January 8, 2010

Today was the coldest day so far in Siem Reap. The high may have been mid 80s, but it was cloudy also which is very unusual this time of year. We hired a car/driver and went to see Kbal Spean. The area was inhabited by hermits, who cut divine symbols and images into the rock everywhere during the 11th century. What is most unusual now is that these elaborate sculptures and carvings are under water or small water currents run over the face of them. We went there thinking that this would be beautiful imagery perhaps if we brought monks along with us in March to begin to tell the ancient and spritual story of water in Cambodia. The light was magnificent and luckily the hike up was not too hot. We spent 2 hours shooting video and marveling in the beauty and icononography. We could hardly pull ourselves away. As we were riding back into town, we stopped at the land mine museum which is a simple museum organized by a former Khemer Rouge child soldier whose job it was to set mines. Along the way, he realized what he had done and by the time the Vietnamese came in he turned himself in and began to fight to save Cambodia. He has dedicated his life to land mine victims and himself has detonated 1000s of mines.
We do not know where our project will ultimately land. We have decided that for now we are taking it all in connecting all the dots through water. We are looking for characters, stories, and locations. It seems we are covering alot of ground in a very short time. Our journey out to Kbal Spean and back took most of the day, and by the evening we went into town for a quick dinner, knowing that tomorrow would be a very early day with Mieko and Jon Morgan. Lauren