IT all started predictably. A visit to the Royal Palace, a stroll along the
river, a thirst-quenching beer at Phnom Penh's Foreign Correspondents Club.
 |
| Arising from the
ashes of Pol Pot ... a Cambodian woman selling lotus flowers on the
pavement near a Phnom Penh's temple. Picture: AFP |
Five years earlier I managed to do all that but I deliberately avoided
going to the Genocide Museum and declined a trip to the killing fields of
Cambodia – or Kampuchea, as the locals know it.
This time I brace myself for the experience and follow our local guide
into a hell of blood-splattered ceilings and torture chambers, lest we
forget.
The harrowing tales hanging over these cement blocks, formerly a
secondary school, would haunt me for days.
The thousands of eyes staring from the photos of people about to be
murdered, would follow me doggedly.
"Why?" is the question everyone asks. "Why this hell?"
The mood was sombre but our guide had promised us this would change at
lunchtime.
As we tumble out of our transport we find ourselves in front of an
attractive, big colonial house, not far from the National Museum.
There is an inviting outside eating area within the gates, where people
sit around tables among plants and flowers.
The house doors are wide open. Inside, we come into Kampuchea today, a
phoenix rising from the ashes.
Two spacious rooms with tall ceilings and walls painted bright yellow and
vibrant electric blue welcome us. The atmosphere here is really
mood-enhancing.
There are paintings on the walls, polished wooden floors, voile curtains
on the french windows and a natural breeze through the cheerful space.
Framed paintings hang from ceiling to floor. Communal tables fill the
area.
In the kitchen, a gaggle of young people concentrate over four
liquidisers going full blast, the contents are pink, green, yellow and
frothy. There is a lot of cheering and good advice being dispensed freely.
Others attend to the oven and swirl pans around over flames. They wear
red T-shirts printed with the word "student".
We are at Friends and this is no ordinary place. The restaurant was
designed to train former street kids in the skills of hospitality in an
environment that encourages self-confidence and self-expression.
The students are actively involved in all areas of the restaurant's
operation, including the creation of new dishes and the design of the menu.
Even the art on the walls is their work.
We sit and browse over the menus, a work of art in themselves, brought to
us by diligent, polite young wait staff.
They take our orders of fruit shakes (their specialty along with
daiquiris but we decided it was too early to tackle the rum) and an
astounding variety of fusion-inspired food.
Pomelo salad with grilled chicken and fresh mint, Khmer-style fried fish
with lemongrass, honey garlic meatballs, Khmer beef lok lak, blueberry cake
and chocolate and almond cake were among the requests.
Friends, the restaurant, is the brainchild of three expatriates who were
touched by the plight of Phnom Penh street children. The project grew slowly
and it almost stopped for lack of funds.
An offer from AUSAID, to support the program for three years, saved the
day.
The restaurant opened in 2001 and over the years it has had supporters in
the way of customers and institutions, but more is always needed.
World Expeditions and Intrepid Travel support the work by donations and
by introducing their groups to the attractive restaurant and Mith Samlanh's
(Friends) many other projects, such as the Young Migrant Program, where
children migrating to the cities are educated in the perils that await them
and how to avoid them; a boarding house for those with nowhere to go after
sex work in the cities and vocational training programs that cover areas of
health and education.
Friends tackles these subjects not only in Cambodia but also in
Laos and
Thailand.
After the unexpectedly delightful lunch we walk around the grounds and
watch the kids off-duty engaged in a football game in the courtyard adjacent
to the souvenir shop.
There I cannot resist a Friends cookbook, a beautifully gathered tome of
their best offerings.
The chef in charge, Gustav Auer, is an Austrian with flair and is
responsible for the kids' kitchen training and developing of recipes.
They continually update the menu together and try out new recipes and
shakes. It's a must to visit while in Phnom Penh, especially if you need a
lift after visiting the remains of the Pol Pot regime.
The compassionate traveller will be unavoidably touched by the tenuous
mantle of sadness which hangs over this country, for too long associated
with the murderous reign of Pol Pot, the killing fields, mass graves and
mountains of wide-eye skulls.
Many visitors opt to avoid Phnom Penh altogether and fly directly to Siem
Reap, gateway to the stunning Angkor complexes.
A shame, because aware of the importance of tourism, Phnom Penh is being
tidied up and there are places in between the two destinations that are
lesser known and worth the visit.
Take Battambang, as an example. The traditional way of getting to Siem
Reap from the capital has been flying or by boat on the Tonle Sap, the
biggest lake in South-East Asia.
However, few ever consider an overnight stop at Battambang, a provincial
sleeping beauty practically unknown to travellers. It not only offers a
significant clutch of French, early-1900s' architecture, but Cold Night, the
watering spot made famous by Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raiders.
Off the beaten track, this beautiful, three-storey, old timber house
offers the best-stocked bar you can imagine in a remote and exotic setting
by the Sang Ke River.
The bougainvilleas cascade down the wooden back veranda while the sun
sets against a smoky, fiery sky, matching the Campari in your hand. Need I
say more?
Abandoned for years to decay by the Pot Pol regime, Phnom Penh is
undergoing a facelift. With the underlying structure of wide avenues and
magnificent palaces all within sight of the Mekong and Sap rivers, the job
is made easier.
The impressive National Museum with its exquisite collection of Khmer
art, adds to the assembly of spires reaching for the sky, mingling with tall
and slender palms.
The Royal Palace is not only majestic, it is unquestionably splendid.
Inside the complex, Wat Preah Keo, the Emerald Buddha Temple (or the Silver
Pagoda as it is known in the West) stands out as the most extravagant.
Its floor is lined by more than 5000 silver tiles each weighing more than
1kg. It houses a posy of priceless Buddha figures.
For the nostalgic, the Foreign Correspondents Club restaurant and bar
overlooking the murky Mekong waters offers a chance to cool off and chill
out with a glass of wine or a beer.
The remains of French architecture, the baguettes and croissants on offer
might attract a lot of people, but the reality is that the French were a
colonial power long forgotten underneath layers of an even more brutal
regime of the local variety.
Kampuchea is rising from the ashes and is re-inventing itself.
It is worth noting that today French tourists have no alternative but to
communicate with the locals in English. C'est la vie!
|
