Utterly me

I'm an ordinary Cambodian girl, but I can be anything. I read books, I write novels, I paint pictures, I compose poems, I take photographs, I make comics, I'm a part-time vegetarian . So this place is all about me. I hope you enjoy it (",)

Sovathary Bon is a 23-year-old student who lives in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. In her Utterly me blog, she writes about her friends, her daily doings, and presents her excellent comics.

She shows us her room – or her studio as she playfully calls it. She and her friends love to take photos and the blog fills with sunny pictures of girls smiling at cafes and parks. In August a group of young bloggers got to visit a USNS Mercy ship, which resulted in a lot of photos from there.

This is a warm and friendly blog community with lots of comments to blog posts from the bloggers’ friends, and with some very skilful use of new technology. (Also notice the Asian smileys - (“,) -  they are different from those that us Finns are used to using.)

I'm the kind of person who believes a person should have only one best friend, but I realize it does me a lot of good to have so many friends as I do now. My friends are either normal, ridiculous, or even semi-crazy like I am, and I feel lucky that I have known them all. 

Friendships are important for Sovathary.  So is creativity. She draws her own comic strip Ginger The Kindergartener, which is inspired by her mother’s childhood. She also has (self) published a fantasy novel The Half Blood about a gifted teenage girl who finds out that she is a hybrid between human and vampire!

Sovathary’s life seems happy and pretty carefree. Phnom Penh looks like any modern city, only more beautiful with the Royal Palace and the pagodas.

When I read blogs like this one, I feel I can’t wait for the next generation to take over. When these educated and energetic  young people such as Sovathary will take the over in a country like Cambodia, I’m sure things will start changing.

When I started to write Southern Blogosphere, my idea was to write about ordinary people’s lives and thoughts. However, I have noticed that instead of presenting people – bloggers – I have more than once presented a problem or a topic that has interested or annoyed me at the time. But I promise I will not forget my original idea – because people and their everyday life are so fascinating.   

Ulla