Cambodia Calling

Africa, a continent that is ever so stunning in the diversity of wildlife, I have always wanted to witness the beauty of Serengeti and the raw wilderness of the Masai Mara.

So I flew to Cambodia.

You see I had a chance to avail a free round trip in lieu of the air miles that I had accumulated over the past few years. The air miles were good enough to take me as far as any country in south east Asia. Africa will have to wait for another time.

I chose Cambodia for three reasons.

1. I wanted to see Angkor Wat
2. It has a visa on arrival facility
3. I was secretly hoping to run into Angelina Jolie and maybe persuade her to adopt me.

I landed in the capital of Cambodia which is Phnom Penh (pronounced "Pphhhh....Pphhhh...")

Here is a question for you all - "What is hot, sultry and makes you sweat all over ?". The answer is, of course, Bipasha Basu.

But truth be told, during this time of the year, Cambodia is hot and sultry too in a very non Bipasha way. And that is precisely why I chose this time of the year because when you are single and don't want to spend too much money, you always pick the off-season. This way you get the best deals. For example, you could visit Egypt during summer or visit Siberia during winter or Iraq pretty much anytime.

Here goes what happened there (25th to 30th Sept 07)

Day 1 and 2 - Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh could be just about any city in India, the dirt, the grime, the chaotic traffic including. Cambodians are supposed to drive on the right side of the road and they try their best. So I felt right at home.

I checked into a hotel called Tonle Sap Guesthouse which is situated in the heart of the city very near to the river front and close enough to most of the tourist attractions.



The first day I visited the National Museum which houses ancient works of art, sculptures of Buddha, Vishnu, Ganesha and other Hindu Gods. If you did not know already, Cambodia was a Hindu Kingdom till about 16th century after which the king converted to Buddhism and his subjects followed suit. But you can still see a lot of Hindu relics and practices in their culture. Next, I walked to the King’s Palace nearby. It’s a wonderful work of architecture, in the typical Khmer style with sloping roofs and sculpted art around the sides.

The next day, I took the 'tuk tuk' (it's a motorcycle rickshaw) to the Killing Fields . This place bears testimony to the brutality of the Khmer Rouge. The regime of Pol Pot for four years (1975 – 79) left around 2 million dead and you can still see the scars of the regime. I met a lot of people who have had their parents or their near ones killed during that time. The ‘killing fields’ houses a building where around 20000 human skulls and bones of the victims are on display showing the depravity that man can fall into in pursuit of strange idealism. During my return, I stopped by Tuol Sleung Prison which was used by the regime to imprison and torture innocent people accusing them of conspiracy against the movement.


Day 3, Day 4, Day 5 – Seim Reip



It was time to explore the spectacular Angkor temples. I flew to the city of Seim Reip (pronounced…”Seim Reip”) where the temples are located. On the first day there, I visited the Tonle Sap lake. This is a huge huge lake formed by the Tonle Sap river. Apparently, during the wet season it covers an area of more than 10000 sq kms. To give you an idea of the size, it means that we can fit in three pre-diet versions of Adnan Sami and still have space for two more, yeah I know, it is that huge. There is a floating village in the periphery of the lake. Vietnamese and Cambodian families inhabit this floating village and fishing is their main occupation. I took a boat ride that lasted about a couple of hours and it was fantastic.



The next day it was time to explore the temple complex. First stop was at Angkor Wat. The three towers of the temple representing the Hindu trinity seem to rise from the middle of the forest trying to reach for the sky. The majestic view of the temple is simply breath taking. The temple is a three storey structure, symbolizing hell, earth and heaven. The stairway to the third floor is really steep indicating that the climb to heaven is an arduous task.



I then went to Angkor Thom which is not as well preserved as the Wat but it oozes a lot more mystery and has a surreal feel about it. There are giant images of faces sculpted on the towers of this temple. They again represent the Hindu trinity, mostly Vishnu. The expression on the face evokes a feeling of tranquility and the smile suggests a sense of contentment that we miss so badly in our lives today.

I visited a few more temple complexes, the best being the one at Banteay Srei. This one has intricately carved designs that are a joy to behold. It would take at least three days to cover all the temple complexes in Angkor and I just had one more day left with more to see and so had to satisfy myself with just a day’s visit. But it was well worth every moment of it.

That night, I had my dinner at a local restaurant that stages the traditional Apsara dance. A group of gorgeously dressed young women came on stage, slowly moving their hands and bodies to the beautiful beat of the music in the background. As you watch this slow rhythmic performance, it is hard not to fall asleep…oops…I mean fall in love with the dance form. The whole performance took about an hour and it was a nice end to a great day.

The third day, I stepped into the Cambodian Cultural Village that showcases the various cultural setups of the different people living in Cambodia. When I went in, it was time for the ‘traditional Khmer wedding’ show. I was sitting there waiting for the show to begin when a couple of guys asked me to follow them to the dressing room. They told me that I had been selected to play the groom for that show……… WOW………An older lady dressed me up in traditional Khmer clothing. I was then handed a vessel of flowers to be held in both hands and I walked to the stage with music and drums beating and a bunch of people following me. As an aside, if you go there and you don’t get picked as the groom, don’t feel bad, it’s probably because you are too ugly. Did I mention, I got picked ??. To continue, the bride emerged from the other side, a lovely young woman and we both held the vessel of flowers and walked towards a bench on the stage where my future “parents-in-law” were seated. We prostrated before them and then were led to our chairs in the centre of the stage. After that, two people came on stage and there was a discussion in the local Khmer language which nobody translated but there were people giggling around me, I assume that it was some kind of pre marriage negotiations taking place or maybe they were just making fun of me “Hey look, another tourist we conned into paying 9 dollars to watch this…………moron”. Anyway, two Chinese tourists were picked to play my parents. They and my “in-laws” took turns in cutting my hair (of course just a mock cut) as a part of the ritual and the marriage was done.

Later, my “wife” started to dance slowly and I was asked to follow her. Me !!, dance !!!!, when it comes to dancing I am a log of wood with a face. I told them I can’t but they would not listen, apparently it is very important for a mock marriage you see. Anyway, I started moving my hands in all general directions. I suspect I must have looked like a guy having a nervous breakdown and trying to swat flies at the same time. There are at least 20 Chinese tourists out there who took pictures of the whole thing. Somewhere in China, I can hear people looking at these photos and laughing their guts out “Hey Tong, what’s wrong with this guy ?, my chicken can dance better than him”. If you are reading this Mr.Tong, you better be aware that inspite of my terrible dancing, I got picked as the groom and not you.

My flight back to Phnom Penh was still a couple of hours away and so I visited the war memorial. A word of advice, don’t ever visit the war memorial. It is just a bunch of rusting tanks and rocket launchers and a whole lot of used up artillery. They charge you 3 dollars for going through a dump yard.

Day 6 - Back home

Anyway, flew back to Phnom Penh that evening. The next morning at 10 was my flight back home. I overslept and when I got up it was 8.25 already. Then followed the fastest ever getting ready exercise and I was out of the room by 8.29 (don’t ask). I caught my flight with time to spare. Had a 7 hour layover at Bangkok (by the way, the airport has 32645 floor tiles, ha ha of course I am exaggerating…………… it is actually 31224) and finally landed in Bangalore at 9.30 in the night. Went to my office, picked my car and drove home.

All in all, a wonderful holiday…


PS: Special thanks to ‘P’ who dropped me to and picked me up from the Airport. It’s hard to find friends like her (my other friends were too clever for me to con them into it). And thanks to ‘A’ who let me borrow his SLR camera knowing fully well that it would be like handing over a crystal ball to a caveman.