Following on from my last post, this one continues with our travels, from Vietnam via The Mekong River into Cambodia. In all, it was four weeks of exploration – witnessing active community industries, whether on the waterside or further inland, to individuals hard at work to support their families.
Silk
Having done much research, our own two weeks of solo exploration took us into rural Cambodia away from all the tourist routes and centres. From our last hotel (where we said goodbye to our group as they returned home), we undertook a tour roughly the shape of a question mark (north, then east, before turning south).
Coconuts
Throughout a very verdant Cambodia there are always coconut and banana palms to be seen. They are everywhere in every restaurant and every roadside stand. There are also large plantations of coconut and banana palms, casava, and trees for rubber tapping etc, even pepper! Oh, amongst other fruits, I mustn’t forget the smelly durian!
Whilst bananas are a more local commodity, we saw coconuts being transported further distances -shipped by boat along The Mekong and also by the truckload inland to be processed.
Rice
The growing of rice is everywhere and at our time of travel it was harvest time (3 per year). Every rural family grows some, and harvests it usually by hiring a harvesting crew with small machines. The families then dry the grain by spreading it out on plastic sheeting anywhere they have flat space….even on the roads! There was drying rice everywhere we explored.
Rice is a staple, as we all know, not only as a savoury carbohydrate, but as a grain it is used for so much more – puffed (who doesn’t know rice Krispies!), not to mention alcohol production (!), along with sweets, and more.
Inspiration was everywhere and we were often in total awe of our surroundings. But inspiration of a different sort….is that with limited resources, since the war, everything has multiple uses, there is little wastage.
‘Seeing’
I can only repeat what I said in Part 1 –
As this post is entitled ‘Inspiration’, and most reading this will be working with textiles, I have some thoughts on I how I see creative ideas everywhere in terms of shape, colour and design etc. These can be translated into – sewing, embroidery, landscape stitching, patchwork, felting, painting, weaving to name but a few.
The people are open, generous and friendly particularly once they have been greeted with the traditional greeting of ‘Susadei’ complete with praying hands and a nod of the head. During our solo explorations we were welcomed into fields to see ploughing, rice planting, salt production, lotus paddies and even into private homes.
Along the way we learned so very much….simplicity, humility, hard work, dedication, colour, pattern, and ingenuity are just a few key words that spring to mind. I’ve already been back home a couple of months, and this post has been a welcome and timely reminder of them.
The key point of travel, whether in one’s own country or further afield, particularly for anyone creative, is to explore, to be open to everything around you and see….really ‘SEE’
I wish you many ‘seeing’ adventures in the future.