Cambodia Day 9: Arn, art, and a train?

Today we started with a art tour posted by Arn and the Cambodian Chinese artist named Thenley, who is about to travel to New York for a showing of his intricate work. We started at a Buddhist temple which featured attractive panoramas of the story of the Buddha. We then moved onto an old movie theater where music lessons occur right next door. This was where Thenley learned how to paint. Again, Arn found a man who knew many members of his family- another quite remarkable experience.   After a brief stop at the shop run by two Australian men that featured an eclectic supply of French, Cambodian and other Southeast Asian art, we headed to the Phare school. This school of 650 students focuses on the arts and is equivalent to an Arts University. The Phare circus that we saw earlier also trains here.   The school is almost self sufficient and we saw numerous students engaged in a variety of artistic endeavors.  We then traveled to an art gallery where we saw several shows  by graduates of the school. In all, it was an enlightening morning. In the afternoon, we headed to the bamboo train. This was literally two wheels, a platform, and an engine which traveled along the 1920's French railroad. Used primarily to transport rice to market, it is also now a quite popular tourist attraction.Ask your children about the economics of these rides.  We were all quite shocked, to say the least.

RAP