Cambodia - Introduction - Part 1

Kingdom of Wonders!

Since 2018 I have been to Cambodia four times, most recently last October, and my love of this amazing country grows with each visit.

I first became aware of Cambodia as a child, when the Vietnam War played out nightly at our dinner table on the CBS Evening News. Back in those days long before the internet or even cable for that matter, TV was our addiction, all three channels of it! Everyone watched the same thing at the same time and the Vietnam War played a central role. During this period we became aware of the secret bombing of Cambodia by President Nixon and Henry Kissinger and the accidental bombing of Neak Leung as portrayed in the Academy Award winning 1984 movie, The Killing Fields. From 1965 to 1973, the United States dropped at least 2,756,941 tons of ordnance over Cambodia, a country the size of Missouri. That's more than the Allies dropped during World War II, according to Yale University historian Ben Kiernan. All of this turmoil eventually led to a Civil War and the appearance of the maniacal Khmer Rouge, perpetrators of the horrific Cambodian genocide. Almost 30% of the entire population at the time, or roughly three million Cambodians, were murdered by Pol Pot’s barbaric government.

Later on, while living in Japan in the 1990’s, I became aware of the amazing temples in the Siem Reap region, including Angkor Wat, when they were featured in a couple of documentaries on UN efforts to end the civil war. I developed a strange sense of wanderlust, an undefinable twinge of nostalgia for somewhere I had never even been to, as if my soul recognized a home it hadn’t yet visited. Instant bucket list item.

Cambodia was, with the UN’s assistance, slowly emerging from its long nightmare, however, magnificent Angkor Wat, the single largest religious structure in the world, was still not considered safe enough for tourists to visit due to unexploded landmines and residual violence. Only a few years later in the late 90’s, tourism started to surge again and it has grown exponentially every year since, except for the downturn during COVID. Like all the other formerly war-torn countries I have visited, from Japan to Vietnam, Germany to Bosnia, time heals many wounds. Surrounded by the optimism, dynamism and youth of today’s Cambodia, now 17 million strong, 95% of whom have no living memory of the genocide, you would be hard-pressed to believe that the terrible events of the 1970’s actually happened. In the aftermath of some of the worst events in history, human beings have an amazing resiliency in my experience.

The first time I visited Cambodia was in February 2018, while on a break from teaching in China. In some ways, Cambodia can be considered a vassal state of CCP China. The development-ravaged city of Sihanoukville caters almost exclusively to Chinese tourists, the expressway linking it with Phnom Penh was built by China and it has also financed 70% of all road and bridge construction in the country (which badly needs it, based on a recent kidney-displacing bus ride from Kampot to Sihanoukville). Therefore it was no surprise to me that the 6 hour flight from Beijing only cost $100, heavily subsidized, no doubt.

Upon arrival in Phnom Penh, I shared a cab to my hotel with a couple of fellow Canadians from Vancouver I had met on the flight down from China. They had been raving about Cambodia and this was their third visit so needless to say, I was giddy with excitement when we stepped out of the airport into the humid tropical night air. Welcome to low cost Cambodia, where immaculate 4 star hotels can sometimes be had for $25 a night and you can get a tasty meal complete with beer for $5 - and that is in the tourist areas! The cab ride to downtown cost us $10. I am quoting dollars here because Cambodia uses USD! You pay in USD and will get change in the local currency, similar to Ecuador, Zimbabwe and a few other countries I have visited. Even the ATM’s only dispense USD. So much for my comment about Cambodia sort of being a Chinese vassal - well, that’s why I said, sort of. Don’t even get me started about the head of the government being a former Khmer Rogue member…..but I digress.

After arriving at my hotel the first thing that struck me was how polite the staff were. I could already see the similarities in culture between neighbouring Vietnam and Thailand, where a premium is likewise placed upon manners.

My first order of business after a restful sleep was to visit the nearby Royal Palace and this reminded me so much of the palaces in Thailand. However, don’t say anything positive about Thailand in Cambodia as there is a historical animosity due to the wars and invasions of the past. In fact, Cambodians often claim Thai culture as their own. That’s all I will say on that topic! As you can see, it is a gorgeous piece of construction.

From that place of intricate beauty, I headed to a place of ugliness, an impossible to explain contradiction for the very well-mannered and proud inheritors of a great ancient civilization, the Genocide Museum. Located in a compound in the middle of the city that has been left the way it was back in 1975 when it was a torture centre for the Khmer Rogue, it is a required visit precisely because of its horrific nature. The security regulations from the time reveal all you need to know.

Next up was a short 45 minute flight to Siem Reap, the real purpose of this first visit. Of course you can take a 6 hour bus ride (which I did last year - worthy of a separate post) but I had limited time so I took a plane, which cost as much as my 6 hour flight down from Beijing! The bus only costs $10.

I loved Siem Reap immediately. Much like Bagan in Myanmar, there is this mystical, spiritually wonderful vibe in the air that just can’t be explained in words. Trust me, you’ll feel it….and when you gaze on the temples like Angkor Wat for the first time, you’ll be blown away. After checking into my AirBnb I headed to nearby Pub Street for some dinner. It was an unexpectedly lively scene and I ended up having a blast! Here I met a Turkish-American straight out of Scarface (from Miami of course) and his tuk tuk driver (in the pic below). They had just returned from a day touring the temples and were reveling in the experience. Tony Montana (well, a dead ringer) told me I should hire his driver for $20 for the day and he would take me to all the highlights while avoiding the busloads of Chinese on group tours. Well worth it! Tony was smoking a Cuban cigar and ended up giving me a half dozen which I distributed the following day to a variety of locals (because I can only handle half of one of those at best before asphyxiation kicks in) including the policeman below (not a bribe, honestly!) who said it was his first ever cigar.

After dinner and drinks we wandered over to the night market, famous or infamous depending upon your point of view. You can buy counterfeit Rolex watches or high quality copies of Rolex watches (wait, aren’t those things the same?) along with all sorts of brand name clothing and shoes - but make sure you check them carefully - I bought a pair of Skechers and later realized that the right shoe and the left shoe weren’t actually a matching pair! At least they were the same size - so I’ll consider that a win! At some point I got lost in the maze of the market and never did reunite with Scarface - I was quite concerned he might take that personally but I’m still alive to write the tale. In any event, this post is at its limit - so to be continued in a few days where I will cover the amazing temples of Siem Reap……stay tuned - cue Tomb Raider (which was filmed here)…..