I will do my best. My different sections, online already, or just coming up, are squeezing out each other, but every one of those will take the turn, hopefully very soon.
I just took a look at your page. Wow, Zsolt. What a life! I look forward to reading more about it.
I spent a short time working as a 'foreign expert' sub-editor at a major Chinese newspaper in Beijing in the early 2000s. All the expats would joke about who among us was a spy. It was always good for a laugh, but beneath it all, we weren't joking 😅
This kind of jokes on the surface, but serious business inside are part of the espionage business. I will teach you a lot, but the equation will stay complex and exciting!
Alia, your revisiting Cambodia is moving. You integrate the obvious knowledge of a newspaper-reading intellectual with the direct experiences of a young visitor. I am just about to start with a new section of my Substack, entitled Bucketlist Revisited. You will be an example for me to follow. I am 80, lots of travel under my belt, and the revisiting will not grow the carbon footprint. But old photos and my retroactive reports may interest my audience. Keep on with the good writing. I enjoy it!
I have visited Sihanoukville in 2002 and I also never want to go back. I have beautiful memories of this place, the people, the beaches and it feels like I’ve been there just yesterday. And now I’m left with my memories…. mourning my old self and what they did to this place…
I'm glad you saw how lovely it was before it was pillaged, Marinke. It is so cruel, isn't it. It's not just a matter of change--places change--it's the greed, politics, corruption and crime that's driven this unnecessary development that leaves you feeling helpless about what's happened to the people of Sihanoukville.
That’s exactly it. That’s why it hurts so much. You could see this happening all over South-East Asia, also in Laos for instance. These places and people were magical and this horrible greed, darkness destroys all this.
You've just described why my wife will never go back to Bali, having spent many happy months there in the late 70s and having been briefly (very briefly) married to a Balinese man. I empathise entirely and would never encourage her to go.
Are there places I feel so nostalgic about, protective of my memories of? I'm not sure there are. Most of the places I've lived in or visited have been in Europe, and the pace of change has been slower there. I'm a bit dismayed at what they've done to the London skyline; that's about it.
Bali was beautiful. My parents spent time there in the 70s too and were in shock when they saw my photos from the 90s. They said they couldn't go back after that. And things have changed a lot more since!
You're right, Europe's character feels protected to a degree. It's lucky to have developed beautifully long before modern developers could get their hands on parts of it.
Oh crap, using my phone, I somehow just fat-fingered my previous comment into hiding while looking for an option to edit. Anyway, I wanted to add how tickled I am to learn a new word: spruiking. Afrikaans is such a fascinating source, and spruiking is a fun and useful word!
That's interesting about the etymology. You can hear the Afrikaans/Dutch in the sound now that I think of it. I didn't realise it was an Australian term until you mentioned it, although come to think of it, Substack didn't recognise it as a word, but as someone who uses Australian English on an American platform, I'm used to all my words being underlined in red, so I thought nothing of it :)
I adore Aussie English, and imo Substack should have an option for type of English text editor for each major national/regional English use. Although, I am laughing so hard right now at the irony of the word Substack being underlined in red squiggles! That's funny. Hmm...they didn't add that to their platform's dictionary? 🤣🤣
I completely resonate with your feelings about not wanting to return to Cambodia. There’s few things more painful than seeing the places that made you begin to change themselves.
I will do my best. My different sections, online already, or just coming up, are squeezing out each other, but every one of those will take the turn, hopefully very soon.
I just took a look at your page. Wow, Zsolt. What a life! I look forward to reading more about it.
I spent a short time working as a 'foreign expert' sub-editor at a major Chinese newspaper in Beijing in the early 2000s. All the expats would joke about who among us was a spy. It was always good for a laugh, but beneath it all, we weren't joking 😅
Alia,
This kind of jokes on the surface, but serious business inside are part of the espionage business. I will teach you a lot, but the equation will stay complex and exciting!
Alia, your revisiting Cambodia is moving. You integrate the obvious knowledge of a newspaper-reading intellectual with the direct experiences of a young visitor. I am just about to start with a new section of my Substack, entitled Bucketlist Revisited. You will be an example for me to follow. I am 80, lots of travel under my belt, and the revisiting will not grow the carbon footprint. But old photos and my retroactive reports may interest my audience. Keep on with the good writing. I enjoy it!
That's really very lovely of you to say, Zsolt. Thank you! I'm sure you have seen many amazing things that we would all enjoy reading about.
I have visited Sihanoukville in 2002 and I also never want to go back. I have beautiful memories of this place, the people, the beaches and it feels like I’ve been there just yesterday. And now I’m left with my memories…. mourning my old self and what they did to this place…
I'm glad you saw how lovely it was before it was pillaged, Marinke. It is so cruel, isn't it. It's not just a matter of change--places change--it's the greed, politics, corruption and crime that's driven this unnecessary development that leaves you feeling helpless about what's happened to the people of Sihanoukville.
That’s exactly it. That’s why it hurts so much. You could see this happening all over South-East Asia, also in Laos for instance. These places and people were magical and this horrible greed, darkness destroys all this.
You've just described why my wife will never go back to Bali, having spent many happy months there in the late 70s and having been briefly (very briefly) married to a Balinese man. I empathise entirely and would never encourage her to go.
Are there places I feel so nostalgic about, protective of my memories of? I'm not sure there are. Most of the places I've lived in or visited have been in Europe, and the pace of change has been slower there. I'm a bit dismayed at what they've done to the London skyline; that's about it.
Bali was beautiful. My parents spent time there in the 70s too and were in shock when they saw my photos from the 90s. They said they couldn't go back after that. And things have changed a lot more since!
You're right, Europe's character feels protected to a degree. It's lucky to have developed beautifully long before modern developers could get their hands on parts of it.
Oh crap, using my phone, I somehow just fat-fingered my previous comment into hiding while looking for an option to edit. Anyway, I wanted to add how tickled I am to learn a new word: spruiking. Afrikaans is such a fascinating source, and spruiking is a fun and useful word!
Oh, phones are always messing with us :)
That's interesting about the etymology. You can hear the Afrikaans/Dutch in the sound now that I think of it. I didn't realise it was an Australian term until you mentioned it, although come to think of it, Substack didn't recognise it as a word, but as someone who uses Australian English on an American platform, I'm used to all my words being underlined in red, so I thought nothing of it :)
I adore Aussie English, and imo Substack should have an option for type of English text editor for each major national/regional English use. Although, I am laughing so hard right now at the irony of the word Substack being underlined in red squiggles! That's funny. Hmm...they didn't add that to their platform's dictionary? 🤣🤣
I noticed that too :)
I can identify with these feelings of leaving my place memories alone!
I am destined to be a grumpy old person who pines for the good old days, haha.
But you’ll be a very fun grumpy old person who pines for the good old days.
I completely resonate with your feelings about not wanting to return to Cambodia. There’s few things more painful than seeing the places that made you begin to change themselves.
Yes, it's hard. I accept that change happens, but sometimes it's disturbingly cruel. Thank you for your lovely essay that in part inspired mine.