Cambodia Journal . . .
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ME AT KEP
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How This All Began
Before you read this journal of my trip you must understand how it all happened. So, to the best of my ability and recollection here's how it began.
I came home from the studio one day and checked my e-mails as usual. I get an automatic weekly notice that tells me to check my spam box which I usually ignore but for some reason this time I decided to check it. It was the usual stuff that we all get except for this one that stated in the subject "about the rights to your song." This kinda threw me so...I opened it. The message was from a woman named Marielle Sander Lindstrom from an organization called The Asia Foundation. She was inquiring about a song that I had recorded but didn't write. A song that was on one of my CDs as a "bonus track." She stated that she would like to use the song in a campaign to fight human trafficking in Cambodia. Now that raised a flag with me so I "Googled" her. There were pages of info on her and her battles all over the world fighting this cause so I figured she was legit. I e-mailed her back and informed her that I didn't write the song in question and to acquire the rights she would have to talk with the publisher of the song and that it may take a while for a response from them. I had dealt with acquiring rights before. It's incredibly time consuming. I then suggested if she liked that song that she might want to listen to yet another tune that I did write entitled "Movin' On Down the Line" and get back with me. Not too long after she e-mailed me again stating that she liked my song even better — Ok.. .now I could talk.
After several e-mails I decided to allow her to use the song for free since it was such a worthy cause, but suggested that it might be cool if she added traditional Cambodian musicians and possibly some children singing along as well. Her next comment was, "I like that idea...have you ever been to Cambodia?" My answer was..."No, but it sounds like I'm fixin' to come." A few months later I'm recording kids and Cambodian traditional musicians in Phnom Penh.
The Cambodia Journal
Arrived safely. 24 hours after I got on the plane.
Richmond to JFK to Bangkok to Phnom Penh. We hit the ground running figuring if we just tried to stay awake as long as possible we'd get over the jet lag sooner. It was a nice thought.
I quickly discovered the deal with Phnom Penh, which will be called "PP" from now on...there's a smell in the air here that you need to get used to. It hits you in your nose and throat. It's a cross between the smell of burning rubbish and the sea...or a body of water of some sort. This description doesn't do it justice. It's a bearable stench, not like a West Point paper mill kinda thing because in West Point it's a matter of wind direction. Here, it's just...here. PP is a beautiful city yet it has its ugly parts. Ugly for USA standards. On one side of the street will be an incredible pagoda or a building whose architecture is like Miami's South Beach ... on the other side or right next to it is an entire city block of buildings that looks like Miami Beach if there was a city utilities strike that had been going on for 5 years. The streets and sidewalks, parks and plazas get increasingly dirty as the day goes on and by night time the trash is everywhere. If you get up early enough you see the people cleaning it up. They're not city workers...I don't think anyway, they're just...people with homemade brooms cleaning things up. It's not like it's their job, it's like it's their destiny in life. By 8 AM the city is clean...or as clean as it's going to get. After a couple of days either I got used to the smell or it went away. I suspect I got used to it.
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JED CLAMPETT ON THE MEKONG
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After 2 days of getting the feel of the place, meeting the people and seeing the studio I was going to work in, listening to some of the kids I would be auditioning or using to record, we took the weekend off and went to Kep with our host, nanny, and 2 kids, Christina and Erik.
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KIDS AT KEP
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Kep is located on the southern tip of Cambodia. You can see Vietnam from it across the Sea of Cambodia. To get to Kep you must drive south from PP on highway 3 to highway 31. About a 3 hour drive that would take one hr, 2 at the most in the USA. Sounds easy enough except there are no highway signs. Speed limit signs aren't really necessary because the potholes, livestock and bicycles keep you moving at a reasonable pace. So you kinda have to go by feel. If you see a fork in the road on the map you have to estimate that the fork you see in the road is where you are supposed to be. Also, it's a 2 lane highway with bulls and cows all over it. Most have a tether that allows them to go just to the highway but you never quite know. The rice fields are everywhere and the countryside is incredibly beautiful. Then there are the towns. Towns in Cambodia are places where things are the dirtiest. Except for the main street it's all dirt...like Georgia clay. Small towns look like old one-street towns out of a western movie except they sell all the produce, freshly butchered meat and God only knows what else in open air markets in front of all the stores that are also homes...I think.
We stayed at a beautiful small seaside inn run by a couple of Frenchmen. One looked like Elvis Costello and his name was Stefan. The other a good looking guy named Jeff. It was a little piece of paradise and you would think you were at an upscale villa of sorts in the Carribean... Up the dirt road from the place was a crabmarket. Little fishing boats, checking crab pots every day and selling them right there. It was a wonderful 2 nights and my jet lag became history.
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PHENOM PENH SESSIONS
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I wish I could put photos with this journal but the internet here is just too damned slow. (Now that I'm home I'll try to figure this out). Working every day in the studio, a nice place called CMM. The owner is Thai/Filipino named Glenn Lasalle and speaks English like an American but Glenn is not an engineer. For the first couple of days I worked with a really nice kid named Deena but he was getting married and weddings over there last for at least 3 days. A week if you're wealthy. I was told he would be pretty useless for a week after. No?...really? I missed Deena. He was fun.
I gave everyone nicknames because I either couldn't pronounce their names or remember them. Our security guard on my floor at the hotel I named Spiderman because every morning when I got up to use the Internet at the hall lobby he was there playing Spider solitaire. The kid that took care of the studio gate I called "M" because he always wore a McDonalds employee shirt that I guess he got at the Goodwill. The rest of the crew started calling him "M" as well.
So, the senior engineer took over. His name was Baribo or something close to that. I called him Bobby. From what he told me he was an ex-fighter pilot in the Cambodian air force and worked in some kind of position in the royal palace for a while. He also studied music for 12 years in Bulgaria majoring in woodwinds. He spoke English pretty well but every now and then when he didn't understand what I was saying he'd just say, "Yes, yes, no problem." Actually it was a problem.
But we managed.
I had an interpreter that I sometimes asked to be there named Sophia. Sophia is a popular name here. So far...at least 4 of the women that I met were named Sophia. I started calling them S1, S2.... then there were the Sophia sisters as well. Sophia and Sophea. Anyway..I could fill a room with Sophias. Where was I?...oh yeah...... the studio. It's small like a closet, for the studio part maybe 5x5... with a decent sized control room. I recorded 15 street kids 4 at a time. None spoke English, so the interpreter was also in the room with me so that meant 6 of us in a closet. That was one day. Then the traditional instruments. We did that in the control room and just kept quiet during the recording.
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MY STREET KIDS AFTER A SESSION
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These kids were incredible. They stayed during the day at a place called "Friends." This was a safe haven for the children of the street. All these kids had no homes. Like many others in Phnom Penh, they live literally on the street. They would sleep anywhere but usually had hammocks or some kind of dwelling I guess, but I was told it shouldn't be a surprise if I ran into one of them begging on the street during my visit. I never did but I have to tell you that they were the most well-mannered, beautiful children I have ever worked with. I will never ever forget them. Hopefully they feel the same way about me.
After that and one other day were the English speaking kids from the international school. Also 14 of them and they had been properly rehearsed with the music...the sheet music. Too rehearsed actually so I had to break them down and start over. I started with 2 in the studio and finally convinced the engineer (who wanted to record them one at a time) to just record them all at once in the control room. So we did that and had to turn off the air conditioners for every take. Also this studio was rather new and they had used some kind of glue to adhere the soundproofing that I'm sure was on the American EPA list of substances that would eventually kill you. It took me 2 days to realize that the headaches and fatigue I was experiencing wasn't from jet lag but from the fumes. Incredibly enough nobody else seemed to be bothered by it. My guess is that they really were bothered but didn't want to show it because it would mean we would possibly go somewhere else but that's just a guess. Then there was the meeting....the meeting between some government officials, some non-government agency people and others concerning the lyrics and possible repercussions. This was an election year, not good. The Cambodian version of this song lyrically had the word "change" in it. It was a problem to some because that word might be taken as "revolution." Again...not good. That was a day of serious deliberations. It was finally decided that "change" could be "changed"...to "moving forward with joy"...or something like that...I think...since I can't understand Cambodian or "Khmer"(pronounced "kameye") I can't really explain how serious this got except to tell you there were a lot of stern faces and worried looks. The Khmer language is very beautiful but long-winded. For one English word with 2 syllables there are 4 Cambodian words with 4 syllables. You get the picture. To say something like "I'm gonna wake up this morning" translates into Khmer with a phrase like "when the sun rises over the rice fields and I open my eyes to the east and see the big yellow ball of fire on the horizon I will begin to make tea." Also Bobby the engineer used to be the assistant to the deputy prime minister and also the pilot for the prince or somebody and he had some ideas of his own politically on it all...again...not good. Especially in front of the people that were there to make sure we didn't offend any one of the 3 political parties and of course the Cambodian royals. Also in this small control room were the Sophia sisters. These 2 beautiful young women were sent over from the Cambodian school of the arts to represent their teacher. The teacher was the person that translated the lyrics from English to Khmer. She couldn't make this meeting and sent these two so they could sing the "changes" to show that they fit in the song. This is when I discovered Bobby had a temper. Cambodians don't mind speaking their mind in front of the people that they are speaking their mind about. He was ripping these 2 young ladies (they were 18 and 19 but looked 13 and 14) as if they weren't in the room basically because he thought the teacher should have come instead of sending "children." I took the sisters aside and apologized (through an interpreter), gave them one of my CDs. All of a sudden everyone smiled and left.
Siem Reap and Angkor Wat
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RIA AT ANGKOR WAT
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TEMPLE RUINS NEAR SIEM REAP
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Vicki was wearing her "UVA" hat and around 8 AM someone in the crowd said, "It's good to see a Virginia hat here." He and his wife were from Richmond and on their honeymoon. They knew of me and had actually rented a house from one of my partners at the studio. Unbelievable. We had drinks with them that night.
At about 9 AM or so we got Khim, who'd been waiting all this time, to bring us back to the hotel. We had breakfast and asked him to pick us up at noon for another trip to another ruin. We really didn't know what ruin but he assured us it would be great. He picked us up on time and we headed out....and out...and out. Way out for about an hour. I've got to say it was the best part of the day, just riding through the countryside. The people outside of town live very simply. I can't say they are poor...just simple people living simple lives. They harvest rice, they have livestock, they live off what they grow and raise. They make things and sell stuff. They work for their living and they are some of the most beautiful people I have ever seen. Not once did I meet someone who looked pissed off that we were there. All were as friendly as one could be to somebody that could only communicate through sign language and a few words of Khmer like hello, goodbye and thank you very much. In fact most knew more English than I knew Khmer. The normal greeting there is not a handshake but hands together as in prayer about chest high. The higher the hands, the more respect. I always made it a point to have my hands higher than they did. They truly deserved it.
The ruins we saw were again...incredible, but I have to say that I enjoyed the journey as much if not more than the destination. We went on to see three other temples that were just as incredible. One that looked like something out of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom had this incredible Khmer music flowing through the woods as we walked to it. Finally we came across these musicians on the side of the path. They were all blind and had a stand to sell CDs. They were called "the musicians by help themselves group" of Taprun temple. Hmmm...that must've been the name of the temple ruins we were seeing. Yes...we bought a CD.
Around dark we made it back to the hotel. We had drinks with our Virginia friends and then to dinner. All the time being driven by Khim and his tuk-tuk. We said goodbye to him around 10:30 PM. For all of this, we were told that the going rate for a full day of tuk-tuk driving was $15-$20. We gave him $45 and he lit up like we had given him $500.
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BATMAN LOOKIN' FOR ROBBIN IN SIEM REAP
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The neck was...a little warped but you could tune it up so I did and played a couple of tunes for Khim and the proprietor. I then talked the guy down $5, handed the money to the owner... and the guitar to Khim. It was a moment I'll never forget. It just seemed like the right thing to do. After that Khim took us to his house where his 1 year old daughter was being kept by an elderly woman. She was fast asleep swinging in a hammock. He brought out his most prized possession, his wedding photo album. It was about 50 pages of Khim and his bride looking like the king and queen of some fairy tale. Someone had probably spent their life savings on this wedding which I was told lasted for 3 days.
When I told this story to someone in Phnom Penh after our return they said that we were probably the first people other than family that had ever seen his house and wedding photos. We said goodbye to Khim with our hands over our heads.
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KHMER INSTRUMENT SESSIONS
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Somehow, all of the above got solved, recorded and ready to mix. Yet another engineer brought in from Thailand appeared. His name was Beer. I thought this to be hilarious considering my senior engineer in Richmond's last name is Bruski. They should work together, Bruski and Beer. Beer spoke pretty good English, about like Bobby, but was a specialist. All he did was mix stuff. I guess he was over the recording part of the process because it had become way too boring for him.
While he was mixing I was told that the US ambassador to Cambodia had heard about the project and wanted to meet with us. So...off to the US embassy.
The US embassy in Cambodia looks like a school more than an embassy but then again, this was my first visit to an embassy.
In any event it was seriously high security like an airport "on 9/11" but once you got in you were in. We had a really nice chat with the ambassador I now know as... "Joe." Ends up he's a Dylan fan and so I told him my Dylan story about how he signed my poster and he was awed. I awed the ambassador. Awesome. He gave me a nice "parting gift" and we vowed to keep in touch.
The Gigs
I did 2 gigs while I was in Cambodia. One was at the Cambodiana Hotel. I haven't played in a hotel (except The Homestead and The Greenbrier) in about 15 years but this gig was kinda hard to turn down. In return for playing a concert in the "Qba" they comped my room for the entire stay. An easy decision.
The normal entertainment for the Qba was two-fold. At about happy hour time there was a Filipino singer/guitarist that if you didn't look at him he sounded like a woman singing. He sang in falsetto. That was his thing. A falsetto singing guitarist that sang every American song that has been sung into the ground. Country Roads, Stairway to Heaven, every Beatles song that you can name, and...yes, Freebird. Need I say more?
The second part was three other beautiful Filipino women, two of which were a duo and the third a solo singer. They would split the sets up and played all night. The duo had a guy keyboard player and the rest was pre-recorded. The solo singer used all pre-recorded music. They were quite good and really easy on the eyes. However I must add that the first night I arrived, suffering from a terminal case of jet lag, there was one more special act. THE ASIAN TOM JONES. Except for his skin color he looked exactly like him and sang...and moved like him. All to pre-recorded tracks. Someone tipped the management that the singer from the USA (that would be me) was in the house and Tom, on microphone, invited me up to sing with him. Yikes. I ended up singing Johnny B. Good and also Midnight Hour with him in harmony and we brought down the house. Thank God I was in a country where nobody knew me.
So anyway...I did the gig at the hotel solo with a guitar. The word got out in the ex-pat community so a lot of Americans and Australians attended and it went quite well considering. The other gig was at the famous (to me anyway) foreign correspondents club or the "FCC." This place was like something out of a Bogart movie and served mostly American food. This is where you went to get hamburgers and pizza as well as beer and a wonderful view of the Mekong River. If you weren't on a barstool you were in an old-style Morris chair. Quite the comfortable embibe-a-torium. It was also sort of a gecko friendly place. Geckos roamed freely all over the walls and were part of the entertainment. I guess they were there for mosquito control or something. It should be in an insurance commercial. They set up a stage for me as well as a little p.a. system and it was a fun evening. They even did posters and spelled my name right. I had a driver for the entire stay in Phnom Penh. His name was Rottena. He was an interesting fellow that made a point of telling you how much everything he owned cost. I commented on his ring which weighed about a pound and a half. He said "Thank you, $800." I asked about his car. A late model Camary. He said, "Thank you, $10,000." Anything you asked about from fruit to lumber he could tell you the cost. Amazing.
He also told me about his family. He was married and had 2 children, a girl and a woman. His girl was 5. His other "a woman"... was 10. Welcome to Cambodia.
All of this was orchestrated by Marielle Sander Lindstrom. A wonderful woman totally dedicated to fighting human trafficking in Cambodia. It was Marielle who first had the vision and found me on the Internet. We have become good friends with her now and are looking forward to our next visit which will be in January when they kick-off this entire campaign.
Robbin Thompson
November 2007