Fishermen live on the river. They go in these small boats which come back full of small fishes. This community on the photo is of Vietnamese origin.

People come to the boat to choose for the fishes

The net they use to catch the fishes - they are very small fishes, that we use for prahok

And one can also buy from the wholesalers.

Really fresh fish, shiny, just out from the river!

Can you see? the boat is filled up ... there is a man under the hat working hard to take the fishes out  !

Taking the fishes to a truck to send them somewhere else.

Yeap... it is a foot ! So what ? the French do their wine in crushing the grapes with their feet also !! ah ah!

Ah! the surprising part for me. I thought that with all the modernism (look at Sihanouk boulevard with all the fashion shops and supermarkets!), we would have improved the processes of making prahok (fish paste) to make it cleaner, with tables, running water to clean, cold storage. It looks like it is the same practice as one hundred years ago ! The villagers still continue to prepare tons of fishes under their houses, fishes spread on the ground, sometimes a plastic sheet but most of the time, filled with the dirt. They cut the head and the tail. The village of Kompong Luang is a Cham (muslim) village, that's why women and girls wear the scarf on their head.

The heads and the tails are sold to factories which make animal feedstuff. 

Children also help their families. There are just so many fishes this year. The sellers told us that this is because the illegal fishing lots in Siem Reap have been shut down and all the fishes have been released.

The fishes are left to dry under the sun, then put in a jar with salt (about 7-8 kgs for 10 kg of fishes) and after 2 months, the prahok is ready.

Seeing all this has not deterred us from buying the fresh fishes from the boats, 7000 riels (1.75 US$) per kilo, we bought 4 kgs, about 17 pieces (Dad is always buying too much, we are only 4 at our home !) and they are so huge, about 30 cm long (12 inches).

This is our new year feast, grilled fish direct from the Mekong river, with rock salt. Happy new year to all of you,be healthy and take well care of yourself and your family ! Bosba

Let me wish you a wonderful new year 2012, may all your wishes come true. Bosba

There are many private lessons given by artists (Cambodian or foreign living here) but the prices are high for a normal Cambodian family at 10-15$ per hour for Cambodian teachers and 15-30$ for foreign teachers. There are also private schools by Cambodian teachers / musicians (for example Khru Rithiravuth - Mozart Music Center and by Khru Ram Daravong) which are not too expensive, and you learn with others. If they receive some funds and instruments from the NGOs for example, then it is free, which is great.

There are also private schools opened by foreigners where you pay from 80$ to 150$ per month but you have about 30 or 45 mn class per week (so 4 lessons/month). You need to practice a lot outside of these lessons if you want to progress ! I think it is not enough if we want to progress, because when I started music, my parents are not musicians so I needed lots of hours and supervision from my teachers to make me work and progress. I think they target only the very rich or the foreigners living here.

There are also NGOs offering lessons for free, but I think if you are from a normal family, they don't accept you. It seems it is only for the very poor or living in the rural areas. I have never been able to join and I remember that once, my brother wanted to join a dance lesson, and they kicked him out of the place!!

As there is now more interest in music, I hope there will be more and more places to learn music and arts and that it will be not too expensive for every kid to join.

So here are the places I know:

- Singing: teacher Kim Myungsil (Korean): 092 761 101 [prices are 15-25$ / 45 mn]

- Piano lessons at Piano Forte 012 917 024 (Jenny) and email is pianistee12@gmail.com

- Mozart Music Center (Khru Rithiravuth, he is on facebook! and there is a page!)

- Simphony Music School : they are also on facebook ! check.

- all my teachers and band musicians also give lessons at 10$/hour.

We have been meeting every Sunday since August to work with the musicians. In total 25 sessions and already half of these are gone. Only 13 left until the D-DAY ! Sometimes it is at home and it is sooooo small that we can't move!

We are lucky it is not raining like for the October 2009 concert, where we all had our feet in 20 cm of water because the rain water did not drain quickly enough ! that was fun. On other times, we have been lucky to be provided with some spaces in hotels. In fact, it is difficult for all the artists to find a free and large space to work in Phnom Penh.

 The nice thing for the concert@angkor is that we mix the traditional ensembles (Mohori, Pinpeat) with the semi-classical band....

the Chinese instruments. For the Chinese music, we are working with Roland and master Liao who are from the Simphony Music School in Boeng Keng Kang.

We will have jazz stylings, sacred music (smot), modern music (master composer Ung Chinary). It is so interesting to mix all this together. But dad shout "It will not be fusion ! it will be authentic music with different arrangements !".

 There will also be dance during the concert. In these photos, my brother Panhlauv learns with khru Thong Kim Ly (he calls his teacher "Khru Swa" !) how to dance the young Hanuman, the future Monkey king.

All this hard work (and lots of fun) is for you, so don't forget to come and watch us at Angkor Wat on 25-26 February 2011. Ok nas ?

I knew all the desserts that were presented, and I think that not all the people who where selling were those who cooked them, because sometimes I feel I am at Psar Olympic. I also saw how they cooked the Slek Chak cake which is black sticky rice with coconut, palm sugar wrapped in palm leaves. Mmm! that was good. I learnt that this is a specialty from Koh Kong.

The big surprise for me was to learn that these two types of cakes (nom Klot and I don't know the name of the second) are the specialties of Kompong Cham.

There is the Bosbaband, Khru Theara and the mohori orchestra, khru Soy Saret and the pinpeat musicians, khru Rithiravuth and the western instrument musicians.

Now we practice at home, so it is very small and we are moving out the tables, the chairs, the books every Sunday.

We need space to welcome all the musicians and especially the instruments like the khong. That's really big, and there are two of these !

Here I learn "smot", a sacred music, accompanied by the Khmer flute.

I am so lucky to have everybody helping read out the notes and sing in tune: khru Theara, Khru Sithul, Narem and khru "smot"! There is a lot of "eun, eun" and I need to practice.

Khru Rithiravuth conducts the classical instruments for "Ave Maria" and corrects me.

It seems like it is a lot of work but for me, it is like you have a family party every week end. It is like you have your uncles, your aunts, your friends coming and we joke and we eat, and we drink. That's lots of fun for me and that's really what I prefer in doing music.

We went straight to the beaches and gosh ! most of the beaches I knew have disappeared ! They were closed for developement of resorts. We finally found a great beach far away, deserted place, nobody except the fishermen. Panhlauv was first to run to the sea.

We visited Ream National Park to find the abandoned decor of the movie "Barrage contre le Pacifique" directed by uncle Rithy.

We took the boat to one of the islands not too far and I have never seen such a beautiful beach and water. All shades of blue and green, the water so clear.

We found these "crab l'hermite" which are crabs using other people's house !

On the road to Ream, we saw farmers busy replanting the rice.

In leaving Kpg Som, I felt re-energized with the fresh and wild air of the sea. But wondering if next time we go there, we will need to pay 200$ a night in a resort to be able just to see these beaches.  

On this photo from left to right: choregrapher Maritza, David, Jean Baptiste, Jessica, (me), Cham Nou (who is currently on Beeline advertising!), Roberto and Amara. Not on this photo but so part of the success are Sarah of course, but also the children from Seametrey school, dancer Belle, Bryan who designed the stunning video/images, Wolfgang for the audio and Melissa for the video.  This was not the whole show but only highlights that give the team and Sarah more energy to find the funding to get the whole show in Angkor Wat.

Look at the photos and let's hope Sarah will be back soon with the cast for a full show!

With Jessica and the children from Seametrey School

With Maritza, the choregrapher.

Sarah came with a big team with Melissa making the film about the premiere, photographers, the choregrapher Maritza (she has dyed her hair to be all white!), the sound artist Wolgang (what an appropriate name, his hair is like the one of Mozart). The children choir of Seametrey School were also here. We are rehearsing the finale song (last song of the show).

Sarah, Amara and myself have been by the media. Sarah told them that she was inspired by the story of Bophana while reading an article in a British newspaper which has published the love letters that have led to her death. It took Sarah a year to write the story but another 10 years to write the lyrics, music, find the cast, bring the production team together and also to find the money to produce the show.

I wear in this photo the black shirt and trouser that the child prisoners would wear in those times at Tuol Sleng. Amara answered in Khmer to the journalists that she was only 5 months when she arrived in the US. She was singing in highschool and was noticed by the teachers. Then she took music and singing lessons. She is already married!

Chy Sila from T&C offered his office for us to rehearse (thank you!) and we had lunch with everybody there. That was quick and nice. Such a good time together ! We worked until 7 pm and today we rehearse at Chaktomuk Theater with the lights and sound.

Sarah corrects my pronunciation and we check the music sheets together.

With the children's choir and Jessica sitting on the ground.

Jean Baptiste, Amara who play the lovers in the musical and they are separated by the Khmer Rouge.

And the last photo with Amara and me ! She coached me like an elder sister and we had a good laugh during the rehearsal when talking about our mistakes!