered with Western fast-food names, here in the US, those same names are increasingly having trouble making a go of it. For instance, yesterday McDonald's in downtown San Francisco called it quits after 30 years at that location. The reasons? "The economics of running a franchised restaurant in San Francisco continue to be a challenge, particularly in a downtown that is impacted by high office building vacancy rates and visitor trends that have not recovered since the pandemic...San Francisco continues to be a very tough place to own and operate a restaurant business, irrespective of price point." Better yet, the spokesman said traffic at the restaurant had dropped off a cliff, and that “office building vacancies, the environmental atmosphere of downtown sidewalks and a tepid return by tourists and conventioneers all drove the decision" to close the restaurant.
You took the words right out of my mouth when you labeled Biden's installation as being the ultimate "fuck you" to US voters. Incredibly, polls show (if you believe them) that at least 3 out of 10 (and a substantial majority of Democrats!) still say they think he's doing a good job. This must be the real-life equivalent of that movie character who is an ordinary guy and finds himself at a gathering with high society types making snarky remarks intended to insult him, yet he is too thick to realize he's being insulted.
Interesting that all of the American depravity and violence and the Chinese commercialism can't dent the essential humanity of a people. Jesus said that the poor would always be with us and that they would be the first to find God in the spiritual realm. It is being played out in real life in your essay, Linh.
one of the best you have written, I think because you acknowledge the part trains play in all our lives. Never replicate a train journey by auto, or even a flight, tho' oceans are difficult... Maybe you shouldn't go if you have water to cross... I understand that there are sub continental indians who acknowledge this reality in their religion... It could be True Truth. What effect would that have had on Colonial Expansion, Expansion and wars (of conquest).
On the other hand, likely none...
g.
The joy of youth with the girl and her baguette. The misery of middle age in the woman with her fancy clothes and trinkets (plus her oversized fear of death).
seeing a world unknown to most
Sane. Sanity. Sane society.
I just wanted to enjoy a moment there. I never realised how good that sounds. I said it out loud to see.
You might enjoy reading the late Dr. Erich Fromm's book, "The Sane Society" mostly about the collective insanity of the West in general but The States in particular. It's an old book. Probably first printed 40 years ago.
Fromm and his mentors Freud and Marx were not always right but they were serious thinkers. I may be missing something but there seem to be few of their caliber around today.
The jump from Cambodia to South Africa caught me somewhat off guard. Couldn't ascertain what is going on there even after re-reading the part. Other than that, I love reading the Postcards, cheers!
Poor IV woman, I hope it is not a serious illness.
Awesome.