Holiday in Cambodia: Day 0

It’s that time again, for the second year in a row I find myself with some accrued work time I have to take and I’ve managed to scrape together the bucks for a cheap jaunt in South East Asia. Last year was Kuala Lumpur: cooking classes, rollercoasters, rooftop helipad bars.

This time it’s the Heart of Darkness, the place where, as Jello Biafra noted in the late 1970s, “they get things done”. It’s a holiday in Cambodia.

I don’t know much about Cambodia. I’ve read the news, followed the history, read the wikipedias. So all I know is that, when it comes to Cambodia, is that I know fuck all. I know nothing about how a country like Cambodia could have been a major civilisation 1,000 years ago, building such monuments as Angkor Wat, only to be brought down to a shadow of this by the time the French invaded. To have forced out the French only to then have the US drop an unimaginable amount of ordnance over the country. Then, with the skies barely B-52 free, the Khmer Rouge.

The Khmer Rouge. Even today, the words invoke sadness in me. Probably the biggest mass-murderers of my lifetime, who between 1975-1979 perpetrated atrocities I doubt I’ll be able to understand. I’d like to say that on this trip I’m going to try, but if my visit to Auschwitz 10 years ago has taught me anything, I’m going to come away feeling a lot luckier, a bit sadder, and still unable to comprehend what it takes to deal death on an industrial scale.

This trip isn’t only about grief porn. I’m hoping to spend the next 8 days walking some towns and cities, observing how life is now, eating the food, drinking, taking in the culture, and hoping like hell that my presence here does no harm.

This trip, thanks to July’s world lap, sees me with Velocity Gold status again, meaning I’ll be hanging in a couple of Singapore KrisFlyer lounges, skipping the longer boarding queues, and if my backpack takes any side trips, it’ll do so in style and with priority (it’s the same backpack that, 10 years ago, spent a bit of time in countries where I wasn’t).

As such, right now I’m in the lounge at Perth airport, having had the obligatory tomato juice, that marker that I am, truly, travelling. Next stop is Changi airport, where I’ve got 6+ hours to burn but there’s no airport in the world I’d rather do this. Then it’s Siem Reap, and the iconic Angkor Wat.