The smiles of Cambodia

Cambodia was always on my list. I had wanted to go the capital Phnom Penh and to the temples of Siem Reap. But then I also wanted to go down the Mekong River and catch that fast train in Laos and have a baguette in Luang Prabang. Of all those things, the only one I had time for was to visit Siem Reap. I didn’t want to be the rush around traveler. I heard the apocryphal story of the coach tour and “It’s Paris, it must be Thursday.” I wanted to be someone who watched the tours go by as I sat on a wall and sipped a fizzy drink. But hitting many countries in just a few weeks means that you are always catching up with your looming return flights. I booked flights and then changed the dates twice because I had seen enough and wanted to move on, or the weather was not conducive to comfort or because there was a promise of a more interesting destination. Having survived the chaos of Hanoi and the downpours of Hoi An; Siem Reap, although it is in the North of Cambodia, promised gentler, warmer weather. And I had been told that it would be criminal to visit South East Asia and not visit the temples of Angkor Wat. So it was, that the small city that means “ the victory over the Siam people”, became my sole Cambodian encounter. Cambodia is still on my list. Along with Laos and the Mekong and the baguette. But Cambodia calls in the sweetest of ways. had been shut down for three years. There were no visitors. There was no work. There was no money. They opened up about 3 months ago and everyone was hopeful that life was going to get better. These people were dignified and gentle and kind. They said We are so Happy you are here, and please tell your friends to come. The driver had gone back to work with his father in the rice fields. Our guide had survived on the money his wife had made serving breakfasts from her cart. The hotel manager had moved to Phnom Penh to be with her husband’s family and have her first baby. The people who run the country, the primeminister, who was once a general in the Khmer Rouge, has been in power for 40 years. His favorites, be it family or cronies…they were just fine... But the people, their people. They were floundering. Their past sits right on top of their present. The Khmer Rouge only died with Pol Pot in 1997. Everyone has a brother or a grandfather or a mother who suffered or died. Our guide lost a younger brother and a grandfather to starvation. His family lost their farm. He is a smiling man. He loves sweet things and carries a catapult in his backpack. He says it is for monkeys. His mother used to sell pickles in the Market. When I suggested that he should watch English TV shows to improve his English, he said he doesn’t have a television . It is too expensive. Apart from being “ evacuated” with his family he has never been further afield than Siem Reap. There were the wars with the Siam people. There was a monarchy who were corrupt and there was the coup of the army led by Lol Non. And from that emerged the Khmer Rouge. Who tried to create an Agrarian culture and forced the evacuation of the population from towns and cities to the countryside and killed everyone who they deemed to be intellectual. That was the civil war. Then the Vietnamese came in and attacked the Khmer Rouge. That was the invasion. Everyone wants a bit of Cambodia. it would suit all their neighbors to bite a bit off. I met a young man who had his leg blown off by a land mine. I met a woman from Georgia whose husband had come to help with the mine clearance. I met a man who had cleared 50,000 mines on his own having been forced to fight for the Khmer Rouge and the Vietnamese and he didn’t want to talk about the past anymore. “ it is too sad.” He says. Cambodia is still on my list not because just because of the temples. Those that are magnificent and restored, or the ones that are crumbling or those where the trees have grown their way into the walls and their roots cascade like Rapunzel’s hair. It is still on my list because of those extraordinary beautiful people and I want to see more of them. On the ride in from the airport our driver told us the King “ liked dancing.” What kind of dancing? I asked. “ Just dancing” he said. “ we think he might be gay.” and he laughed all the way to the hotel.