Happy New Year Cambodia!

Current Location: Siem Reap, Cambodia

Phew. I’m here. I made it. I’m IN Cambodia. After years of trying to figure out how to make this dream a reality, then weeks of traveling and 3 other countries I have finally arrived to the place that, really, is the sole purpose of this trip. I arrived in Phnom Penh on a bus from Vietnam (or Viet Nam as it actually is in Vietnamese) last Thursday, 10 April and I have to say that as I looked out of the window of the bus at the scenery of this amazing country I couldn’t help but feel just a little bit moved. It was like coming home to see an old friend and it certainly felt like the right thing to be doing.

Before arriving I’d just passed 10 days in Veitnam with the family. My new little brother arrived in the country the same day that I did (nicely timed TJ) which was very exciting. His Vietnamese name is Tam, his English name is Tony, so as a result he has picked up the nickname TJ. It nicely encompasses them both I guess. Unfortunately he has been a little sick since he was born so he has been in the neo natal ward trying to get better. He is as cute as button that’s for sure. That blend of eastern and western features is a real winner. Vietnam was a lot of fun to see again, especially Ho Chi Minh City which I really love. The traffic there is just crazy and the only way to cross the road is to slowly step into the traffice and move through (always slowly) while trying to secure eye contact with the motorbike guys so they just swere around you. If you concentrate and do it properly it works amazingly well!

Phnom Penh (PP) was interesting to see again. I was only there for about 2 days on my last visit so I didn’t have a huuuge taste of the city then however, I could still see that it had changed quite a bit. If it wasn’t for a marker or two that I’d managed to remember I’m not sure I would have remembered the city at all. There were two pretty cool things about being in PP this time – 1. I was there for the start of Khmer New Year, and 2. I had probably the best night of my trip so far whilst there. Coincidentally both these events occurred on the same day.

The evening started out like pretty much any other. The official commencement of the New Year was at 6pm on Sunday evening so me and one of the guys from the guest house decided to head down to the river for a few early happy hour beers (70c each – yay!). From there we kicked on to Wat Phnom which is the main temple in town and where the celebrations were being held. It is really nice there – one of the most peaceful temples I’ve been too. The temple is on a (very small) hill and surrounding it is a park. That evening they were holding the official celebrations there so lights and colourful streamers adorned the entire area. There were bands playing and people singing and looking happy and free from the troubles of the world. The mood was definitely “festive”. Imagine New Year in Sydney on a much much much much much smaller scale. Cambodia sized!

We found ourselves a seat on the side of the hill with a view of what looked to be the formal proceedings. There was a table in the middle of the park with a huge bunch of flowers on it and people were milling about it on each side. Security guards were also hovering around the area blowing whistles like crazy at anyone who didn’t stand in the right spot so we figured we must be on the money. Turns out we were on the money but we didn’t really see or hear anything as I don’t think they used a microphone, I’m pretty sure the band didn’t even stop playing. The only thing reason we knew for sure if that fireworks started going off about 10m in front of us – if we were lucky. So covered in ash and feeling just a little shaken we saw the Khmer New Year in.

So that was the start of my great night. The next part that made it so good was just completely random. After the festivities on the hill we had a few more happy hour beers (it’s always happy hour somewhere) and then headed back to the guest house. There was a little bar located nearby so we decided to pop in there and play some pool (well I pretended I would but as I’m totally crap at it I usually get dumped for a better partner pretty soon into the evening). So there we were doing our thing when I heard a guy saying to someone that everything that begins has to end. Well didn’t that just prick my little ears up. I won’t bore you with the entire conversation as it was a long one but the shorterned version is this… We started talking about the possible endings of the universe at about 10pm, we then relocated bars and picked up another participant along the way (then there were 4) and went through a good proportion of many of the philosophical or controversial topics that exist (well you make most anything either but lets not go into that) and I eventually bailed out of tiredness at about 6am the following morning. I have met some wonderful people whilst traveling but you do have a lot of empty conversations about the same thing and well, that’s just the nature of this particular beast, so it really pleased me to be have the opportunity to give my brain a bit of a stretch. All in all a fabulous evening. The next day wasn’t so crash hot but let’s not go there.

So now I’m in Siem Reap – arrived yesterday – and really looking foward to starting my project (5 sleeps!). It’s hot here, bloody hot, so I will be interested to see how I cope with such challenges in the village but I’m sure I’ll be fine. There is a guy named Nick there at the moment so it’s nice that I will have someone to show me the ropes when I get started. Next time you hear from me will be after my first week so think happy (and cool) thoughts for me. I may just disintergrate entirely from the sweat.

Lastly, one funny little thing that happened to one of the guys in PP. Monks tried to sell him enlightenment for $10. I didn’t realise it was for sale. If it was that easy why would we people work so hard to find it? You can just buy it off a monk on the street for a bargain price! Ah dear…there are a number of “dubious” monks in these parts of the world. Apparently it is because every male will give it a go in their liftetime but many of them will only do about 3 months so they aren’t really shedding their own way off life entirely. Anyway, the even funnier part of that story is that the guy gave them the $10. ‘Til next time…