I recently spent a few days in Phnom Penh
on business and had a couple of observations about Cambodia. We had been in Siem Reap once before on
holiday and loved it ( you can read about that trip here
). But this time it was all about
business in Cambodia’s capitol city.
I stayed at the Rosewood
hotel which was beautiful. The
service was phenomenal, a cut above even for Asia. They had a beautiful rooftop bar with a
spectacular view of the city. The
building is designed to look like a dragon
tail with scales—very unique.
My second observation is, perhaps, a little
odd, but I wanted to share it. I was
meeting with a client who had a mole on his face, nothing unusual there. What was unusual was the VERY long hair that
grew from it—it must have been 5 inches long.
A day or two later I saw a similar hair on someone at the airport so I
had to look into the phenomenon. What I
found was this: Long mole hairs are supposed to give you wealth, fame, and good
luck. The longer the hair the better.
Who knew?
But my most memorable impression of Cambodia
is the people – they are positive and happy.
This is a country that was at war for decades. If they weren’t at the center of a conflict,
they we just to the side. This was especially
true during America’s war in Vietnam.
But this was nothing compared to the 3 years, 8 months, and 20 days the Khmer
Rouge were in power.
During this brutal period approximately 25%
of Cambodians died. They died from
starvation, overwork, torture, or execution.
Yet this horror is not hidden or rarely spoken about by Cambodians. They speak about it all the time, usually
using the phrase “3 Years, 8 months, and 20 days”. They talk about relatives lost in this
period, sometimes knowing what happened and sometimes they have no idea what
happened, their relatives just disappeared.
My driver one day told me his story. His father was a teacher and one day the
Khmer Rouge came and took his parents.
An aunt from a nearby village got him and hid him in a forest where his
uncle tended cattle. He hid in the
forest for a year, living in a hill the ground.
Later he lived in his aunt’s village where his cousin, who was starving,
stole a little rice from the village kitchen and was executed in front the
village. (The film “First
They Killed My Father” shows what this period was like through the eyes of
a little girl who experienced it.)
Yet this man who had suffered so much was
so full of life. It was almost like
talking about it functioned like a relief valve, venting off the negative
energy, leaving only the positive inside.
And that’s the lesson I have taken from my visits to Cambodia -- Don’t
dwell on the negative, but look for the positive in life. If they can do that successfully there is no
reason we can’t.
We got a kick out of staying there, our rooms were behind
the ropes that the tours weren’t allowed to pass. The rooms are large and
filled with beautiful antiques and also modern bathrooms. Our first night we
had dinner there and each morning had breakfast in the courtyard --the food was
delicious. We were also served an afternoon local snack at our rooms with a
note, very sweet.
After our tour we took a Grab car (so handy in Southeast
Asia) to a café our guide pointed out and were treated to yummy snacks and
beautiful art. From there we wandered and ended up on one of the Clan Jetties
called the Chew Jetty. The Chinese Clans were important to help their people to
settle in Singapore and in George Town the Chew Clan helped their people settle
on the jetty.
We then checked into our hotel for the next 2 nights, the
Park Royal on Batu Ferringhi beach in Penang. The temperature was cooler at the beach and
the hotel was lovely. We enjoyed the breakfast and lunch buffets where we
(especially Gino) could sample all of the good Malaysian food. 
We rented a boat and captain to take us to Monkey Beach and we
lucked out--there were about 15 monkeys hanging around eating bananas when we
got there. You can only get to this beach by boat or a walk through the jungle,
no roads there, so we guessed another
boat captain brought the bananas because we noticed a sticker on them so the
bananas hadn’t just been picked from a banana tree in the forest.
