Penguin Books Blog

21st APRIL
50 Days to launch
 
The bugger about growing older is that it’s an invisible act of decay. Like watching a rose bloom, one minute it’s a bulging bud and the next it’s as vast as a cauliflower, falling to pieces, and soiling its vase water. Yesterday, against all odds, I turned 34 years old, which no doubt some of you will think sounds old, and others will deem it mere spring chickendom. The thing is, I felt exactly the same on the morning of my birthday as I’d felt the previous night when I was still a youthful and vigorous 33 year old – apart from the blinding hangover that is. Now 34, I considered my somewhat haggered and unshaven face in the bathroom mirror and tried to analyse my visage dispassionately. My Dorian Gray moment was shattered by a sly mosquito who emerged out of a small potted bathroom fern  with intent to give me the Gecko treatment. In Cambodia the nocturnal female mosquitos spread malaria, and by day, a different species of female mozzie spreads Dengue fever. There is no mention of the rare Dawn and Dusk mosquito in my guidebook, although local wisdom has it that they’re devout pacifists that only spread goodwill.
 
I lunged forward and thumped my palm into the wall, but the cunning Mrs Dengue evaded my swing and sniggered loudly as my hand crashed into the wall. I am pleased to report that after a swift and bloody battle I triumphed over the death fever carrier and thumped her into the basin in a splatter of blood. But it was my blood on the basin, and my ankle now had a nasty pink welt and itched like hell. Happy Birthday Johnno – you may be 34 but you still have a way with the ladies…
 
Jules and I took to the streets of Phnom Penh for a leisurely lunch – well actually it was a debaucherously late breakfast and outside the airconditioned hotel the heat was oppresive and the noise of motorbikes and the chaos of the Asian street was everywhere. We chose a french coffee shop on the corner and settled in for a languid feast and some freshly brewed Khymer coffee. My eyes, as always, scanned the street and then fell upon the  coffee shop entrance where a customer waited patiently to be served. He was over three metres tall and weighed in at a portly three and a half tons.
 
Jules said calmly, “There’s an elephant on the veranda”. And there he stood in all his glory staring right at us like he was expecting something. My God, I thought, what does one order an elephant in a coffee shop. Bottomless Coffee? A crowd of onlookers gathered, a few cameras snapped away whilst the rest of us gaped at the sight of an elephant in a coffee shop in the middle of a bustling city.
 
A chair was brought out and then a vast tray of freshly chopped fruit and twenty or so baguettes soon followed. The elephant waited patiently to be served and then began guzzling his food piece by piece. He never lunged at his grub and waited for somebody to hand him another slice before chewing methodically and swallowing with relish. There was no circus, no disrespect, the waiters fed him like they were feeding a wise old man, in the knowledge that they were in the presence of a great ephemeral beast. Once the food was gone, the elephant’s minder thumped his stick into the ground and uttered a terse instruction. The elephant seemed to smile at us as if grateful for his morsel and then slowly padded back into the street where he merged seamlessly with the traffic and continued his languid journey home.
 
We returned to our table and finished our breakfast. Then we ambled out onto the pavement where animated young Cambodian boys chased each other with unrestrained glee and a man who’s legs had been blown off by Pol Pot’s landmines raised his hands desperately towards me.
 
“Tuk Tuk?” Shouted a hawker and motioned towards his motorized chariot. “You go Killing Fields?”
 
We walked on. It now felt inspiring to be older, to understand more with the aid of less. Ten years ago I could have walked this same walk and witnessed the identical events, then I would have looked, but I wouldn’t have seen.
 
J

Related posts:

1. John van de Ruit – Journal Entry- April 7th
2. John van de Ruit – Journal Entry- April 16th
3. John van de Ruit – Journal Entry – April 1
4. John van de Ruit- Journal Entry May 1st
5. John van de Ruit- Journal Entry May 13th

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