Reality and Belief

Opinions vary around every corner of the world, from guys on streets to suited&tied-politicians, we all are able to express what we think about one certain thing. Whether it’s good or bad, rite or wrong, it doesn't really matter does it? it’s just how we think of it, and whichever way we think of things certainly cannot be penalized.

I wanted to write an article on this topic because it’s something happening everyday and no one seems to be making a fuss outta it; not saying that I will, but someone has to start the fire. Everywhere in the world, people believe in beliefs, in Gods, in spiritual things we can all say, might or might not exist. It’s all an opinion. We have to somehow reduce the overwhelming passion we have for beliefs, because it's hurting the reality and I honestly think that it has the potential to make things worse, with time. It is very okay and awesomeee to believe our choice of beliefs because we have doing that for so so long, and if it stays at this rate, it ain't going anywhere. But when things get too overwhelmed and overdone, and no one is seeing it, that's one heck of a problem.

I pay my tributes to the hardcore prayers and the ones who go to God when it's needed the most, and most of the time, things work out just fine and you can start thanking the guy who helped you outta it. I do pray as well, so so many times; before competing for something I think I deserve to win, when things get in the way and I start panicking.

People, I'm not saying a lot or very few, but they should wake up from whatever unrealistic situation they are in, and start considering another path in making their lives better and brighter. Focus on your beliefs, but I suggest you focus more on the reality. The things that are around you, are the things that will involve in your life, no matter how small it actually is, it will always make an impact on you. Focusing more on reality makes you look smarter, and nevertheless, a better person I suppose. Reality is where you'll be in forever, a place you'll never be able to leave unless Satan comes to you and tell you to say your last words. Reality is time, and time has no limitations, we can go visit Satan when we are just 18 or we can go on to be the healthiest/oldest people on Earth; no one really knows what will happen, I doubt God too, won't be able to give you an exact time of your lifespan.

I’m no expert in either the REALITY field or the BELIEFS field, I’m just expressing my thoughts on how I’m seeing things as a teenager living in a country, I can say, is flooded with religious related. I feel bad for those who are too obsessed with their beliefs and not realizing that they are actually living in the reality, not in their dreams or their fantasy world.

Once again, I think God has been with me most of the time, helping out here and there pretty often, and I sincerely thank it/he/her for everything. But I’m sure that's not what Gods want from us, I believe that they leave us alone sometimes and not helping us because they want us to be independent, and only depend on them when things are too much and that's when they’ll come in and help.

The existence of Gods are always questionable and will be a infinite debating topic. Not reality though, reality is there, rite in da face; no questions asked!

Khmer New Year of 2016

#lastyear

Last year’s Khmer New Year was spent in Koh Rohng Samloem, and I had some quality times there, very very worth it. It was pretty fast as well, thinking that those times were actually one year ago makes me feel so old.

#thisyear

This year’s Khmer New Year is an unplanned one, people here call it, “dek teas saart”, which translates into something like this, “beautifully sleeping at home”. Although that's not the exact meaning, but it's pretty close, it means you are not going anywhere, even if you do, it's probably somewhere nearby; can be called an unplanned holiday.

#theunplannedholiday

The word “Holiday” is like the perfect word to describe being able to get super lazy and relax and sometimes literally do nothing at all, except for eating a lot of food and watching a lot of tv and games and doing useless stuffs to burn the possibly the longest holiday of the year; which I, myself did it for many times before getting into the blogging and fotography I’m doing rite now. I’m very aware that it still occurs to most of the teenagers here and I regret having done it for many times in the past, but now that I’m somehow more mature than I was two years ago, I can see how useless it was and now still is. I’m done with all those stuffs and have somehow managed to do something else which gives more energy and usefulness to myself and later, probably for the society (just saying…:)

#somanylectures

You can definitely slack off during the holidays, but that's when you dun really have a clue how much time you actually have in hand and how much work can be done in that amount of time; which in my case, will definitely help a lot with my work and all, which will definitely affect everything I will be doing after the holidays. So what I think everyone should be doing is that they should definitely have fun, else there's no point in getting so many days off and have nothing to do; and should definitely try to make something out of the holiday, because believe me, you have no idea how much time there is in your hands until you actually decide to take it out and try using it.

Enough with all the holiday definition thingy, let's get back to the holiday itself. I can say that we have been developing like crazy, maybe not so much with the construction and roads and all, but definitely the tourism side; it's growing like crazy. People might be saying that there are only locals going to places such as Angkor Wat and Pub Street and those amazeball places we have here in Cambodia, and that we lack the likes of overseas tourists, but that doesn't really matter does it? The grass is always gonna be greener on the other side (I’m talking about the likes of Thailand where there are tons and tons of overseas tourists compared to us), but if we always keep our mind in the positive mode, local tourists are giving us a lot of interests, and that is way better than going overseas and spending money in other countries. I’m not saying we shouldn't be going overseas, they are great and niiice and an inspiration to our development, they are not bad guys.

#khmernewyearhasevolved

Khmer New Year has attracted so many locals, especially teenagers, and when there are teenagers, there are the parents, no one is leaving no one behind, and in this case, it just makes the tourism part even better and better. As we all know, we are opened to more knowledge and education nowadays, parents and all are more open minded than ever before, so are their kids; that's a great great news. Teenagers now are engaged with the idea of being kool and swag and classic and all those influence and cultures we all get from all the great technologies. It is always good to be a part of something that is already there and very famous, but we have to also keep it low and to never exaggerate. Most of the organizations in charge of making the festival very engaged with teenagers and mixing up the past and the modern, I must say, are ran by either teenagers themselves or people who know us very well. They bring in new and exciting things so that it will entertain literally everyone, and if we are to make things better, we are in the rite path.

#angkorsongkran

Angkor Songkran means like a celebration in Angkor itself, celebrating for the Khmer New Year that will be coming the day before the Angkor Songkran will be held. I have no idea what people actually do in Angkor Songkran, but I’m sure that it's definitely something very fun, else no one would be joining. Honestly, I’ve never been to an Angkor Songkran before, so I dun have a clue how it looks like, but by the looks of the images I searched for in Google Images, it looks like there are pretty fun activities. I see stuffs like water guns and water balloons, some Khmer traditional games, I seepeople shaking off their stress with the remix of Khmer traditional dance and the trendy “Nhi Keng Jerng Dance”, you just simply put your heels on any plain platform and start twisting it with a bit of Marizon (dance) to it; I call it the Khmer version of Gangnam Style maybe?

#13thprayersday

By the 13th, people have already given their prayers and received grace from the new God of this year. Every year there comes a different God who to my perspective, is the one who will be responsible for all the things that will be happening that year; most likely to look like the animal that is in the zodiac sign. There is always green screen play on tv every year, showing probably a crew of that tv show dressing up like a random God and sitting on his cloud on the way to Earth; no offense here to whichever ministry or organization who is responsible for the green screen, I just think that for some thing this important and rare, it should be made with better technical skills.

#notoldyetnotsoyoung

It looks like we have been desperately finding a way to make everything not old yet not so young, and we’ve a lot of ways to make that method work. We like being trendy and modernized more than being out of trend and look ancient, we do like them more, but what’s most important thing rite now is that we have PRIORITIZED the past more than what’s now or the past. Fortunately, people have found their way to liking the mix of past and modern so much that it also has become a trend, and that trend is never something bad for a country that is rapidly growing. We take objects like Kroma (Khmer towel) and make it something fashionable and showcase it around the world that it's ours and we’re not shy to say that we're proud of it. Characters like Hanuman (The Monkey God) or Yiek (Typical Khmer giant), have been made into books for college students who are majoring the Fine Arts here; moreover, these characters are literally everywhere, down the graffiti streets, printed on T-shirts, made as mask, used in posters for things relating or representing CAMBODIA. There's no doubt that we have been prouder than ever before.

#khmernewyearitself   

This year, the Khmer New Year itself went pretty well. By saying so, it involves both my holiday and the general holiday I see people having. Some enjoyed full-time slack at their home sweet home, some recorded many good moments into their history book and wish to be wherever they were again next year. I had a good holiday as well, watched some pretty rock-solid movies, did some crucial work, nap some incredible naps, and let's not forget the water park I went earlier this week plus a relaxing trip to Sihanouk Ville; which has officially made my skin peeling off like a snake’s. The overall holiday was very good, the general one I mean, there seemed to be more and more activities every year, more tourists and locals out there for a treat. Phnom Penh was not silent until the actual day of the Khmer New Year, I dunno how ya’ll think, but I am always positively thinking and this to me means probably we’re a bit more populated than last year, you just never know, do ya?

Let the new year make you better.

The Grand Phnom Penh Water Park in Cambodia

Water park has somehow never been on my priority list at all, probably because there isn’t one here? maybe? or is it just me enjoying childhood pretty well that I dun have any issue missing water park for the last 15 years.

Grand Phnom Penh Water Park is probably the first ever proper water park we have here in Cambodia, the looks seem to impress me; which of course is the reason why I decided to go and give it a shot. As I’m writing the intro of this article, I have no idea how tomorrow will go for me, what kind of impression the water park will give. You just never know, do you? it can always make and can always break, and I hope it will make me want to go there again and again.

There is no doubt now that the water park has successfully lured my brain to go again, because today was an insane day, memorable and awesomeee. I went there with a bunch of friends, it was quite a long trip to be honest; I was nagging and all about the weather and that I had to wait for a friend, but that happened because I didn't have a clue what was gonna come. I didn't like the weather at all, it wasn't that hot actually, it's more of the humidity stuff which had been annoying me since I woke up, you can't breathe proper.

As my impatience went up, I hurried to the changing room and swiftly did everything I needed to do and down I went, to the giant slides. Of course, it was more than what I expected, both the look and the feel; the feel came a bit late, but it hit me hard and sucked me in. I was declared restless in less than 30 minutes, after some twisty/speed-of-light kind of action, I went for the straightforward one, and fell in love with it. The basic logic you get from playing in a water park is that you get to repeat whatever you’re doing again and again, and that so should be applied in reality as well. When you are doing something pretty legit and good or let’s just say FUN, you’ll want to do it again.

The first few slides scared the chicken outta me, but that was probably it, the whole day was left for me to enjoy. It wasn't just the slides though, the people and the environment were grand, it was one hell of a water park. You just can't deny the fun, it will make you go for it and never ever want to leave it; you normally see all the old guys and parents just hanging around the corner doing nothing rite? well there were few, but most of them were in the water, doing slides, WWE-ing in the water, getting massage by the falling bucket of water, basically, the fun was also intended for them. As you all know, I didn’t have a clue what a water park can give until today, means I had no idea that it was this good. I like the idea a lot as well, the idea of being able to entertain anyone; no age limits, nothing else is required, you just have to be human and you’ll get the fun too.

After many many slides, I wasn’t that tired, but it’s obvious that I had to have lunch. The weather was at its best, tanning everyone including me, and literally telling everyone to get off the park and go eat. The lunch place was very crowded, no orders were allowed to make anymore, so I had no choice but to pick up some ready made salad and sandwich to make my tummy a bit stabilized. After 30 minutes or so, I decided to go make some orders because I wasn’t going to go back in the water, “not being full”. I waited for 2 hours to get everything I had ordered, I mean they were worth it; but along the course, I was irritated, I was nagging a lot , things were not supposed to be this long.

The Cheng Meng Festival of 2016

I’m already so happy right now, writing this article for the second time was expected, but the journey and the matter of time wasn’t that easy at all. I mean you just feel good writing a second part of any article, it makes you feel like you’ve lasted for quite some time, and that's never something bad to acknowledge.

So many things changed, but Cheng Meng didn't. It has and is and will always be a very special occasion for us all. I’ve always attended the occasion, but not this year; exams and tight schedules, I had no choice but to miss it. Mom and dad were having good times travelling to their hometowns and spend their time freely, and with no pressure. Mom came back with a big smile on her tanned face, having heard and laughed about so many jokes and gossips with her siblings. Dad had a great time hanging out with the in-laws, despite never actually having had a conversation with any one of them before. They both came back very happily, it’s been so long since the last time they had this much time to actually hang out with anyone.

As always, there were many foods to offer to our ancestors; the prosperity was too much that it has also flooded our refrigerator, and me. The ancestors has been there for us when they were alive, and now as they’re gone far away, they somehow smuggled a bit of help to our everyday life. It’s hard to actually believe that they’re still here with us, but most do believe and that’s how and why the ritual is still going on every single year. Unless everyone has stopped believing in their beliefs or religions, Gods and all will still exist. How we feel about a certain thing is always the case, imagine us not having feelings, that will be another very crazy case to even talk about.

I personally dun really have a certain God that I pray to, to me they’re all the same, they might have different superpowers or histories or whatever it is, but they do have one common thing, they are always here to help. Gods are known to be very very kind, in a very thoughtful, as I know about Buddha, Buddha helps you unconditionally, never wanting anything back from you at all. They are known to help everyone in need, in whichever situation each of us are in, they twist and turn and compose the story of your life. That’s why there’s a saying that goes by, “Life is a story.”, and it definitely is; to some, they strongly believe that it has been decided for them of how their life will be.

All I do is to pray, no matter to which God you’re praying for help, God will help. So, just pray.

Pray, pray, pray again, and again, and never stop praying.

Coffeehouse on a Sunday afternoon

It’s been a very niiice day, the sun went on a holiday today and did not appear at all. The weather was calling me for a coffee in the afternoon, and I went to visit a coffee house to have a bit of relaxation. There were people all around me doing whatever they were doing pretty freely, not all were working, some were watching, playing, talking, or thinking. I didn’t have my Mint Lime Freeze, but the mango shake didn’t disappoint.

It’s where you can enjoy some open time well, and absorb positive energy from everything around you. You can just feel each and every byte of everything, starting from the music to the shake to the flow of tiny noises people make while conversing. How people spend this time of the Sunday in a coffee house is very interesting, everyone seem to be so different and have different situations from one another to deal with. There were friends who were just having a good time drinking a shake and shared a gossip with each other, there were also parents just completing their obligation of taking their kids out on Sundays, there were workaholisc who looked to me as if they were to somehow die if they didn’t finish their work and duty for today; so to me, a coffeehouse isn’t just a house where you drink coffee, but a simple place which complicated people go to in order to make themselves feel simple again.

Chinese New Year in Cambodia

Chinese New Year, to me, is more of a holiday than a festival. It also has few of the happiest moments in my life so far, it wasn’t about the celebration, but more of a family gathering. Of course we did the praying and what was needed to be done, but the fun was in the days after, I was really close to my cousins back then, we have a great great time. The one thing I like most is when I get to meet so many relatives, from the closest ones I know of to the ones I at least know of, we all get to chat and get to know each other more; it’s like a relative version of blind date. People came from all over the world to gather at this one place, then we start eating and praying and chatting and partying together until everyone of us goes back to where we belong. We normally go to our hometown, and I always get to become the tour guide/boss of the relatives who are expats. I’ve always given them information about the food, the name of the place, and what is this and what is that, I think I’ve always done the job great.

As a kid, Chinese New Year is like the period when you get a lot of good stuffs, but most importantly, the pocket money. I’m not saying this because I was or am greedy, but it’s the only time of the year where you get a lot of money for FREE. The more relatives you have, the more pocket money you will receive. There were some years when I still have too much money even after buying so many toys and snacks, I still remember the feeling I had back then, it was awesomeee.

One week before the Chinese New Year, people start cleaning up their entire houses, it’s believed that everything should be new and be ready to welcome the new year.

Orussey Market will be closed on the day of the festival and that’s why people would even have order everything they need before it closes. Most of the people here shops for Chinese New Year goods in Orussey Market, the market is well-known for its chinese goods.

There are so many things needed to be done for Chinese New Year, the main thing is to pray. But praying isn’t that easy as you thought it was, before you get to offer the prayers, there are things you need to buy. Foods are very important for Chinese New Year, depending on how much you want the quantity of dishes to be, that much will be the offer for the prayer. Whether you have twelve dishes or just two, if you sincerely pray for the love and care and peace and happiness for the year, God will not hesitate to give it to you. The quantity and quality of foods and goods we offer to God does not really matter, it’s a tradition I know that, but if you see it in another angle, all of it are just for the formalities. There is no way you’ll get more luck if you offer more stuffs and for those who does not offer anything at all on Chinese New Year, wouldn’t they get anything at all?

My family has a tradition of going to one specific temple to pray every single year, it’s the most visited chinese temple here in Cambodia. We normally go there by the second day of the festival, after offering food to the Gods at home. That night we would normally party very hard, we would eat, chat, play cards, drink and sleep at around midnight. But that’s not it, my parents said the adults normally will chat until three or four in the morning, then go to bed afterwards. The second day, we’ll usually wake up around eight or nine, and have a very niiice home made breakfast and we’re ready to go. The procedure of what to do in the temple is very hard to master, my parents do not even know the steps by steps as clearly as my grandparents do. There are so many Gods in their, it’s not like one has better superpowers and one has a weaker, it’s never like that, it’s just that each God has represents one power of their own. I do not know what God has to be offered to pray first, but it doesn’t really matter, as I said before, sincerely pray and you’ll get what you need.

The atmosphere is very hectic, people come from all over the country to pray here. Smoke from the incense sticks are everywhere, I could not open my eyes the moment I got in the main praying area. After praying, we would get ourselves some magic water, water which was perfumed and blessed by the temple, then we would wash our faces with the water in a meaning of washing away all the dust and bad luck. Before going back home, there is still one more optional thing to do, buying sugarcane. Sugarcane are mostly bought and kept in houses until it is rotten enough to be thrown away, it is said to mean sweetness and happiness in the family due to the sweetness of the sugarcane itself. Some would go on a trip rite away after the praying site, but my family tend to go back home and have a simple lunch and take a good afternoon nap, just to make sure we’re all ready to repeat whatever happened last night, again.

Lanterns are the small side dishes that makes the Chinese New Year complete. As we all know that the Chinese do love the color red a lot, they use it nearly every where and anytime of the year. Lanterns are not just red, but the flame that is sitting inside is RED, that’s a whole lot of redness. Red means every good there is in this world, the joy, the fun, the happiness, the luck, it is the ultimate color. Though I do not play with lanterns anymore on the festival, my cousins and my little brother still do, they would just lit it up and start running around with it, and desit, it’s fun. When I was young, I enjoy it much better, I used to live with my grandparents near The Riverside, and we all know how excited The Riverside can be. At night, I would go around with them with my lanterns hanging around, the night scenery of The Riverside never fails to give me a great performance.

Chinese has been impacting the whole world these recent decades, they have been to every corner of the world to make their investment. Just recently, it was reported that China has exceeding America economically, it has been said like this for a very long time, but it’s just that the world has not accept that it has actually become a fact. To be honest, the authenticity and classics that China has, for now, the standards are not as high as America, but who knows? It’s China for goodness sake. Although when people talk about China and what’s there, we dun tend to feel as much excitement and curiosity as when we hear people talking about European countries or just AMERICA itself. It might be because the citizens of the world just have not gotten used to it yet, people just cannot believe that China has exceeding America this fast, not a single person expected this to happen two decades ago, it wasn't feasible to even predict, dun mention happening. Economically, it has probably covered the entire world, should China culturally do it as well? Well, China has sure done it here in Cambodia, that’s why we have the Chinese New Year.

Will the Chinese New Year be the next Christmas?

Cambodian Noodles

Foods are one of God’s greatest masterpieces; he was rite on point. Food isn’t just something you eat to survive and stay full, food is an unique art which satisfies us in a very indescribable way. A lot of adjectives were invented, but still, no word has come close to describe the word “Food”. It is to me, a very important source, it makes me feel very good after having eaten it. And I dun think it’s only me, everyone in the world must’ve felt the same. It does not like fills up your tummy, but also your expectations. But of course, it can sometime makes people hate it, when it tastes very bad and when it gets way too addictive. 

Noodles, same as rice and bread, is one of the most eaten food in the world. It can be eaten everywhere and anytime and almost anywhere around the world. It is not just widely known and eaten by Asians, but it is also well liked and eaten by Europeans and Americans. Actually, most of the world’s best noodles serving restaurants are from somewhere else rather than Asia. I do not mean that there is no good noodles serving restaurant here in Asia, but it seems like the countries apart from Asia think of noodles as more of a big deal than us. They do not eat as much or as often as we Asians do, but I bet they think of noodles as a homemade which has nothing special, but just a bowl of it definitely can make anyone’s day. It is considered as one of the main food, but to people, noodles somehow looks and feels slightly more special than rice or bread. 

Noodles are made from unleavened dough, and the shape and size will be decided after that. There is no specific shape or size of noodles, it depends on the cultures of that area or place or city or country. But whatever it is, we all do like it so much, that’s all that matter, isn’t it? We just have to thank the great Chinese for the making of noodles some 4000 years ago. Noodles have a rich 4000 years old history of their own, even older than Angkor Wat. Over the years, different types of noodles has been created and developed, from the famous Ramen of Korea to the famous Udon of Japan and many more varieties mostly in Southeast Asia. 

We do not eat noodles as often as rice here in Cambodia, but most of the adults here have noodles soup almost every morning. There are more noodles serving breakfast place than rice serving ones. Noodles have been here for a long time that are noodle serving restaurants hanging their old fotos, some are as old as nearly three decades. They might as well be not as delicious or tasteful as having rice with many many side dishes, but noodles are those very few foods I would not mind if I happened to have to eat it everyday. You just cannot get sick of it! 

We can get noodles almost everywhere, you can get it while on a trip to whatever province in Cambodia there is, you can find in almost all the streets corners and main streets here in Phnom Penh. It doesn't really matter where they serve it, whether it’s on a streets or in luxury restaurants, people will find it and they will eat it. It’s something everyone can get go and grab and desit, there is no complications to it.