Greetings from Battambong, Cambodia, dears.
My balcony looks down on Klong 2.0, here in the marketplace. Life happens three stories down below. It’s relatively quiet and breezy up here.
And why are the monks carrying umbrellas, you may wonder?
Temperatures are often in the high 90’s, approaching 100 degrees.
My shoulders, knees and midriff remain covered, however, like the local Khmer women, when I’m out in public.
In my sixty years of travel in the Third World, I’ve never wanted to offend the culture I’m in.
I’m not quite ready, however, for the synthetic pajama sets, made in China, that seem to be locally popular.*
After meditating with my Childish Drink of spiced coffee and soy milk in the mornings, I love to gaze down on my own personal “Sesame Street”: Klong 2.0.
The woman across the street spent hours arranging these trays. The sticks of wood are related to the cacao bush, I’m told. People grind it and use it in baking and cooking.
(*my innate behavioral instincts prevail upon re-entry into my own Ozark habitat in summer: as a nudist Buddhist. 🤫) …..
Wattle Hollow is a relatively small retreat center (40 acres of woodlands on a mountainside in Northwest Arkansas) with capacity for 20 - 25 folks.