Posts Tagged "people"

APAD 202: Sky-lab-on-wheels

Posted by The Insider on Nov 13, 2013 in A Photo a Day, Addicted to Meme, All things Khmer, Cambodia life, Cycle 2, sights, That's My World, transportation, What's On in Cambodia | 3 comments

Make way, people.
It’s coming your way!

How many styro boxes can one moto carry around?

APAD 200: Inked

Posted by The Insider on Nov 5, 2013 in A Photo a Day, Addicted to Meme, All things Khmer, Cambodia life, Cycle 2, sights, That's My World, What's On in Cambodia, work | 4 comments

Two months ago, while on a medical mission in Poipet in northwest of Cambodia, I met a monk in his early 20s. It was Operation Smile Cambodia’s surgical mission there and he was one of the many who patiently queued and waited for their turn to be screened by our international team of doctors.

I was surprised to see him with several tattoos which he consciously tried to hide and scars from previous piercings on his body. He told our volunteer doctor that, in his past life – meaning before he entered the monastery, he used to be a punk and had these “decorations” on his body. But he got tired of that kind of life and sought forgiveness and renewal. He laid down his secular clothes and exchanged them for saffron-coloured robes, as he decided to enter a monk’s life to pay for his past misdeeds, start anew and earn merits.

Inked.

He is quite a character but nice enough to talk freely about his past. All this he told us as he was being screened. At the end of the day, he received a free injection for his keloid scars.

APAD 198: Map

Posted by The Insider on Oct 24, 2013 in A Photo a Day, Addicted to Meme, All things Khmer, Cambodia life, Cycle 2, Signs of Times, That's My World, What's On in Cambodia | 2 comments

Outline map of Cambodia seen from the Ministry of Tourism’s float (Independence Day Parade, 2008).

APAD 196: Greeters

Posted by The Insider on Oct 21, 2013 in A Photo a Day, Addicted to Meme, All things Khmer, Cambodia life, Cycle 2, faces, sights, That's My World, What's On in Cambodia | 0 comments

Pretty school assistants line up in front of their school to greet the schoolchildren as they arrive and lead them to their respective classrooms. They do this every morning week in, week out.

APAD 180: Monks walk

Posted by The Insider on Sep 3, 2013 in A Photo a Day, Addicted to Meme, All things Khmer, Cambodia life, Cycle 2, Expat Life, sights, That's My World, What's On in Cambodia | 2 comments

The sight of monks with shaved head (and eyebrows) clad in orange robes, and holding bright yellow umbrellas, never fail to catch my attention. These two I saw this morning are no exceptions. Every morning each day, Buddhist monks quietly go out of wats (pagodas, or temples), most of the times on bare feet, to their community to solicit or collect alms.

And how fast they walk, too!

These alms come in the form of food or other offerings. For the monks, this is the only food they will have for that day. They’re not allowed to have food till the next day again. For the devout Buddhists, it is one of the ways they can earn good merits, or karma, in other words.