Life after Pol Pots: How Cambodia has picked itself up after the Khmer Rouge tyranny

From exploring the temples of the Angkor Complex to sampling some wonderful food, Jayadev Calamur says a visit to Cambodia should be on everyone’s travel list

The first thing I noticed about Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh on landing is how empty the airport is. Unlike neighbour Thailand, where you are stuck in a kilometre-long line behind hundreds of individuals, most of whom are either there for the shopping or the infamous red light district, Cambodia’s immigration line at the maximum will have two people standing in front of you. The officer – someone in a uniform that looks straight out of a fashion catalogue for military – looks at your papers, tears one e-Visa and hands you back your passport without saying a word.

And that’s where the silence ends.

For an airport that gave us the impression that Cambodia is a slow country, the city showed us the complete opposite. As soon as you step out of the airport, you’re in a mad rush of people asking you whether you want a tuk-tuk – usually an e-rickshaw – or a taxi. Our man charged us $10 when we showed him the address located nearly 20-25 km away from the airport.

The drive from the airport through the busy streets of Phnom Penh gave me a general idea of what Cambodia is like. The capital city’s inhabitants mostly use two-wheelers, aren’t afraid to cut past you or overtake from the right (in Cambodia, it’s a left-hand drive), or even drive on the wrong side of the road. Four-wheelers, though fewer in number, try and maintain lane discipline, but usually fail thanks to the two-wheelers and cycles rushing past the traffic.  

An evening in Phnom Penh

On our first evening, we decided to walk along the promenade besides the Mekong. Across the road, there are restaurants serving French or Khmer food, although you may be lucky to spot an Indian restaurant in the midst of the chaos. Most of these restaurants are open-air, with patrons sitting and either reading a book or checking their laptop (most restaurants have free WiFi), while enjoying a cold Angkor beer that costs anything between $1 and $ 2, depending on the restaurant. A good meal is under $20, and we had several of those, including one that had fake non-veg i.e. soya that was made to taste like meat.

The promenade is another tale. There are people running along; sometimes you see them as early as 5 am because 5.40 am is sunrise, but the evenings also have a bunch of people; some are seen using open gym, while a group of people are also seen playing a milder version of sepak takraw, a popular Southeast Asian sport that is like volleyball with the only difference being the players use their lower bodies.

Shopping

A walk through any of the markets in either Phnom Penh or Siem Reap reveal the same thing: lines of skirts, tops with elephants, owls and the Angkor Wat temple on them, silver jewellery, trinkets, and literature – both in English and Khmer – on the mass genocide orchestrated by Pol Pots and supported by the United States.

While the markets sell the same things, they are unique in their own way. Both Phnom Penh and Siem Reap (pronounced Sem Ri-aap) have night markets that open post 7 pm and go on till late night. The Central Markets in Phnom Penh is worth the visit mainly because of its art deco building that has some lovely patterns formed due to light entering through the holes on the roof just as the sun is about to go down.

Life after Pol Pot

Today, there are still hundreds and thousands of active landmines buried across the Cambodian countryside that occasionally kill and injure men, women and children. The Cambodians, too, have developed a sense of humour about this tragedy, and have shown Belgian comic book character Tintin as a victim of a landmine blast. ‘Tintin in Cambodia’ of course is fan art, as Herge had never sent his boy reporter to Thailand, Vietnam or Cambodia.

Yet, despite the literature, Cambodians are reluctant to talk about what happened. “It was a very bad thing and bad things happened,” says our guide, who goes by the name T, while showing us around the Angkor complex.

Wat an experience

Apart from Angkor Wat, which is the highlight of the tour – primarily for its iconic sunrise picture, Angkor Thom, Bayon (or the temple of faces), and Banteay Srei are some of the temples that one must visit.

Each of the stones in these temples has a story to tell. Built by a number of Cambodian kings – the most by King Jayavarman – the temples are an eclectic mixture of Hindu and Buddhist carvings, with faces of Lords Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesh, happily sharing space with Lord Buddha.

Defined by its people

They say the people define a nation. Sure, Cambodia has proud history and heritage that we will all visit, but it’s the small incidents that stand out. Take the instance where the hotel owner on realizing two members of our family were pure vegetarians, said that he would speak to his wife to cook up something that did not have eggs or fish; or our tuk-tuk driver offering to share a freshly caught fish for lunch.

The rich, like in all nations call the shots. But the poor in Cambodia aren’t one to back down. They’ve witnessed a civil war; seen their homes and families getting torn apart, and now they’re on a slow road back to recovery. And for them, time isn’t a factor. Their faith is.