Travelogue in Cambodia

Cambodia was called Funan in ancient times, and later also known as Chenla State, but the territory of Funan included all of present-day Laos and one part each of Vietnam and Thailand, and Chenla was originally a vassal state of Funan, and later the royal family of Funan declined, and Chenla replaced it.

Similar to Thailand, Cambodia also has many Teochew people, Teochew culture has a certain influence on Cambodia, King Sihanoukville has a close relationship with Teochew, he met some Teochew celebrities when he was young, and also recognized the famous Teochew actor Yao Xuanqiu as a "righteous daughter". He also has a famous "righteous son", the current Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen. This Hun Sen is actually a Teochew native, but the old Hong family has lived in Cambodia for several generations. Speaking of the "righteous" character of the righteous son and daughter, this is also the name of the Teochew people, the north does not call it that, the northerners call it "godson" and "goddaughter", and the people of Guangfu do not call it that, the people of Guangfu call it "qizai" and "qinu", and "qidi", but qidi is scolding and laughing.

Gossip aside, let's get back to business. A total of 11 members of our family traveled to Cambodia in a group for a total of 5 days, and the following wrote a diary every day in order, accompanied by corresponding photos.

Day 1(2018-12-21):

At one o'clock at noon, the plane flew from Guangzhou to Phnom Penh. Because they had to leave two or three hours in advance, everyone did not eat lunch, but they all brought food to the waiting room, and put up a position for a while, took out the food, everyone you eat mine I eat yours, it is also very interesting, eating more flavorful than the main meal.

Finally got on the plane, it was Airbus flight A-320 of Cambodia Angkor Air, the Khmer flight attendant had a little dark skin, but it was still very good-looking, after all, they were all young girls. How to say that the flight attendant should also be a scenery, I think that when we traveled to the United States, we took a United Airlines plane, there was only a grandmother and a young master on it, and we took a plane for more than ten hours, because the scenery was not good, so it was very disappointing.

After a little more than two hours of flight, I arrived in Phnom Penh at three o'clock in the afternoon, and when I went out of the airport to check the formalities, I had to put a dollar in my passport to the staff who checked the passport, Southeast Asian countries are like this, in the United States this is considered bribery, it is not allowed, but the cleaner of the American hotel wants to tip, it is also a dollar, if you don't give it, you won't help you with hygiene, it's as black as a crow in the world.

Since Cambodia was on our west side, the local time was an hour behind us, so it was actually a little after two o'clock when we arrived and we took over an hour by car and checked into the Diamond Caesar Hotel in Phnom Penh. As soon as I entered the room, I was surprised, the room is very large and luxurious, the bed is also very large, the estimated cost is indispensable, are the juniors to give money, how much I don't bother to ask, live down and use the electric kettle to boil water to drink.

Dinner was eaten in an open-air square in Phnom Penh, with mats on the floor, and everyone sat on the floor, while shopkeepers rushed back and forth to deliver food and drinks. The diners were red men and green women, yellow, white and black, everyone laughed and ate together, at this time there was a bright moon hanging in the sky, and all kinds of lights on the ground were bright, although the weather was hot, but the breeze was gusting, and drinking ice water, but it was not uncomfortable. It's really a miscellaneous star, swaying the moon. The Khmer diet is heavily influenced by the Teochew diet, and the ingredients and cooking methods are very close to Teochew cuisine, such as anti-sand yam and fried oyster cakes, and fish sauce is also used. Although the drink was delicious, it was too sweet, and my old man had high blood sugar and couldn't drink more.

After dinner, everyone walked back along the Mekong embankment, the road was full of traffic, lively, there were many vendors selling fruits and drinks on the embankment, the drinks were made with ice, Cambodians love to eat ice, this is not taught by Teochew people, this is taught by white-skinned pigs, it seems that the Khmer people are willing to accept foreign culture. We walked all the way, some fences on the embankment were sculpted into a long cobra, it was uncomfortable to see, what we liked Chinese was the dragon, how beautiful the dragon was, why sculpt these disgusting snakes? Is this Khmer culture? Why do Khmers, like Indians, love poisonous snakes?

The levee is very long, we walked for several kilometers, we were tired of walking, there was a yacht in the Mekong River, so we got on the yacht and took the boat back. The river is very wide, some sections of the river seem to become a large lake, although the shore is brightly lit, but the river is dark, occasionally see a few fishing fires in the distance, mixed with the sound of fishing, the breeze is gentle, the water waves are not happy, very pleasant.

Day 2(2018-12-22):

This morning's itinerary is to visit the royal palace, the hotel is far from the royal palace, everyone walks in the car while browsing the cityscape of Phnom Penh, there are some small signs on the side of the road, on which photos of Han Sanglin and Hun Sen are posted, occasionally you can see a photo of King Sihamoni and the Queen Mother, and I have seen a photo of Prince Ranariddh, which was probably used during the parliamentary campaign. In Cambodia, the king has no real power, but the people still respect the royal family, the law stipulates that the king cannot be scolded, and if the king is caught, he will be imprisoned, but it is okay to scold the prime minister.

The current prime minister is Hun Sen. I remember that in the past, the media in our country always said "Han Samglin puppet regime", it can be seen that Han Sanglin was the boss at that time, these two brothers turned out to be Khmer Rouge officers, followed Pol Pot to fight with the Vietnamese and Americans, and then Pol Pot killed people indiscriminately, they saw that the situation was not good, so they fled to Vietnam, pulled up a team, fought back to their hometown with the help of the Vietnamese, and overthrew the Khmer Rouge. After all, Hun Sen is relatively young, intelligent and capable, and has enough political means, and later gradually replaced Han's eldest brother, who now takes a back seat and mixes with the chairman of the National Assembly.

Speaking of Hun Sen, this is a man who can flex and stretch, it is really not simple, when Prince Sihanouk just returned to Phnom Penh from Beijing, he went to the airport to greet him, the prince got off the plane he knelt on the ground, calling his father, Sihanouk then recognized this righteous son, Hun Sen became a member of the royal family, from a commoner suddenly became a prince, very proud. Later, he felt that his name was not good, so he changed his name to Yunsheng, but everyone pretended to be deaf and dumb, and no one paid attention to him, he couldn't help it, so he pulled down, and he is still called Hun Sen.

Hun Sen has experienced hundreds of battles, personally participated in 105 battles, was blinded in one battle, had to be admitted to the hospital, the director of the hospital at that time was Wen Lani, at that time Hun Sen was just a Khmer Rouge officer, only one eye, became disabled, this woman did not dislike, married to a one-eyed dragon, it was really very good. After Hun Sen came to power, he took great care of the royal family and was very polite to the king, but when the regime was threatened, he turned his face and did not recognize people, that year Prince Ranariddh's FUNCINPEC party won the general election and became the first prime minister, Hun Sen was the second prime minister, and in a blink of an eye, it was illegal for Ranariddh to set up a private army, not only sent troops to eliminate his armed forces, but also drove him to France to live in exile, in fact, a coup d'état.

However, it seems that Cambodia is indeed not suitable for Western-style democracy, and Western-style democracy will lead to chaos, but all backward nationalities, only under the leadership of a political strongman to implement centralized rule, the country's political situation can be stable and can talk about development. Hun Sen controls domestic affairs with an iron fist, foreign policy is also very successful, and now has good relations with Vietnam and China, Cambodia has developed rapidly in recent years, and the whole Phnom Penh is like a big construction site, full of skyscrapers, it looks thriving, thanks to Hun Sen's leadership.

Arriving at the palace at 9 a.m., the lazy Khmer had not yet gone to work to open the door, so he had to wait. After waiting for more than an hour, the door was finally opened, and there was a sea of people, everyone rushed in, the sun was like fire, and it was hot. Although it is magnificent, it is a modern building, not a monument, and the monuments are in Angkor. Sihanoukville lived here as a child, but now it's completely touristy and no one lives there. Speaking of which, Sihanouk was the grandson of the previous old king, a son of a gentleman, who was originally not qualified to succeed to the throne, but at that time, the French saw that he was young and thought that he might be more obedient, so they put him on the throne. As a result, he was not obedient after coming to power, but he made an independent move, and really realized Cambodia's independence more than a decade later.

In fact, he himself did not want to be a vase, and within a few years of becoming king, he abdicated to allow his father to inherit the throne and become prime minister himself. It is also the only strange thing in the world where a father inherits his son's throne. He retired and wanted to do something practical, but he was not political material, and he made the political situation unstable and the country in chaos. Later, it was overthrown by the Lon Nol-Schrimada coup group and had no choice but to run to China. Later, it provoked the Khmer Rouge, and although he overthrew General Lon Nol, under the rule of the Khmer Rouge ultra-left line, it finally caused a catastrophe for the Khmer nation.

I am not interested in the palace, but the murals in the palace are a little interesting, there are many monkeys and people lined up to worship the king, the size of a person, but with an extra tail, and the tailed and the non-tailed stand together, which is also very interesting. It seems that monkeys have a status in Cambodia, just like cattle in India. When we left the palace, we found a monkey in the row of bungalows in front of the door, the palace is located in the downtown area, this monkey is not raised, it is wild.

I visited the Atlantic Casino in the United States many years ago, and I went to the casino in Malaysia the year before last, and I can be regarded as a person who has seen the world, compared to the casino in Phnom Penh, which is small and deserted, and there are no drinks. Fortunately, there was a performance later, where several Siamese beauties were dancing and took a few photos.

In the evening, I am ready to fly to Siem Reap, and Angkor is in Siem Reap, more than 300 kilometers from Phnom Penh. Originally, it was okay to take a car, but there are many car accidents in Cambodia, not long ago, the princess of Ranariddh just lost her life in a car accident, who is Ranariddh? His concubine was actually hit and killed in a car accident! It is said that Cambodia does not catch drunk driving, and those who drive are rich people, and rich people must be drunk, and drunk driving must hit and kill people, so although it costs more to fly, we still took the plane because we didn't want to be hit and killed.

After 10 o'clock in the evening, I arrived in Siem Reap and stayed in a small hotel, the Chinese character said "Angkor Hut", the English is "5gor house", it was Chinese at a glance, sure enough, the hostess was Chinese, speaking standard Mandarin. I ate some dry food and went into the bathroom to take a shower, the hot water was heated by electricity, and after just one minute of washing, the power went out, it was dark, and the hot water was gone. No way, sit and wait, fortunately a few minutes later the call came, so I started to take a shower again, but two minutes later the power went off again, so I tossed back and forth, a total of five or six power cuts, and I barely finished the shower. I am glad that it is in tropical Cambodia, where the night is also around 30°C, and if I were in Guangzhou, I would have died.

Day 3(2018-12-23):

In the morning, go to an unknown lake in the outskirts of Siem Reap, there is a long bamboo bridge and many bamboo pavilions, bamboo sheds, there are many wooden piers in the shed for tourists to sit, all made of solid salt wood, salt wood is a valuable wood, can be used to make weighing poles, rare in the mainland. There are many primeval forests here, and such treasures are abandoned, and the Khmers do not hesitate to look at them. There were many exotic flowers and plants on the bamboo bridge, and everyone walked around the bridge a few times and took some photos. At noon, I ate in the bamboo pavilion, everyone sat on the wooden platform inside the bamboo pavilion, and the shop sent a variety of food, or a Khmer-style lunch, very hearty, very distinctive, and the food was photographed as a memorial.

In the afternoon, we visited the Wang Family Manor, which was purchased by Wang Sun of Xiha Qifang himself, and when he bought the land, it was $1 per square meter, and it is said that it has now risen to $2. The total area is about 7,000 square meters, there is a bamboo building, and several farmers manage the passion fruit orchard. There is a well in the field with a hand-cranked pumping machine installed on the well. When the weather is hot, everyone draws water to wash their faces and hands, and cools themselves down by the way. I looked up, there was a large tank inside the passion fruit forest, covered with a lid, it was estimated to be a wine made from passion fruit, and I was about to go over for a drink, and when I opened the lid, it turned out to be a tank of stinky dumplings, although there was no smell, but the poisonous gas attacked the heart, and the psychological blow was great, the head was a little dizzy, and the stomach began to feel uncomfortable.

At about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, began to retreat, a total of 3 cars formed a convoy, drove to the halfway one of the cars broke, had to stop, intending to troubleshoot themselves, but tossed for half a day did not repair, had to drive a car back to the city to move rescuers, everyone sat down on the side of the road to rest.

I took the opportunity to observe the terrain, which is about 6 kilometers from the city of Siem Reap, which is considered a suburb, but the land is completely abandoned, and neither plants nor buildings are built. Hun Sen said Cambodia should reach the level of a moderately developed country by 2030 and become a high-income developed country by 2050. However, whether a country can develop, in addition to political stability, depends on the character and quality of its citizens. To say that the industrious, brave and well-behaved, the Anglo-Saxons, Germans and Gaul people in Europe and the United States are no problem, so Britain, the United States, Canada, Germany and France are richer and stronger. But the Latin nation is very lazy; As Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Chile and other countries in South America are relatively poor and backward.

This is also the case in East Asia, where China, Japan and South Korea in the north are more prosperous and strong when the people are hardworking and willing to work. In the south, Cambodia, Laos, the Philippines, and Malaysia, the people of Cambodia, Laos, the Philippines, and Malaysia are relatively poor when they are full. Only Vietnam is more promising, because they are so deeply influenced by us, and historically when we were ruled by nomadic tribes, they used to consider themselves Chinese orthodox. I am reminded of a story told by Prince Sihanouk in his memoirs about an American agricultural expert who visited Cambodia and found that rice cultivation technology in rural Cambodia was very backward, yields were low, and farmers had little income. The expert found a demonstration village and not only taught them advanced rice cultivation techniques, but also gave them high-yield grain seeds, telling them that according to what I say, the rice yield in your field will double next year.

A year later, the expert returned, and after some inspection, he found that the rice yield in the village had doubled, but the total yield was still so much, and there was no increase at all. He wondered, so he asked the farmers what was going on? The farmers told him that by doubling the yield, we cut the acreage in half, because we had enough to eat! Why work so hard? This is the nature of the Khmer nation, they have no ambition, they are lazy and idle, they have to get by, Hun Sen is ready to rely on such ordinary people to build the country into a high-income developed power, is this possible?

After 5 p.m. local time, the car has not yet been repaired, the sun is about to set, the setting sun shines on the abandoned field, the shepherd boy drives a few thin white bulls slowly over, this scene is reminiscent of the words in Ma Zhiyuan's heavenly pure sand: "The ancient road west wind thin horse, the sunset is west, the broken intestine is at the end of the world." At this time, I was a stranger in a foreign land, and suddenly I missed my hometown, although I lived in western Guangdong, my hometown was eastern Guangdong.

The car was not repaired, and everyone squeezed into two good cars and returned. Back in the evening to eat hot pot in the city, the shop is elegant and the ingredients are very rich. Everyone laughed and ate happily. After eating, they also went to the night market, but I was gassed at the manor at noon, my stomach hurt terribly, I went back to the hotel to eat and went to bed early.

Day 4(2018-12-24):

Today's itinerary is to visit the Angkor Monuments, which were founded by the Chenla Dynasty between about 800 and 1200 AD, which corresponds to the late Tang Dynasty to the middle Southern Song Dynasty on the mainland, and took about 400 years to build. There are about 600 monuments, mainly in an area of about 43 square kilometers in northwestern Cambodia, and a small number of temples are located in what is now Laos and Thailand, because these places were then part of the Chenla Kingdom. Most of these 600 monuments are in ruins, leaving only ruins, and now tourists mainly visit two places, Angkor and Angkor. What is big and small Angkor? Simply put, Angkor Big is a city, and Angkor Junior is a temple, so the understanding is clearer.

Visit Angkor Grande first in the morning, we only visit two attractions. This is an ancient castle, with five gates, there are many monuments in the city, and before entering the city, I have seen many stone tombs and reliefs on the avenue outside the city gate, which look a lot like the stone statues of Easter Island, rich in Indian style. After entering the city gate, there is a temple not far away, all made of stone, which is very spectacular. Many of those stones weigh several tons and have to be carved on them, and it is amazing to think of these magnificent buildings built by the Khmers completely by hand a thousand years ago!

Cambodia does not have four seasons, only rainy season and dry season, today is Christmas Eve, belongs to the dry season, no rain, no matter modern antiquity, is a good time for construction. During the day, the sun is like fire, the temperature is 33 °C, just like the hot days controlled by the sub-high in Guangdong summer, walking is still sweating, not to mention rushing coolies. In good conscience, the Khmer people who built the Great Wall in ancient times must have worked much harder than the people who built the Great Wall in ancient times on the mainland, the north of the mainland will not be so hot, so many people have died repairing the Great Wall, and the sad story of Meng Jiangnu crying the Great Wall, how many Khmers died? Do they have a similar story? I think there must be, but unfortunately they are not recorded in historical books like us, so there is no way to know. Not only are there no historical records, but there is no writing on these ancient buildings, so until now, many mysteries of the Angkor monuments remain unsolved. For example, why did all the people in the area suddenly move away, why was the royal city completely abandoned, and the entire monument was completely submerged in the barren mountains and forests, forgotten by the Khmers themselves, and rediscovered by French explorers hundreds of years later.

In the afternoon, visit Angkor Minor, also known as Angkor Wat or Wat Angkor, which, as the name suggests, is a temple. In fact, it is also a royal city, and it is said that it is also a royal tomb, because the king who presided over its construction was buried here after his death. This little Angkor was built by this king in 35 years with the strength of the whole country. The ancient buildings of Angkor Junior are well preserved and more majestic than Angkor, which is too dilapidated and not as fun as Angkor Minor. Angkor Junior looks a lot like Indian architecture, the carved ornaments and cobras, etc., are very Hindu, and some of the stone statues are like the god Vishnu.

Some people may say that this place is not a Buddhist country, how can it be Hindu? But how can Hinduism and Buddhism be distinguished? Both religions originated in India, and Buddha founded Buddhism on the basis of Brahmanism. Ancient India by the time of Ashoka, Brahmanism has declined, almost extinct, and later through the religious reform, absorbing many elements of Buddhism, it was able to make a comeback, called neo-Brahmanism, that is, Hinduism, to re-rule ancient India, while Buddhism moved east to the land of China, after injecting many Chinese factors, took root in the mainland.

Buffet in the evening in a restaurant which was big and luxurious, with a big stage and plenty of food. There was also a show between eating and drinking, and several Khmer youths danced on stage, the costumes and props were beautiful, and the dance was professional. We didn't understand, but the content was probably a love story between young men and women in rural Cambodia. Our little girl Duoduo also came on stage to interact with them, danced a kindergarten dance, gave them a show, and the actors were very happy and put their hands together to thank us.

Back to Siem Reap in the evening, because it is Christmas Eve, the festive atmosphere is very strong, and there are lights everywhere. Everyone went to the market and ate braised vipers and roasted lizards, but unfortunately there was no most delicious roasted mouse. We Cantonese people love to eat four-legged living creatures except for stools. I was old and frail, so I went back to the hotel early and went to sleep.

Day 5(2018-12-25):

This morning's trip is to visit Tonle Sap Lake, which is located in the heart of Cambodia, is the lake of life of the Khmer people, the dry season area of about 2,700 square kilometers, the size is about the same as Dongting Lake, the rainy season will increase the lake area to more than 10,000 square kilometers, several times larger than the dry season. The famous Mekong River passes by the lake and is connected to the Great Lake by the Tonle Sap River, so the Tonle Sap Lake has become a natural reservoir of the Mekong River, when the Mekong River has a large amount of water, the river enters the Great Lake through the Tonle Sap River, and conversely, when the Mekong River is small, the water in the Great Lake is replenished into the Mekong River through the Tonle Sap River. This is very good for the Mekong Delta in southern Vietnam downstream, because the Mekong River forms many bifurcated rivers in southern Vietnam, with a total of 9 estuaries, which the Vietnamese call Kowloon Kou, which is the famous Kowloon Kou Delta.

With the regulation of river water by the Great Lake, the delta of southern Vietnam is neither prone to flooding nor drought. The Vietnamese should be grateful, but in fact, the delta and its surrounding area of this large territory was originally Khmer, in the 17th century, Vietnam civil strife, war, a large number of refugees fled into the delta, the Khmer bodhisattva heart, not only took them in, but also allocated them land to farm. So they settled in the delta and multiplied, gradually increasing in number, and later surpassed the indigenous people. At this time, Cambodia was in turmoil, and the Vietnamese court took the opportunity to integrate the territory, because the inhabitants of the delta were already the majority, and it was logical to take the delta to themselves, and the Khmers were unable to resist, and this territory accounted for one-third of Cambodia's total area, so it fell into the hands of the Vietnamese. Later, the Khmer Rouge fought with the Vietnamese, largely because they wanted to regain the territory.

Our group of 9 was on a yacht that was so powerful that it ran fast in the river and stirred up enough waves to overturn the boat next to it. We raced along the Tonle Sap River towards the Great Lake, the scenery on both sides flew backwards, and the wind blew on our faces, which was pleasant. After a while, we arrived at the concentration of Vietnamese refugees on the water, which was said to be 700,000 at its peak, but now the number is very small, only a few boats for living, Vietnamese people live on board, selling daily necessities and tourist souvenirs. They fled here from southern Vietnam during the War of Resistance against the United States and National Salvation, but when the country was fighting to the death against foreign enemies, they fled, so after the war, the Vietnamese government did not want them and did not allow them to go back.

The Cambodian side is very wary of them, because the Khmer have suffered from Vietnamese refugees in history, so they do not recognize their legal status and do not allow them to go ashore. As a result, they can only soak in the water as water dwellers, and make a living by fishing, and their lives are very difficult. It is said that there are many women begging tourists with ragged clothes and numb expressions, which are very pitiful. Although Hun Sen was brought to power by the Vietnamese, he did not obey the Vietnamese and was concerned with the basic interests of the country, and he could not easily give in. Now that the refugees are gone, and the offices of the United Nations refugee agency on the banks of the Tonle Sap River have been empty, it is clear that the problem has been solved, and we do not know exactly how it was solved.

The speedboat enters the Great Lake via the Tonle Sap River, the lake is vast, the water and sky are connected in the distance, and the boats seem to hang in the sky. The sun is shining and the water is sparkling, but the lake is a little muddy. Our speedboat made a big circle around the big lake and came to a Vietnamese-owned floating supermarket selling daily necessities and tourist souvenirs, as well as a trattoria where visitors could eat and drink. There are also a few crocodiles in a cabin for tourists to see, and a Vietnamese man put a large python into a box, it seems that there are too few people, he did not plan to perform. On the top floor of the floating supermarket is a sightseeing platform, and we climbed up to admire the lake and take some photos.

There is no activity in the afternoon, some people go shopping, some people rest at the inn and make some preparations. Because the journey has ended today, I have to fly back in the evening. Lunch was eaten at a fast food restaurant, it felt good and clean, and there were many European and American tourists watching. When it was time to finish eating, the young people looked for restaurants everywhere and said that they wanted to change their taste, and I proposed to eat at the fast food restaurant at noon, on the grounds that everyone had no stomachache after eating at noon, and they were going home, safety first. Everyone accepted my opinion and ate there again at noon.

In the middle of the night, I finally got on the plane home again, it was still an Airbus A-320, but this time it was a plane of Shanghai Spring Airlines, a private airline, only a few planes, no flight attendants, only two air masters. I watched the two of them busy, but mentally thought, if they encounter hijackers, their combat effectiveness is good.

Goodbye Cambodia, goodbye Khmer people, good luck to you!