A day with Vann Molyvann
Vann Molyvann (Pardon the poor photo, I was too busy taking notes.)
There are days — many if you’re lucky — when being a journalist is more than a job, more than the only thing you can picture yourself doing: it’s a privilege. Sunday was a day like that.
I spent a good chunk of the day discovering parts of Phnom Penh I had not yet seen — and another, the Foreign Language Institute, where I was just the day before without fully appreciating it — with Vann Molyvann, the leader of an architecture movement in the 1950s and 1960s that truly built modern Cambodia under the direction of now-retired King Norodom Sihanouk.
As far as tour guides go, he’s definitely as good as it gets. I always find fascinating to meet people who have seen moments in history I have only read about in textbooks. Maybe one day, I’ll be an old woman who can say she’s seen 9/11, Bill Clinton and Vann Molyvann. In the meantime, I just feel privileged talking to them and brushing past history.
For the full story, pick up today’s Cambodia Daily.
i will read this tomorrow, hope somewhere i could find a copie.
khmerbird
Monday, 22 September, 2008 at 8:44
Thank you for this article! As a Australian/Cambodian, I have put presure on myself to make something out of the life I was blessed to have been given from my parents like most children born to war fleeing parents.
As a student doing a double degree in Architecture/ Construction Management, finding articles about Mr Vann Molyvann is awe inspiring.
Thank you.
[S]
Sophanara
Thursday, 5 February, 2009 at 11:12