"I felt beautiful when I was in Cambodia. I was sweaty, and my hair was matted and all over the place. I was happy and hot and accomplishing a lot and running around, and I could feel my heart beating, and I felt beautiful."
- Angelina Jolie, when shooting Tomb Raider in Cambodia
It's been 2 weeks since I came back from Cambodia.. I've been meaning to write a piece on my travels but well, kept postponing it. Now the impressions I have are not so fresh and it seems that there are a lot less things to write about.. but still, the country merits some observations..
First things first, I had a great time in Siem Reap! (the only place I visited, due to time constraints). Before landing, I had an image that the airport was going to be.. you know, small, cheap looking, with the usual concrete-plaster-tile ensemble.. Couldn't be more surprised because the whole building shows great use of materials.. Raw concrete with smooth finishing (class!), combined with wood, sculptures, heck they even have glass-rimmed courtyards with beautiful gardens inside! Oh well, I took it as a sign of greater things to come, and dutifully marched to the line of immigration officers. After seeing my nationality in the passport, the officer serving me wanted to learn some words in Indonesian haha.. n I learnt my first Khmer word, "Soksabay" which means "How do you do?" =D
The city itself was pretty small, and well, honestly the buildings are simple and nondescript. Funny atmosphere of a city that you know is fast developing and building, but also retains a kind of village feel.. Reminds me a lot of smaller cities in Indonesia..except for one thing.. Siem Reap's clean!! Not-much-litter-lying-around clean.. which made me think, "What's wrong with Indonesia that we cannot do such a thing?" Hufh, anyway, it was also bloody hot and dusty, even with the large amount of greenery around.
On the streets, the most popular mode of transportation is tuk-tuk.. which is totally cool if you can appreciate the slower things in Life haha.. Seriously, though, the feeling of breeze in your hair (even if it's 40 degrees Celcius breeze..) makes it a nice experience. Motorbikes abound too, and what's so amazing is that all of them are seemingly for hire.. As soon as you make eye contact with a guy on a motorbike, he'll ask, "Motorbike, lady?" Once, I was right smack in the middle of the road trying to cross when a motorbike passed in front of me, and the moment I looked at the rider, he asked, "Motorbike, lady?" totally taking his eyes off the road and looking back at me when he was moving forward! That's what we call determination.. Anyway, it somewhat awes me that the pace of vehicles are so slow there, since the road is actually good and wide enough (unlike Hanoi with it's crawling traffic jams..). What sets the 'pace' of a place, I wonder? Coming from a place like Singapore, I think I'm starting to assume that everyone will surely go faster, faster, faster if they can, and it calms me down that there are still places people take it slow.
Talking about slowness.. DO NOT wait until you are very hungry to go into a restaurant in Siem Reap, because by the time they serve you the food, you'd have been almost willing to eat the table.. Ah, the downside of the slow pace I loved.. Great food though, mostly different kinds of curry the call "amok" (Somehow because of the expression 'run amok', I kept having an image of someone running around after eating that curry...)
The buildings, the pace of life, the food, and then.. there's the Cambodians. I have a very good impression of Cambodians, though yeah, my friends and I had several glitches like the boatman trying to extract a few more dollars above the agreed price, etc. I guess I'm comparing them to other SEA people - Thais, Vietnamese, Malaysians, Filipinos, fantastic fellow Indonesians - and I find Cambodians... sincere..
Hmm... yeah I think the word sincere describes my impression well.. When I was shopping around in the Old Market, the vendors asked me to look at their wares, but none were forceful.. The moment I smiled they'll just smile back and not try to 'detain' me, and funnily enough they seem to use this line a lot when saying good bye: "Good luck to you, lady/sir.." Anyway, I just feel that everyone is around doing their business but also accepting me as a tourist in their midst, and I don't feel like an intruder but I don't feel like a 'walking wallet' either.. Wonder if it's because there are still relatively few tourists in the area, but I sure hope things won't change with more and more people coming.. (which will surely happen, seeing how charming Cambodia is)
An incident I still remember... at one point, I was exploring a temple early in the morning, and a Cambodian lady selling scarfs approached me and said good morning.. Wanting to be nice and thinking I had lots of time anyway, I chatted with her a bit (Indonesians are still somewhat exotic to them hahaha..), but the whole time we were chatting I was waiting for her to start selling her stuff.. After about 5 minutes, she was like, "OK lady, good luck to you, have a good day!" smiled and started walking away just like that! I was dumbfounded hahahaha.. Half of me was glad because it seems she was curious about me without seeing me as a tourist, half of me was like, "Uhm, I don't look like the kind of people who buy scarfs?" hahahaha..
Next up: on the famed Angkor Wat and 'the other absolutely amazing temple', Ta Phrom.
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