There is an interesting social phenomena where I work – the chess club. Every lunch time, after work, and in the weekends, a group of staff gather around a chess board in the car port. The chess board is placed on a desk and the players sit on the desk across from each other. The call of the chess board is heeded by all, from the top to the bottom, from Park Director to the guard (and the guard’s sidekicks – his brothers), as well as ex-staff who have left the project but not Thy Holy Chess Board. The rules are not “International Chess Rules”, at least as the chess playing super-computer Deep Blue would know them, but Khmer chess rules, which I still haven’t managed to work out and so get thoroughly thrashed.
Archive for December, 2004
Pchum Ben 2004 – Koh Satin
Whilst the Christian world gets ready to celebrate Xmas, Ban Lung in Buddhist Cambodia doesn’t. Even in Phnom Penh there will be some shops, particularly major businesses that may have some sort of Xmas display. In fact it took the sound of a truck reversing to the tune of Silent Night the other day to jolt me awaken to the fact that Xmas is almost here. Read the rest of this entry »
