Be Happiness Itself -- Buddha

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.