The things, the places, the smells, the tastes, the people, the emotions.
I visited Cambodia for the first time in the spring of 2019 in what you’d probably call a quick and dirty excursion. I had already planned to fly to Hong Kong for a fortnight and desperately wanted to take advantage of the city’s proximity to South East Asia. I picked Cambodia practically randomly.
The preparation I made with my plus one before we arrived was minimal. It mostly involved the decision to split our time between Siem Reap and Phnom Penh. That was it. In retrospect, we could have stayed so much longer and experienced so much more. Maybe next time.
My most memorable moments follow in chronological order.
One.
The first thing we did when we arrived in Siem Reap that evening was to head out for food. We ended up at a rather high-end restaurant with Cambodian cuisine. “High-end” is not how I’d describe us, though, so I believe it was that Google search prior to our outing to blame. We enjoyed delicious food at western prices, and there’s one thing I vividly recollect: the fresh coconut water. You literally stumble upon piles of green coconuts wherever you find yourself in Cambodia, so simply ditch bottled water for the duration of your stay.
Two and three.
The Pub Street in Siem Reap: to like or not to like? God knows. I haven’t made up my mind either. It’s closer to a theme park than anything else, but it does have its vibe. You can’t miss it and in the end maybe you shouldn’t. We did find our little go-to restaurant on a quiet side street. This is where we consumed heavy amounts of fresh fruit juice, bluntly snubbing alcohol and the main street where it was served. The pineapple, the watermelon, the passion fruit, the jackfruit, the dragon fruit, and above all the mango have a special place in my heart after Cambodia. The durian didn’t make the cut.
Four.
That man on the side of the road who was pressing sugarcane using that loud machine was something of a spectacle. We didn’t resist and asked for some. It took him some time to squeeze all the juice out of those canes, also out of the bugs caught in the apparatus. Of course he served it with plenty of ice. Many things to contemplate here, but we didn’t. It was delish.
Five.
Seeing how children – especially children – live in these regions of the world can take you from optimism to pessimism and back in the blink of an eye. Same here. We came across a school right next to a temple and decided to mingle. So many cheerful pupils, girls and boys, way too comfortable with a couple of tourists like us, eager to try their English. Look at this one. Girl power, bitch.
Six.
I saw Angkor Wat both vertically and horizontally. That is, because I fainted towards the end of our visit. We decided we were too good – in so many ways – to hire a tour guide and a tuk-tuk; and we didn’t. We walked the entire territory, getting kind of lost and discovering things ourselves. The whole experience was something to remember. I don’t even have words to describe the site itself, its beauty, its history, the monkeys. But the heat and humidity were as real as anything, and they simply got me. My pale, weak body was carried back to our lodging on a tuk-tuk. We appreciated the irony.
Seven.
On our last day in Siem Reap, we rented bikes and followed random roads outside the town. We saw tiny rural villages, huts hidden in vegetation, water buffaloes, mango trees, more kids playing in the dirt, more ancient ruins covered in branches, also more of that juice-looking fuel in whisky bottles sold by random Cambodians. It was just great. We returned the bikes to our small hotel late that afternoon. We now had to catch the night bus to Phnom Penh, totally covered in dust, filth, and sweat since we had already checked out early that morning. Or not. The shy young man who was still waiting at the entrance to give us back our backpacks and say goodbye allowed us to rest and shower in an empty hotel room, no questions asked. It’s the simple things, like kindness.
Eight.
Markets are a thing in this part of the world – I’m sure even the last of us got to know this by now. Part of them is magical, another part is controversial. There was that one market next to our accommodation in Phnom Penh that had a distinct medley of odours and scents: warm garbage and funky meat paired with fresh veggies and flower shampoo – yes, there was a coiffeuse in the middle of it all washing people’s hair.
Nine.
While passing by a big, shady square in the capital, we lifted our eyes to the sky to treasure the moment. My goodness, that was one whole colony (or two) of bats just hanging there. It then occurs to you that putting them in food comes naturally to locals.
Ten.
The feeling of numbness, and sadness, and confusion I felt after we visited the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh is something I will never forget. And we didn’t even take that so far as to visit other known memorials. I don’t know if it was the “mere” atrocities that took place there, inherently inhumane. Or the surrealism of part of the story around Pol Pot, his comrades, his narrative, how it all silently ceased at some point. Or the scary proximity to the events in terms of time. Or just the “why” – why did this all happen in the first place? Why do all such things happen?
We exited the museum, and life right outside its gates instantly got back to 2019 and to a peaceful, fairly booming Cambodia. Fragrant food, interesting history, busy streets, hopeful people.
Images are my own.
I walk fast. 