ENROUTE TV   ENROUTE FM   MEDIA KIT   AIR CANADA   LINKS   WRITERS'   GUIDELINES	ABOUT FACE Once-wartorn Cambodia has come back to life. Text: JOSÉE BLANCHETTE Everywhere you look are vibrant street scenes, colourful markets, striking ancient temples and – best of all – smiles that are so genuine and so innocent, they prove that hope can spring from tragedy. Like many people, I felt like I’D already "been" to Cambodia before ever setting foot here. I’ve seen The Killing Fields, shed tears and told myself it was just a movie. I’ve read a whole shelf of books on the Khmer Rouge regime, appreciating them as well-crafted literature. A war, a dictator, a genocide that claimed the lives of 2 to 3 million innocents, the effects of extreme communism, children separated from their parents in labour camps, famine, thousands of Buddhist pagodas destroyed or seized by the military – Cambodia’s history is more than enough to nourish the imaginations of generations of novelists and screenwriters. Nearly 30 years later, the scars are still visible. Phnom Penh is teeming with life, filthy and shameless, making me feel more voyeur than voyager. I step into a maelstrom of smells, colours and sounds, violently wrenched from the torpor induced by 24 hours in planes and airports. It’s hard to imagine that what now resembles an open-air dump was dubbed the Paris of the Orient when it was part of French-controlled Indochina. Now that I think of it – sitting here in chauffeur-driven, air-conditioned comfort – I do feel a bit like Catherine Deneuve in Indochine. Why has Cambodia handed a decent script to me, but not to the Cambodians? Tourists can’t rent cars in Phnom Penh, which is a good thing. Only someone suicidal or a devout Buddhist would want to drive along Pochentong Boulevard against oncoming traffic. Sum, my driver, doesn’t bat an eyelash as he tries to slip into the lane that leads to Sisowath Quay on the Tonle Sap River (Phnom Penh’s equivalent of the Promenade des Anglais in Nice). As he weaves in and out among the pedicabs and scooters, he recounts how his entire family starved to death under the Khmer Rouge, leaving him orphaned at age 12. Sum describes himself as fortunate: He has a job, he works 14 hours a day, 28 days a month, and earns a monthly wage of US$160. Over the next 10 days, I’ll hear similar stories, tirelessly repeated from countless lips, with poignant variations. All this I had expected. But I was not prepared for the intoxicating smiles, as reliable as a sunrise over rice fields. Smiles, I imagine, that might have once been knocked off by a sadistically swung rifle butt, but which have lost nothing of their candour, innocence or truth. Children run naked on the sidewalks in the crushing heat as electric fan peddlers relish their good karma. The makeshift woks are out on the streets, but questionable sanitation, frequent power outages and the scarcity of clean running water mean that I’ll be avoiding the rolling snack bars I found so irresistible in Thailand. Here, I’ll stick to meals at trustworthy restaurants and hotels, even if the trip’s exoticism suffers as a result. That said, Cambodian cuisine is delicious – sublime medleys fragrant with coconut milk and hot peppers, halfway between Vietnamese and Thai. As in Thailand, you eat with a knife and fork – an Indian influence. Steaming bowls of rice and lemongrass soup are staples, even at 40°C in the shade. Even more exotic are the market stalls overflowing with fried cockroaches, water beetles and bulbous red-eyed spiders. I’m told the beetles taste a bit like hay. Having never tasted hay, I decide to pass. The motor scooter remains the favoured mode of transportation in Phnom Penh. It’s fast, efficient and inexpensive, and people use it to convey just about anything – tourists, family members, groceries, furniture – as they zigzag along roads of asphalt or red earth. Women still tend to ride sidesaddle on the back, though they no longer wear the traditional sarong. Most are carrying children in their arms; I even see one mother breastfeeding her baby at a rare red light. They must be held on by some invisible thread. That evening, I come across a screening of The Bear in a vacant downtown lot – a jury-rigged drive-in with the audience all sitting on their parked scooters, smaller children perched on the shoulders of their older siblings. The crowd laughs heartily, delighted by the film, which is brought to them courtesy of His Majesty, King Norodom Sihanouk. Children are everywhere; they make up half of the country’s population of 12 million. Cambodia is a country that’s young at heart, but with an old soul. Phnom Penh can be toured in a day, or two at most. The only notable site, besides the obligatory Wat Phnom pagoda and its amusement-park Buddhas, is the notorious Tuol Sleng prison, now the Museum of Genocidal Crime. The former high school was taken over by the Khmer Rouge as a place of torture: 20,000 prisoners and their families died here between 1975 and 1979. I spend a long time wondering whether I should tour the museum and finally decide to go in. How else can I measure the immense courage of the Cambodian people? The next morning, I leave Phnom Penh to join an expedition of backpackers aboard a climate-controlled ferry down the brown waters of the Mekong. The river is definitely the best way to get around: The roads here are still rough and heavily damaged. The six-hour boat trip will take me to Kratie in the northeast, a tranquil colonial town on the shores of the Mekong. The mythical river also functions as a well, scooter wash, public bath, municipal sewer and water buffalo drinking trough. Six hours of karaoke, with passengers gamely reprising Thai pop songs accompanied by schlocky videos, makes me appreciate every opportunity to go ashore. Women wearing the traditional krama (a scarf encircling the head and knotted under the chin, as if nursing a toothache) ply baskets of fragrant dried fish and bamboo leaves filled with coconut sticky rice. This isn’t a boat – it’s a floating fun fair, and an entertaining one at that. It’s a different story at my hotel room in Kratie, which is infested with crickets the size of frogs and small, harmless lizards known as geckos. At 5 a.m., I wake up Pun, the young porter who has crashed, fully dressed, on a sofa in the hotel lobby. Despite the hour, Pun is all smiles as he goes about capturing my six-legged hosts. (To fry later, perhaps?) He can’t believe his luck as he gazes at me, this ersatz Catherine Deneuve in a silk negligee who talks with him in English. Just yesterday, at the schoolhouse in Kratie, the children had proudly chirped a few words ("Hello, madam!") as I drew a map of Canada on the blackboard with a fragment of chalk no larger than a baby tooth. Their teacher didn’t have the vaguest idea where to find North America on a map. I later learned that she teaches six days a week and earns $20 a month. At that rate, she can be excused for a lot of things. "Do they teach you to speak Khmer at school in Canada?" she asked, with a broad smile, through my interpreter. I just smiled back. I now know that a smile can accomplish many things: it can help ease the memory of persecution, defuse tensions faster than a convoy of peacekeepers and be a destination in itself. And reincarnation must exist, I tell myself. Surely, that’s why Buddhas always wear a smile. ----- CAMBODIA Strolling the streets of Phnom Penh requires a certain level of caution, but promises unforgettable memories. A side trip to Angkor Wat is essential to appreciate the timeless beauty of ancient temples. WHERE TO STAY International Vipassana Centre Learn meditation as Buddha himself practised it at this pay-what-you-can 10-day program in Phnom Penh (room and board provided). Be prepared for some bottom dwelling: there’s plenty of sitting involved. 855-23-210-850 Angkor Village Teak buildings rise on stilts from a lagoon surrounding a restaurant in Siem Reap. The grounds are a true botanical garden, designed by an architect couple. Beautiful furniture and accessories, excellent traditional cuisine, faultless service – settle in for a longish stay. www.angkorvillage.com Grand Hôtel d’Angkor This 75-year-old classic colonial hotel is the most luxurious in Siem Reap. It was converted to military use by the Khmer Rouge regime, but no trace of that occupation remains. A huge pool, gardens, a spa and a library all bring relaxation to mind. 855-63-963-888 http://202.157.153.18/dang.htm WHERE TO EAT Amok Café Practically hidden amid vegetation, this cozy little Phnom Penh eatery – a favoured address of expats – serves Khmer and Thai cuisine: seafood flavoured with lemongrass, fried fish with lime, coconut milk soup and sticky rice. #2 Street 278 855-23-012-912-319 FCC The Foreign Correspondents Club is a popular destination on Sisowath Quay in Phnom Penh. Head for the Western-style snack bar or sip a cocktail as you watch the crowds along the docks. You won’t find many reporters – only the atmosphere is authentic. 633 Sisowath Quay 855-23-015-911-383 Apsara Theatre This dinner theatre located across from Angkor Village offers a traditional palatine and village dance show. The 40 dancers, singers and musicians and their sumptuous costumes will leave you spellbound. www.angkorvillage.com WHAT TO DO Floating Village On Tonle Sap Lake, a few kilometres from Siem Reap, this village is home to 600 Vietnamese and Cambodian families who live on the water year-round. There are houseboats, of course, but also a schoolboat, grocery-store-boat, churchboat and busboat. Book this one-of-a-kind tour through local travel agents and hotels. Seeing Hands Feel like a one-hour massage for $4? The service is provided by blind masseurs, who have a particularly acute sense of touch. Located at the National Center of Disabled Persons at the corner of Norodom and Pochentong streets in Phnom Penh. Reservations recommended. 855-23-016-856-188 INFORMATION Cambodian Embasssy in Washington 1-202-726-7742 www.embassy.org/cambodia HOW TO GET THERE Air Canada* offers flights twice daily from Canada to Hong Kong and codeshare service three times a week with EVA Air from Vancouver to Taipei. From Hong Kong you can find convenient connections with Dragon Air to Phnom Penh or from Taipei with EVA Air. * Also includes Air Canada Jazz™ and Tango™ service.
	© 2004 enRoute is published monthly by Spafax Canada Inc. All rights reserved. FRANÇAIS