Tuesday, June 10, 2008

The many faces of Panmai

You've seen her before, in a previous posting on my visit to Oudong. Her name is Panmai. As I ate lunch at the base of Oudong mountain, there was simply too much for me to eat so I shared my roast chicken with three youngsters and an elderly lady. Panmai's appetite was voracious, and she tucked into the food without reservation, whilst her two friends, Phirum and Sophea weren't far behind. Both of the boys later acted as my guides for my stupa-visiting on the mountaintop, whilst Panmai was far more sensible and carried on selling her colourful bracelets amongst the shade of the eating huts. I saw her again before I left the mountain and bought her a sugar cane drink as a parting gift. Lovely kid.
"Hurry up and take the photo, I've got food to eat and bracelets to sell"
Ummm, she's not sure about the taste of the chicken
Now she's trying to hide from the camera
Okay, time to clean up and get on with selling her bracelets

2 Comments:

Blogger Erik Davis said...

I wonder if my wife didn't take a lovely photo of Panmai when my family traveled from Phnom Penh to Oudong in 2005. We no longer live in the country, but this lovely young girl really stuck out in our memory (she got along famously with my son and his buddy Sasa, who were 2 at the time. click here for the photo on my flickr page

June 10, 2008 9:41 PM  
Blogger Andy Brouwer said...

Hi Erik,
yes that could be Panmai or certainly a close relative. Unfortunately I'm a bit crap at face recognition - I don't recognise my own face some mornings!
Panmai was operating at the foot of the mountain when I met her, darting in and out of the food huts, of which there are plenty now at Oudong. Since I was there, admittedly quite a few years ago, the place has changed almost beyond recognition....and of course, like everything, a little bit of the magic I found on my first visit has disappeared. I think its called nostalgia and getting old...

June 11, 2008 8:43 AM  

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