I'm sitting on a wall in front of a Cambodian graveyard. The graves are mounds covered sparingly with coloured paper streamers. A little girl comes and sits next to me, which makes me nervous as children in close proximity usually results in a request for money.
It's nearly sunset, the clouds are closing in. The little girl chats to me about where she lives. She sings songs to me and stops every ten minutes to say 'you're really beautiful...' I ask her if she likes animals.
"Yes. I like animals.'
"Do you like the bats?"
She nods her head and we both look towards the jagged gash in the mountainside. We can hear thousands of them chirping inside waiting to burst out into the sky.
I keep thinking that it will be like an enormous cannon ball, and the bats will explode into the sky as one evil-looking shape- but in fact they emerge slowly- just a few at first and then a steady stream emerges, getting thicker and thicker as though a dam has been released.
My driver shuffles up and tells me there's another place we can see the bats from. I say my goodbyes to my little friend (who presents me with an origami pigeon as a gift) and then zoom off to a nearby field.
From here it's more dramatic- I can see the black miasma snaking into the distance over the rice paddy - off to do its evil bidding.
I stand there for a long time until the driver starts looking awkwardly at the road as the night creeps slowly in.
It's nearly sunset, the clouds are closing in. The little girl chats to me about where she lives. She sings songs to me and stops every ten minutes to say 'you're really beautiful...' I ask her if she likes animals.
"Yes. I like animals.'
"Do you like the bats?"
She nods her head and we both look towards the jagged gash in the mountainside. We can hear thousands of them chirping inside waiting to burst out into the sky.
I keep thinking that it will be like an enormous cannon ball, and the bats will explode into the sky as one evil-looking shape- but in fact they emerge slowly- just a few at first and then a steady stream emerges, getting thicker and thicker as though a dam has been released.
My driver shuffles up and tells me there's another place we can see the bats from. I say my goodbyes to my little friend (who presents me with an origami pigeon as a gift) and then zoom off to a nearby field.
From here it's more dramatic- I can see the black miasma snaking into the distance over the rice paddy - off to do its evil bidding.
I stand there for a long time until the driver starts looking awkwardly at the road as the night creeps slowly in.
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