2025 Cambodia And Vietnam: A Farewell To Cambodia

After something like 50 posts over the course of almost a year, we are leaving Cambodia.

Cambodia is a country I can honestly say I never pictured visiting.  It was never on my top 10 (or 20 or 40) of places that I would have liked to go.  I had heard of it of course - who has not heard of Angkor Wat at least - but to me it was a bit lost in the mélange that is Southeast Asia on a map.

How very wrong I was.

Cambodia was delightful.  It was unexpected: pieces of modernity mixed in with history, sometimes within the same half mile.  It was beautiful and glorious and sad and haunted all at once.

Cambodia is off the beaten tourist path, perhaps seen (as we did) in conjunction with another country in the area.  That strikes me now as a bit of a shame:  it is certainly one of the most exotic places I have been and worth seeing of its own accord (although to be fair, likely not enough for a full week, so maybe the other countries are a good idea).

I do not know that I will ever be back.  But I will always have great memories.

(Author's note:  Originally my intent was to launch directly into a history of Vietnam prior to starting my own adventures, as is my custom.  Alas, time has gotten away from me with my upcoming hike and, rather than rush the description, I have elected to wait until after my return. I will fill the space with some whimsical sort of something and we will pick up with Vietnam soon.)

2025 Cambodia And Vietnam: Driving Through Siam Reap

 Pictures of driving through Siam Reap via Ox Cart and Bus:

It is not lost on me how flat the land is between the distant hills.

The Decline Of Craftsmanship?

Ælfric of Eyesham (A.D. 955-1010) was a late 10th century/ early 11th century monk and author in Anglo-Saxon England.  A Benedictine monk (and later abbot) he had a passion for writing and for teaching; many Old English works or translations from Latin we have are thanks to him (he is considered by some to be the most prolific author in Old English, at least one who is historical and not anonymous).  

As part of an instruction manual to teach Latin, he created a work called "A Colloquy on the Occupations".  An interlocuter asks about various occupations in late 10th century/early 11th century England.  The concept was that this was a "song and response" exercise:  the students would memorize all the responses and provide them and by so doing, learn all major grammatical parts of Latin.  Later, the work was translated into Old English.

The interlocuter asks the various occupations:

"Hwlecne cræft canst þu? Hwat dest þu?  Hwæm fremþ þine cræft?"  "Which craft can you do?  What do you do?  What benefit is your craft?"  

Each craft - monk, ploughman, shepherd, oxherd, hunter, merchant,  fisherman, fowler, shoemaker, salter, baker, cook - gives a description of what their craft does and how it benefits the community.  At the end, they ask an older, wiser monk "Which craft is most important?"  Perhaps unsurprisingly, the first answer given is "monk", drawn from the verse "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all these things may be added unto you".  The second is "ploughman" (Eorthtilþ), because without the farmer, no-one else eats and therefore practices their craft.

Interestingly, at the end of this work the wise man gives the following statement:

"And ic gelære eallam wyrhtum þisne ræd: þæt anra gewelc his cræft geornlice bega.  For þæm his cræft forlætt, se biþ fram  þam cræft forlæten.....And beo þæt þæt þu eart!  For þæm hit is micel demm and micel scand gif man nyle beon þæt þæt he is and he þæt þæt beon sceal."

("And I give all this advice by way of example: let every one practice his craft eagerly.  For he that forsakes his craft will be from his craft forsaken...And be that which you are!  For there is great misfortune and great disgrace if a man will not be what he is and what he shall be.")

(Note:  All translations are my own.)

---

In re-reading this text, I was struck by the fact that one of the things presumed by this statement, and one of the things that we seem to be losing in the modern world, is the idea of craftsmanship.

I know - it is a long way from an 11 Century monk talking to salters and oxherds (and a longer prologue) to a decline of craftsmanship in the modern world.  But his instruction at the end leapt out to me.

Once upon time - prior to the Industrial Revolution - most people did what their parents did.  This was likely just as much about security as it was about "imprisoned" in a job category:  in a world where a single bad season or single business failure can signal starvation, "risk" is carefully weighed and often avoided.  But with the advent of the Industrial Revolution, individuals could do other things than what their parents did (maybe not more interesting things, but different things)  And that, in turn, held - almost up to the current era, where suddenly the concepts of "job hopping" and "skills-based employment" came into vogue.  Suddenly, one not spend one's entire career at one job or even in one field.  The work world was a vast meadow of flowers, all to be sampled by some.

What we lost in all of this is years in the field.  Years that one could develop experience.  Years that one could develop craftsmanship.

---

Craftsmen and Craftswomen come in all forms.  Some are the sorts we might think of immediately, individuals working in seemingly archaic industries as a cooper or blacksmith or wheelwright.  Others are in the trades or blue collar jobs, running pipes or electric wire or industrial production.  Others are white collar workers (we do not think of them as often), individuals in knowledge based industries where that knowledge is deep and often applied.  And others are amateurs (The root word coming from Latin, "Amator", meaning "one who loves, an enthusiastic admirer, devotee") who do all of these things have specializations in things they love:  Early Roman Republic Armor, garden railroads, weaving, black power riflery.

All of them experts in their own way.  And that expertise, that craftsmanship, comes by nothing else than years of learning and years of doing.  Two things that are denied those that are always moving from one place or thing to another.

---

One can successfully argue that industrialization and the technology revolution has rendered much of craftsmanship obsolete, or at least an expensive option.  And at some level, I suspect that is true:  once any technological genie is out of the bottle, all we can do is navigate it - it is not going away.  But even in that navigation, there does not need to be a wholesale abandonment or the need to constantly find something else.

On the one hand, many deplore the "cost" of a craftsman or craftswomen when we can just it get more cheaply at Big Box Mart or Generic Service Provider.  But inevitably, the differences stand out in ways that are as noticeable as they are not spoken of.

When you pay for craftsmanship, you pay for the years of experience and knowledge.

---

Does this continue to decline or even reverse?  It is ridiculous to claim "all is lost"; there are millions of people out there who do care and are becoming exponents of craftsmanship in their own right.  In one of the few uses of social media I completely endorse, there are thousands of them showing off their crafts.

Ultimately, I wonder if they are not the ones at risk.

The ones most at risk are those who do not have that level of expertise in a single thing, certainly a single thing that provides something of value.  The journey to craftsmanship always involves the development of a mindset and learning that makes one useful no matter where one is.  The journey of the job hopper always leads to "What is the next, newest thing"?

I have come to greatly admire those that work to develop and grow in the craft - after all, Ælfric would counsel us not just to be what we are, but be what we will become.

(Author's note:  Matthew Crawford is a deep thinker on these matters and has influenced my own thinking.  I cannot recommend his books Shopcraft as Soulcraft and The World Beyond Your Head enough.)

A Year Of Kindness (XXX): A Reason To Be Kind

 "If you look at the world, it's very easy to get dejected.  The situation you find yourself in, often you hope no one finds themselves in.  But this is all the more reason to be kind and caring.  If you spot someone in a spot of bother, and you have the ability to do something about it, do it.  Pay it forward.  Not just for your own sake, but as a matter of common decency from someone who knows how tough it can be.

There's nothing stopping you from being kind."

- Tim Bunting, The Kiwi Yamabushi (Source)

Tim Bunting  (The Kiwi Yamabushi) is a New Zealander who lives in Northern Japan. He is a practitioner of Shugendo, a native religion of Japan.  Its practitioners are known as yamabushi (literally "mountain warrior").  His website (over at the right) explains the concepts far better than I can.  I will also note for the record that he is a stand up fellow; I've spoken with him a couple of times.

His meditation on kindness is one that made me think.

Each of us, somewhere in our lives, has a tale of woe or two beneath our belts.  We have been betrayed, abandoned, treated poorly, accused without cause, rejected.  We know that that feeling is like, the days or weeks or years of depression and despair and anger.

We know, as the saying goes, what it is actually all about.

But that knowledge, suggests Bunting, is precisely the sort of thing that should urge us on to more acts of kindness.  We know.  We have been there.  We remember.  And - assuming that we have some level of human decency about us - we would not willingly wish that on others. 

There is often not a lot we can do in such situations, but there is one thing we can always do:  Be kind.  Be caring.

Because we know.  We remember.  And while maybe we cannot change what a person is facing in that moment, we can make the moment lighter for them - perhaps, we realize as someone did for us in our own similar states.  

It costs us nothing to help pick up a burden for even a moment.  But such kindness can mean the world to another.

A Japanese Sort Of Stroll

About two weeks ago on an early Sunday morning, I took a sort of Japanese stroll.

Most people are familiar with the kimono, the robe-like clothing most often associated with Japanese clothing.  Less people may be familiar with the hakama, a pair of divided trousers with pleats worn for formal or semi-formal occasions.  And almost all Asian martial artists are familiar with the gi, the upper shirt with short sleeves held secured with ties.

What people might be less familiar with are another form of the hakama, called historically kobakama, the traditional "short form" trousers worn under armor or for general use.

(Source)

The largest differences between hakama and tattsuke-bakama (from an unsophisticated point of viewer such as myself) is the fact that they do not have longer, flowing legs of the hakama but rather are gathered at the knee.  Below them (at least in this model and the one I own) they legs shrink to kyuhan (gaiters) that are tied around the calf:

(Front)

(Back)

My pair are from a store on Etsy, Siamurai, who delivers great work.

All of this to say, that Sunday I put on my gi, my obi (well, one of my obis, or belts - I have a few), my tattsuke-bakama, and my jiki-tabi (a form of the tabi, the traditional Japanese split toed sock, but made of heavier canvas, going farther up the ankle with snaps, and having a modern rubber sole) and went for a walk.

It was a very different experience.

It was early in the morning of course, so the chances I would attract attention were minimal (as I had planned it).  

The kobakama, being of linen, did not wear or sound like the more modern fabrics that I usually wear.  They were quieter, less noisy.  The jiki-tabi hit the sidewalk as would any modern sole, but once we got the trail portion of my walk, the sound almost disappeared in a way that modern walking shoes do not.

Walking along the dirt portion of the trail, with forest to one side of me and a stone retaining wall on the other, one was almost transported to a different time, where almost all transportation was by foot and the only sounds were those of nature and the quiet steps of the one walking.

It was an interesting, meditative experience.  Certainly something worth repeating.

TB Goes (Back) To School: Registration

 Going back to college after 30 plus years of not being in college, one finds that many things have changed.

In some ways they are better: for example, just the fact that I can take a class remotely rather than have to move there or take what is available locally is amazing (The Age Of Convenience at work again).  And no more standing in lines at offices to register - or (if you remember back that far) the mad dash into the gym where instructors were sitting at tables, desperately hoping that you would be able to get the classes that you needed, paper forms in hand.  One simply finds the interface, goes in, and pays the money.

In other ways of course, they are more challenging.

Clearly technology now takes a major role in education in general and online learning in particular.  The initial communications are all via e-mail with links to go to this place and that place to do a thing or see a thing. Orientation, handbooks, class schedules - all is now somewhere you need to get to on the InterWeb.  And not necessarily in the same place or on the same platform.

And, of course, you get another e-mail account.

It appears from first glance that most of the work I will do (other than classes) will be run through an Office360 interface.  Chats and workspaces, at least from what I read, appear to be heavily employed (fortunately I have used these in previous positions at work; just not to this extent) - as well as access to the Microsoft Suite of tools (that is kind of nice).  All more convenient for working from home; less convenient in that I have to "relearn" a new software suite.

Who knew re-entering college came with all this learning ahead of the actual learning?

A Year Of Haiku (XXX): Smoke

 

An orange-brown sun

lights a hazy umber sky:

Summer is burning.

2025 Cambodia And Vietnam: Ox Cart Ride

 Sometimes being on tour means being a tourist.  Sometimes a tourist that does "tourist" things.

You may remember from our visit to farmstead a cart underneath an overhang:

This was in fact an ox cart, a very traditional and pretty old way of getting around (as in up to 4400 B.C. old way of getting around).

An ox:

View from the driver's seat:

And off we go!

We probably walked about half a mile around a beaten path and local farmland:

It is a slow way to travel - but in a world where there was nothing else really for peasants, it was a great force multiplier for materials and even people..

For such a simple thing, I found it pretty fun.  Even I can be a true tourist upon occasion.

2025 Cambodia And Vietnam: Farmstead (II)

 (For the second time, a post for Leigh)

As it turns out, one of the things that the farmers' female relatives do is weave.  This should not have surprised me as much as it did, but these was still a very rural economy (and, probably up to the 1700's at least, true everywhere). 

Interestingly (to me), the loom was outdoors - which makes sense, given the weather here.

Weaving in progress:

They offered a number of woven items for sale, including kramas, which are a long scarf or headwrap, is considered the national symbol of Cambodia, and is supposed to have over 60 uses including a scarf, headwrap, carrier of loads both children and items, face covering, fashion symbol, belt, and garrote (!).

The one pictured below is the one I purchased for the princely sum of $9.00 U.S.  It measures a bit over 6 ft/2 m in length and 15 in/38 cm in width. 

I have worn it as part of a general ensemble to work.  It is surprisingly light and fashionable (also, it is purple, my favourite colour - which is more recent; apparently they are traditionally red or blue).

A small shrine at the entrance/exit of the farm:

The Age Of Convenience

 When I was growing up, the only access to books we had was our local library.

Annually of course, we had that greatest of events, the Scholastic Book Fair.  And even more occasionally - maybe once a year - we would go to our local big city where we would go to an actual book store.  The store itself - a relic of the late '60's/early 70's, with its haphazard shelving and narrow rows and towering heights (at least to a child) was what I have always associated with a "good" bookstore; the modern version of over-lit fluorescent lighting, wide aisles, and organized sections is not for me.

And then, when I was at the age of Middle School, my town got a bookstore.

Suddenly, books were only a short car drive away, available (for purchase) all year!  Yes, one was confined to the stock on hand - but still, the wonder!  I saved my allowance and bought books (some of which I have to this day).  One bookstore became two, and then one day I discovered "Chain" bookstores were a thing.  The literary world was my oyster.

And then in 1998, I found a place called "Amazon".  Suddenly, there were no boundaries.

---

One wonders if, in years to come and histories are written, if this will be called "The Age Of Convenience".

We have at our fingertips the ability to order anything from almost anywhere and have it delivered to our door.  Not just the ordinary things, like books or clothes or groceries.  Exotic things:  Skyr from Iceland, tea from Japan, every imaginable cat toy upon the planet. Shoes that are in my actual size, not the nearest fitting size I can find.

The even more amazing thing is that we scarcely have to wait for such things if wish. Once upon a time, ordering things and waiting for a month was considered expedited.  Now even a four day wait is considered excessive; I can get things in 24 hours or less if I desire (and am willing to pay).

Truly, we live in an age of miracles.

---

The Age Of Convenience is, of course, built on two foundations:  cheap, reliable, abundant energy and a wealthy economy.

Cheap, reliable, abundant energy fuels the modern world.  It allows the use of hothouses in locations they would never traditionally be.  It allows the manufacture of items that once upon a time were handcrafted (or simply did not exist).  It allows these items to be transported across the world in relatively short periods of time compared to most of human history (via sail, cart, or foot).  And it allows these items to be dropped in our stores or at our doors sometimes with hours of our ordering them.

The other aspect is that for convenience to be worthwhile, it has to be marketable.  Companies, be they single owner, family businesses, or corporations, are in business to yield a profit.  Convenience is a way to secure profit by providing items easily - at a price.  Take away the ability to make money from a convenience and the convenience will disappear eventually - after all, there is no point in providing a service at a loss.

Without energy being cheap, reliable, and abundant, goods and services do not move quickly or as freely.  Without wealth, there is no incentive to offer convenience, at least on a large scale.

In that sense, we live at an apex of history.

---

What happens when The Age Of Convenience ends?

For some of us - mostly older, but also those that have for various reasons chosen a simpler lifestyle - it will be a return to form.  Certainly it may inconvenient - after all, I have gotten just as used to being able to get almost anything quickly - but I can adjust; after all, we have likely mastered the art of doing without or making it out of something.

For those that have never lived in this reality or have forgotten, it will likely be very difficult.  Not having instant access to a thing or perhaps the thing not even being available would be hard, especially if that had not been true their your whole life.

But perhaps, not essential.  Because convenience is, well, convenience.  It is not essential.

A Year Of Kindness (XXIX): Stay Humble, Stay Kind

 

(Source)

One of the things that I am reminded of is that, like many personality traits, kindness (and humility) are something that I need to continually practice.  It is not, in that sense, a "one and done" kind of thing.

In some cases I can predict when my kindness will be at a low ebb:  Early morning, for example.  After a contentious meeting.  The moment on Tuesdays when I realize it is not Wednesday and the week seems to suddenly get longer.  These moments conspire to reduce the things I should be - kind, humble, generous, loving - to as small a trait as possible.

But it is especially in those moments that I need to practice them all the more.

  

The longer I live (and the longer I write these kinds of series), the more I become convinced that things like kindness and humility are important.  Not just because of the practice themselves, but the model that they provide.

I do not feel it is beyond the pale to say that if anything, our society has become even more "me-centric" than ever.  It does not help that as a consumer society, the market is set up to meet our needs and desires; many people have extended that same belief to almost everything around them.  "We" are the most important thing going on in our minds.

Which is why good models matter all the more.  Because people need to see that good people still exist and can practice character traits which seem not to benefit themselves directly at all, but benefit the world greatly.

So stay kind.  Stay humble.  The world indeed needs such reminders.

Garden Victory

Sometimes the wins are small, but they are wins none the less.

 

TB Goes (Back) To School

"To those who said to Diogenes the Cynic, 'You are an old man, take your rest', 'What?'  he replied.  'If I were running in the Stadium, ought I to slacken my pace when approaching the goal?  Ought I not rather to put on speed?'"  - Diogenes Laertius, Live of Eminent Philosophers

The whole thing, as it turns out, starts about 28 years ago.

As longer time readers may recall, at one time I had submitted myself for consideration in the pastorate of a mainline denominational church.  As part of that consideration, I had to take a 3 day psychological exam which, as turns out, determined that I was not qualified (at least from a personality standpoint) for the ministry.  As part of that assessment, they also suggested that I consider going back to school, getting an advanced (Ph.D.) degree in Classical Studies, and become a college professor.

I have loved and been interested in history since I was 10 years old and found out we were going to visit my uncle in Japan. I started reading (or consuming) history.  That never stopped in all the intervening years - if anything, I just kept layering on periods of history, some because of interest and some because of gaps in my education. One of the latter points was Greek and Roman History, which was definitely a gap that I had to address.  At some point during the intervening years (post undergraduate for sure), I purchased a translation of The Peloponnesian War by Thucydides, and I was hooked. 

The difficulty was when this "suggestion" came in, we were months away from our first child Nighean Gheal.  The Ravishing Mrs. TB had first gone on medical leave and then was laid off; I was the only income our family had.  And so, this idea was shelved as unrealistic.

---

I studied over the intervening years of course. I had a basic understanding of self taught Latin and an even more basic understanding of New Testament Greek (Ancient Greek remains beyond me).   Penguin translations continued showing up on bookshelf until I exhausted that resource.  Then I discovered Loeb Classics with their original text/English Translation, and my library expanded again.  I purchased other history books as well (in English of course) as well as continued to feed my library with military works (and uniform pictures) from Osprey Publishing.

But there were two more children to arrive (Nighean Bhan and Nighen Dhonn) and a business to fail and financial rebuilding and a family to support and then college to pay for.  Learning, it seemed, would always be an ad hoc affair for me.

Until...

Until four years ago Nighean Dhonn, whose major is Archaeology (Classical Greece), mentioned she was looking at graduate schools for her next step when she graduated.  I started looking at them as well, more out of curiousity than anything else.  After all, I was now in my mid-50's: a formal degree at this point seemed wildly out of place and (arguably) useless.

---

One of the programs I found was Master's Degree in Classical Studies.

It was fully remote.  It did not require mastery of Greek or Latin (there is a third track, Classical Literature).  It allowed up to six years to complete the program, one class at a time.

It took me time, of course.  Mostly because I had "reasons" from 2022, when I first started interacting with the school.  Na Clann, or at least two of them, were still in college or going.  It was still the height of The Plague with the uncertainty of employment.  And, as time went on, I had to contend with two layoffs. 

I started two applications from 2022 to 2025; both of them expired.  And then, this year, I finally stopped making excuses.  

During a trip to New Home I got my paper transcripts from the storage locker.  I scanned them.  I had no college professors to give me references (I even wonder if any of my professors still live or are teaching;  My Former Boss, my Sensei from New Home, and The Director stepped in and graciously offered to write one for me. 

This thing was going to be dealt with, one way or the other.

And then last week I got word.  I was accepted into a Master's Program for Classical Studies.

---

And so, in theory, later this month I start the second round - could we call it a Renaissance? - of my educational journey.

There is still work to do of course.  My acceptance is "provisional"; I still have to submit all my official transcripts (As an interesting side note to those who attended colleges years ago, you will remember the painful process of calling former schools or having to mail letters to get official transcripts.  This is all now completely 100% online.).  My initial fee is paid.  Assuming all that happens, I start classes around the end of the month (and immediately have to explain I will likely be gone for the first class as I will be in the middle of Sierra Mountains without cell coverage).

What am I going to do with this degree?  Honestly, I am not sure: this is as much for personal fulfillment as it is to reach any kind of goal.  A part of me says that this could play into the "Second Act", my post-retirement life (if all works out, I will graduate approximately 6 months before I plan to retire).  

Sometimes it is not that the door is closed; it was just the wrong time for it to open.

A Year Of Haiku (XXX): Harvest

 

Springtime's white blossoms

become Summer's purple bites:
early morning stroll.

2025 Cambodia And Vietnam: Farmstead (I)

 As one of the extras the tour service we use offers, they find places to stop that are local in nature - like, for example, the dancing we saw in Siam Reap.  It works out well for everyone: the local economy gets a boost, people that might not otherwise see tourist dollars get them, and tourists have the opportunity to see things that are a little more local.

One of our stops prior to leaving Siam Reap was at a farmstead.

From the little bit we saw locally, I would estimate this was pretty typical sort of thing for this part of the world. Beyond the rice fields we passed, there were food gardens and trees - for example, the jackfruit above, and (possibly) bananas below.

An Oxcart:

A garden.  The climate here even in March and April when we came was humid and very warm; I cannot imagine what Summer is like.

These may be papaya:

2025 Cambodia And Vietnam: Tonlé Sap (III)

 What would a trip to a water village be without a stop at the local tourist shop?

Not quite sure why these are a thing:

Or why "Cobra in a Bottle" is a thing either:

Fish:

Heading back towards the dock.  Another view of the temple on stilts:

And the radio station:

This boat appeared to be under repair:

Rush hour:

Likely both shop and home: