Trailer(usually not related to the movie you are gonna watch!)
My new "boys-stuff thingy", a Skateboard, was recently added to my life, it definitely makes me look super duper cooler. (Showing off) You guys could imagine me holding the board, with my Nikon, walking up to the temple, I am ME, brilliant right? Never mind!
Wat Phnom, it is.
My new "boys-stuff thingy", a Skateboard, was recently added to my life, it definitely makes me look super duper cooler. (Showing off) You guys could imagine me holding the board, with my Nikon, walking up to the temple, I am ME, brilliant right? Never mind!
Wat Phnom, it is.
Who needs Freedom more?
What a gift! Freedom, oh Us!… The sellers would probably be laughing every time we buy the birds; all they do is to just catch some random birds, cage them, sell them to we, desperate to do good deeds and they get paid and that's business. Flying is now dangerous for birds, they go for a “fly” and they get trapped, how not cool is that? Not just the sellers will laugh, the birds will be like, "Seriously guys? You buying Us for what?”. Who is in the cage and desperate to be freed, you or us?
What a gift! Freedom, oh Us!… The sellers would probably be laughing every time we buy the birds; all they do is to just catch some random birds, cage them, sell them to we, desperate to do good deeds and they get paid and that's business. Flying is now dangerous for birds, they go for a “fly” and they get trapped, how not cool is that? Not just the sellers will laugh, the birds will be like, "Seriously guys? You buying Us for what?”. Who is in the cage and desperate to be freed, you or us?
What is in Wat Phnom?
Basics would be that it is a Mountain Pagoda, a buddhist temple and so the name, Wat and Phnom being a mountain.
Basics would be that it is a Mountain Pagoda, a buddhist temple and so the name, Wat and Phnom being a mountain.
What about the name of the city, Phnom Penh?
Phnom means a mountain and Penh, as I heard, was a wealthy woman who was credited for founding the city.
On the other hand, Wat Phnom has been also referred to as a Stupa, holding the ashes of one of our great Kings, right at the center of Phnom Penh.
This is, on paper, the centre of celebration on Khmer New Year and Pchum Ben. That, in real, would have been like selling Chinese (food) at Downtown Los Angeles.
This place is special, I feel cool about this place, about our culture, we sure have got a great one, we just have to treasure them hardcore. King's ashes (dunno whether it's still in there or not), ancient buddha statues and relics, walls filled with murals of all kinds, depicting history way deeper than the history text books we have studied. I wonder if we would get to study and understand our culture and history in our school text books, one and all must know as early as possible, I bet, else I aint gonna take History in my college and so are many of my friends and so it sounds like those who don't take Khmer History won't get to realise the epic of a history we have.
Walking around the "pagoda mountain", felt misplaced when I saw a clock, a massive one, installed on the ground.
Hickory, dickory, dock.
The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck one,
The mouse ran down,
Hickory, dickory, dock.
Why is the tick tock clock in a pagoda? Mr. Holmes is on it.
It is all in here; the praying spots, one looks Chinese and the other looks Khmer. Leave Lord Buddha aside, a lot of deities of all features and powers and looks are there to offer and pray to.
My tip! just choose one and pray true and hard.
We definitely need archaeologist-likes, not to dig our ground but to dig deep into our great chronicles.
What would I do?
My tip! just choose one and pray true and hard.
Can we do better?
It's sad and questionable that a very historical place, Wat Phnom, has an article of very few short paragraphs with very limited information on Wikipedia.
Who is to put it up there? Our history, treasures; definitely few are described full and complete while many are left behind. Who are to bring out those old dust-covered books from the shelves at our National Library and trace back Time and History and make notes and re-rewrite, not to make the existing look bad but only to pin more gems on the crown of the Kingdom of Wonder.
What would I do?
*Hongyy Investments & Co. mode activated*
So... we're talking about a freakingly amazing yet dying yet upgradable park just in the middle of the city, imagine!….letting my flying pigs roll out!
How about a night market?
We make it bright, so bright that people would no longer be scared of the dark and celebrate every day of this LIFE until midnight (or dawn).
I like making things weird, but in a good way. Since ASEAN will be next year, occasions like Christmas, Halloween, and more should be added on to our list of extravagant celebrations. Not to forget our culture, we'll celebrate Pchum Ben, Water Festival and others bigger than ever; probably a Rio-like parade on the King's Birthday, sincere citizens and tourists and one and all, enjoying our unity in diversity. I could imagine ASEAN Committee or Board visiting Wat Phnom and approving to hold an open-air gala Lunch Buffet Meetings at Wat Phnom, with journalists from all over the world swirling around it; a definite Killer possibility!
To become one proud young Cambodian, I'll give in all I can. I am 14 and while trying to juggle between three schools a day, it might be hard for me to sit down and learn to write and then, write like a pro, but I bet, someday I'll have that flow to give not one of our historical places but all, a detailed portrait.
The Bouquet of the Kingdom of Wonder
Imagine the foot of the Wat Phnom mountain wrapped up as a bouquet of its kind with the best of the best flowers of all colours, a gift from the Kingdom of Wonder to the world; NASA sats would see Wat Phnom as the "Bouquet of the Kingdom of Wonder" and include it in their list of "must-see views" from up above the horizon.
Wohhh!
