Cambodia,  Travel to learn more

Backstreet Academy : Fantastic Cultural Experience!

July 17, 2018 /

Backstreet Academy: Being a tourist, I would say this is our opportunity to meet the local talented artists and learn their art directly from the artist.
You can check out their main website here:
Backstreet Academy
Backstreet Academy is not just a regular travel agency. Backstreet Academy is a social enterprise. They have part-time facilitator/translator who help the hosts and are compensated for it. They contact the talented local artists and act as a medium between the artists and the tourists who would like to meet them .
Backstreet academy provides a platform where the tourists can choose a particular art that they would like to know more about. There is a fixed fee per session.
We felt it’s an amazing idea where these local talented artists are given a platform to teach their art to the visiting tourists from around the world. Tourists can randomly choose an art of their choice and pay for one session where we get to learn the technique of the art directly from the main artist .You can bring back the piece of work you work on as a souvenir while the money you pay for the session will be a source of income for these talented local artists.
We truly appreciate the efforts taken by Volunteers of BackStreet Academy in coming up with such an amazing, innovative and noble idea.
We feel this is a wonderful opportunity for every traveller to get to know local people and their talented artists . Not just meet them you also get to spend an afternoon with the artists and try your hand at the skill they master.
We checked online and found that there are so many  local Cambodians with different skills enrolled in the Backstreet Academy. All we had to do was choose the art that we wanted to try out.
Due to shortage of time we could choose only one session hence we both decided to try out iron pencil sketching. They have so many local artists who have amazing skills .We definitely recommend all the travellers to try out classes at Backstreet Academy. This whole session was truly a memorable and unique experience.
Meet Mr Bun Hak Rouem- His skill is Iron Pencil Sketching.

He practically invented this whole art. A very friendly person. As we entered he welcomed us with a smile and directed us, each to a table. This was our first time attending such an event as well. We usually travel ,meet people along the way , enjoy our trip and get back home. This time there was a difference coz of Backstreet Academy . We had this opportunity to meet Mr Bun Hak.
Can you see the sketching tool in his hands. It isn’t a pen or a sketch pencil of any sort. There is a reason why I said “he practically invented the whole art”. I’ll explain his story in brief below and you’ll know why I said that.
This is Mr Bun Hak’s inspiring story:
Amazed by his talent and the art, we asked him what his story was and how did he come up with this brilliant idea of iron pencil sketching.
He replied short sentences in English and for longer sentences he preferred his native tongue Khmer( pronounced as Kuh Mai).A volunteer from the Backstreet Academy translated the Khmer part to us in English.
One day while he was burning palm leaves , he was intrigued by the different patterns that the flames made on the palm leaves. He then made his own tools using the engine parts of  a bike. That’s the tool you see in his hands. He burnt coal and dipped the long iron rod type tools into it. Once it was red hot he tried to draw straight lines on the palm leaves by controlling how much it burnt the leaves. This gave rise to a unique form of art- iron pencil sketching ,done using hot iron pencils.
He said he has been sketching this way since 2007 . Wow that’s almost 11 yrs of practice. When asked he said the first picture he tried to sketch was Angkor Wat Temple, but he perfected sketching Angkor Wat with time.

This is the picture I worked on with him.
This was what my husband worked on with him.

Well, we are not experts haha if you zoom the picture you can see the burn marks of the iron pencil that we made. Mr Bun Hak, definitely helped us a lot too .
At first , just the idea of sketching this whole picture was quite intimidating since we didn’t even know how to hold the iron pencil let alone sketch the whole thing. This definitely was our first time. This 3-4 hrs session with Mr Bun Hak definitely was worth our time and money.
It’s a treat to watch Mr Bun hak work on the palm leaves.

This is Mr Ban Hak sketching on the palm leaves using hot iron pencils.

Oh btw you might be wondering where exactly is the palm leaf. He sticks the palm leaves onto a card board and then starts his work. Using the hot iron sketching tool that he created he artistically sketches the whole picture with the help of straight and curved burnt lines.
This is a unique opportunity to not just get to know the local artist but also to create your own personal souvenir that you can take back home from Cambodia.
Here are few photos that we took to capture the beautiful experience we had with Backstreet Academy.

Well, the picture Mr Bun Hak is holding is actually our photo that he sketched using his hot iron pencil.. this was a birthday surprise that Unni had planned for me.
My little friend whom I met at Cambodia.
Thanks to her ,coz she is the one who translated most of the Khmer part of Mr Bun Hak’s replies to us ( Volunteer from Backstreet Academy).

Every tourist is assigned a Backstreet Academy Volunteer to help communicate with the local artists. She was a great help. She was the one who translated the Khmer part of Mr Bun Hak’s replies to us.
We thank Backstreet Academy for making our trip to Cambodia memorable as this session is something that we both will cherish throughout our life. We definitely recommend other fellow travellers to try out sessions at Backstreet Academy when they plan a travel. They are currently active in Nepal, Cambodia and Laos. Hope to see them spread across the world .
By: Aswathi Ashok.

@coupletraveltales.com
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