Silenced by Hun Sen’s regime, famed Cambodian poet could have been a national treasure. Instead he works a noodle cart 14 hours a day
- Poet and former monk Chin Meas ekes out a living on his noodle cart in Siem Reap, but he still finds ways to express himself – when he has the energy
Chin Meas cracks a duck egg against the front corner of an empty, half-built hotel, 6km (4 miles) south of Angkor Wat, Cambodia’s most iconic attraction, which draws millions of visitors each year.
He stands at his makeshift kitchen one Saturday evening in June, as tuk-tuks and motorbikes fly by his food cart, stray dogs trot past and neon lights blink across the road. Fumes of chilli oil, cheap beer and urine scent the evening breeze.
Like any other Siem Reap noodle seller, Meas hustles for hungry tourists well past midnight, but few of his customers know that he is a renowned poet.
His verses, often critiques of inequity, corruption and environmental degradation, have been published in Cambodian anthologies and translated for regional literary magazines.
He also spent more than a decade as a monk and trained a generation of young poets. His former students and fellow writers believe he should hold a university position. Instead, the 43-year-old poet’s life is bound to the US$2.50 he earns for each steaming plate.
Meas and his wife, Kan Lida, moved to Siem Reap in 2015 hoping to earn a living on the periphery of the tourism industry until the pandemic devastated the city’s economy.
