Author Archives: Robert A Findlay

Tuesday 2nd July Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Cambodia, food, street, Phnom Penh My last full day in Cambodia already! Well, at least it was fun and I saw a bit more of the city. Jessica and I hit the markets in the afternoon and sort of ate our way across town. We tried some delicious street foods again. Yeah.

Russian Market, CAmbodia, Phnom PenhThen we spend quite a long time walking around in the covered market looking for cool clothes and collectables. We were also trying to avoid the torrential rain that was flooding the streets.

 

 

 

Vietnamese, coffe, Cambodia, Phnom PenhI also had a chance to once again drink a delicious set of iced coffee and tea, the best in the city according to a plaque signed by “three Danish coffee lovers.” The older man running the stand had been in business there since 1980 which is actually pretty amazing especially considering the history of the period.

Monday 1st July Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Spinach, Dosa, Cambodia, Phnom Penh

Pretty slow and easy day here. I got up a little late and walked around the corner to a great Indian food restaurant that I have been eating at a lot. It seems like many Indians from Tamil Nadu and Kerala live here, so the South Indian food is great. Wat, Buddha, cosmic, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

After eating breakfast, I walked around the city for a while. I went to a big wat that way focused around Angkor stone monumentalism and the cosmic Buddha. I am not sure why the cosmic Buddha is so much more popular here than in other places, but it seems to be. Coffee, Cambodia, Phnom Penh

I went to an expat coffee shop that caters to the white, wealth, and sometimes snobbish coffee drinkers about town. I have to say it was good coffee though. I continued to get my caffeine on throughout the day as most small snack meals and street food come with unlimited tea if you go to the right spots. Cambodia, housing, old, Phnom Penh

After walking around for an hour or so I found myself in some of the older housing projects that are starting to disintegrate even as they continue to be inhabited my many many people. While in the area I picked up a bunch of sour cherries for a street vendor and proceeded to eat them all as I walked around.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Cherries

Perhaps it was not the best idea to eat a pound of unwashed super ripe sour fruit, but in the end (no pun intended), my stomach was only mildly distressed. Nerd, Night, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

In the evening I went to a local bar that was hosting “nerd night,” where many expats, young academics, and NGO workers meet to present on their topics of interest. I watched my friend Jessica give a great Pecha Kucha  talk about the golden age of Cambodian film. Pretty fun night out really.

Sunday 30th June Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Royal Palace, Cambodia, Phnom PenhAmazing day today! I started out early by heading off to the old Royal Palace. It was very cool and just as shiny and grand as I remember. Inside the compound there are several buildings and a few temples that were used by the royal family and in the affairs of court. There is also a wraparound mural that is several hundred feet long and, despite its state of decomposition, is actually really cool to walk along and look at. The Royal Palace seems to be a big hit on the tourist circuit. I looked back at my old photographs and memories from my visit about ten years ago and there was absolutely no other tourists around except for a few monks. This time there were hordes…wait is that offensive… of Chinese tour groups. It was almost as impressive a transformation as the palace itself.

National Museum, Cambodia, Phnom Penh

 

Next stop was the National Museum which has a number of great holdings from around Cambodia. It also does a great job displaying the contemporary nationalist narrative of the Cambodian nation through semi-outrageous maps and historical claims. I also found out that the museum building itself is a UN World Heritage Site. Pretty fancy, eh?

 

 

Cambodian Street FoodAfter my morning out, I met up with my friend Jessica from the University of Hawaii, Manoa. She is here studying Khmer and doing research for her M.A. thesis on Cambodian film in the 1950s and 1960s. She has been living here for several weeks, so I totally leaned on her local, and linguistic, knowledge. We walked around the city for several hours eating local street foods, finding a currency exchange, and generally having an awesome time.

One particular highlight was our visit to Olympic Stadium, a large public space created for sports and recreation in the 1950s (or 1960s maybe?). As we climbed to the top of the stadium, a massive rain and thunderstorm broke out and we had to run around to a covered food area with all the other locals. We spent about forty-five minutes under a concrete roof looking out at the city as rain poured around us. It was great fun and we used the time to eat ice cream, drink orange drink, and sample pressed sugarcane juice.Cambodia, Phnom Penh, Olympic Stadium After the rain stopped there was a great rainbow that stretched in a high arch above the stadium. It was pretty fantastic.

Indian, Food, South, Cambodia, Phnom PenhI finished the night off with some delicious and cheap southern Indian food. I find that tall food is often more delicious, and this dosa lived up to that claim! Yummm!

Saturday 29th June Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Visa, Cambodia, PassportWell, I have come to Cambodia. My Thai visa expired and Phnom Penh seemed like a great destination for the aptly-named “visa-run.” I will only be here a few days, but because I am returning by air, I will get a new full month visa. This way when Laurel gets here, we can relax for a while before we make plans to leave the country again.

When I arrived I really didn’t have any plans or a place to stay, but I thought it would be pretty easy to figure out. The taxi in from the airport seemed really expensive so I tried to quickly make some new buddies and share a ride toward town. Whopper, Burger King, FrenchI ended up meeting a group of French expats who live in the city and work in a French program at a private university. Curiously, they informed me we could not go straight into town. First we had to swing by the Burger King and get hamburgers. You see, as they informed me, there is only one Burger King in Cambodia and it is there in the airport. How these Frenchmen and women’s love for Burger King relates to the well known sense of French linguistic and culinary superiority or anti-Americanism, I am not quite sure. However, as we ate they did regale me with the benefits of French language programs in Cambodia.

hotel, Cambodia, Phnom PehnI got into the backpacker distract a little late and many places were full. I had to go to four guesthouse before I found a room. It is actually really nice place and despite being called the Goldie Boutique Guest House, it is really not too expensive and has nice furnishings. It is somewhat arts and French. At least I would like to think so. Well, tomorrow is a big day!!!

Thursday 27th June Bangkok, Thailand

Well, I finished the language program in the north and now I am heading down to Bangkok to start phase two of my time here in Thailand. Now comes the research, Ph.D. work, and general “getting it on” that might eventually end in my getting a degree and a job. Or at least that is what I like to tell myself.Train, Thailand, Chiang Mai, Bangkok

The train ride back to Bangkok was fun as the night trains usually are. I made some friends and even managed to get a little sleep.

When I arrived in Bangkok I headed over to an apartment building that a friend of mine used to live in and rented a room for a couple of months. It is in a little neighborhood close to the Surasak Sky Train stop. It is quite and pleasant with both a large wat and mosque nearby. pool, swimming, roof, Thailand, Bangkok, Saint ViewThe building is also pretty nice. There is even a roof top swimming pool. I went out last night and there was no one there but me. Pretty awesome really.

Empathy and Civilization in World History

Part of being a good world historian, or I suppose any historian for that matter, is having an active imagination. We have to be able to constantly ask new questions and seek new interpretations of the past. I came across this animated short, part of a longer talk by Jeremy Rifkin (available here), that briefly looks at world history as a project leading toward greater and greater levels of empathy in the human race.

While it is not very fashionable for historians to incorporate these sorts of facts or evidence into their work, there seems to be something really valuable here. Aside from being an interesting piece on compassion and empathy, it also points to alternative histories revolving around emotion, biology, psychology, or spirituality instead of great men and important dates. These factors are clearly part of the story of human history with cultural and social origins rooted in particular times and places, but have yet to be fully incorporated into the work of most historians. How do we do this? I don’t know. Should we try to do this in our work? Yes. Something for me to work on I guess.

Friday 16th June Huay Xai, Laos

Really big day today. Got up early in Chiang Rai, found a nice vegan restaurant and ate my first vegetarian meal since arriving in Thailand, and boarded the bus for Laos.

After a two and a half hour bus ride I made it to the (no longer so little) border town of Chiang Kong. I quick hoped on the ferry and made it in to Laos. As I was on the boat I made friends with another traveler named Chris. He was quite the interesting fellow. We were the same age and seemed to have a lot in common, with the exception that, up until seven months ago, he had been a high-priced lawyer in San Francisco.

Laos, Hotel, Huay Xai,When Chris and I got to the Lao side of the river I suggested we stay at this cool hotel that Laurel and I stayed in about a decade ago. This hotel was once a French colonial office and has tons of interesting features and old teak wood everywhere. It is probably too fancy for me. Whenever there is a towel folded into the shape of an animal I realize that I could definitely paid half as much somewhere else. That being said it was great and still not very expensive.

Laos, Wat, NagaAfter chilling out for a bit, my new friend Chris and I went out to explore the town. We climbed up a giant hill and looked around at a cool wat with many interesting and lifelike murals. Then we walked a bit along the ridge to an old French military fort. Unfortunate the fort was closed for the day.

 

Laos, French, FortFortunately I decided to snoop around and found a caved-in wall that allowed up to go in to the empty fort and look around. Pretty awesome really. We were the only ones there. We even climbed up a broken down tower to get a great view of the city. I don’t think that would have been possible if the fort was open at the time.

 

After that we headed back into town to try and figure out Chris’s plans for tomorrow. He wanted to take the slow boat to Luang Prabang, so we walked to the pier to figure out the trip. On the way back we saw a neat restaurant with a large deck overlooking the river. Inside a large party was drinking and singing Karaoke. Chris and I decided to check it out. It started very casually with a few drinks and a bucket of ice, but we soon were invited into the party. The director of Laos’s Ministry of Finance had done an inspection of a local office and apparently it went well. The whole office including the minister decided to celebrate. We started it out real classy with me singing “Hello” by Lionel Richie. Things quickly went downhill. Laos Drinking

Chris and I got a lesson in Lao culture. Apparently when your senior or superior orders you to “bottoms up” you must down however much is in your glass at the moment. Many of the workers were drunk before we even arrived. Luckily I can control myself to some extent, and, despite the fact that there are now images of me being ordered to dance “ram” style with the hostesses, I kept my composure under fire. The night ended with me bringing it home with the Backstreet Boys’ “I Want it That Way.” It was quite the hit.

Thursday 13th June Chiang Rai, Thailand

Chiang Rai, ThaialandWhat is the best part about a three hour bus ride by yourself? Trick question. It was supposed to be three hours but was really closer to five. If you get on a bus and all you see are monks and soldiers, you are probably on the sloooooow bus. But anyway, here I am in Chiang Rai. As my visa is about to expire I felt like it might be a good idea to cross borders and get a new one. The city is actually pretty nice. They do a little night market and they also sell a lot of tea… mmmmm…. Tea.North Hotel, Chiang Rai, Thailand

Also my hotel room turned out to be really nice. It even has a shared deck. The naked man drinking beer was included for free!

 

 

Chiang Rai, Thailand

Also, Chiang Mai seems to be the place to be if you are an older gay European man (see naked man on porch.) I am not sure what that is about, but just in case any of you were interested I just thought I would give you a little heads up.

Well, it is off to Laos tomorrow.

Wednesday 12th June Chiang Mai, Thailand

donut, cloudThe term is almost half over! In order to kill off some of the free time I find myself with during the day, I discovered a website where I can watch all the best of American TV online. As I settled in to an episode of the Simpsons, I looked to the sky and lo and behold, there in all its heavenly glory, a majestic cloud doughnut. Apparently, the Simpson’s gods are watching.

 

 

I also happened to come across the most brightlyBlue Crested, lizard, Calotes Mystaceus, Chiang Mai, Thailand colored and amazing lizard. It was about a foot and a half long and bright blue and white. It ran away from me and on to a tree where it began to change colors to the brown of the tree bark. I tried to film it, but it didn’t really come out. At least I got a few pictures.

 

Sunday 9th June Chiang Mai, Thailand

Clouds, Chiang Mai, Thailand, PayapIt’s been a good few days here. One week of intensive Thai down! The weather is much nicer these days now that the rainy season is on. It does sometimes dump rain for ten to twenty minutes and going anywhere during this torrent is impossible. On the other hand, the weather has been cooler and there is often a layer of rolling clouds protecting my pasty white skin from the sun. It also makes for some good views. Sometimes it creeps me out a bit when it get super dark really quickly during the middle of the day from these thick clouds overhead. Are the deatheaters coming for me, or is it just about to rain?

There really is not much to do here at night. After dinner I usually head back to the room pretty early. I have made friends with some of the younger shopkeepers in the neighborhood, but we have only hung out a few times.Thailand, lizard, bug, Chiang Mai, Payap On the other hand I have been meeting up with some of these cute little ladies. Luckily I haven’t had any inside my room yet, but I know it is only a matter of time.

A few nights ago I went out with a new friend I met on campus. She took me to an all you can eat barbeque place. Pretty awesome really! You pick up raw meat, vegetables, and noodles and grill them on your table. Also, on the way home I discovered a little street cart that makes a dessert with a sort of super thin wafer wrapped around marshmallows and raisins. They are great!Chiang Mai, Thailand, food,