Back home to Cambodia - May 10-15, 2007

After a leisurely week in Laos, it was time to return to Cambodia so I reluctantly boarded a plane in Vientienne (I wanted to keep going north!) and flew back to Phnom Penh. As I drove from the airport to my favourite guesthouse in the centre of the city, I thought back to when I first landed in Phnom Penh almost two months earlier. Overwhelmed by the chaotic traffic and the relentless noise, I had felt completely disoriented by the city of my birth. By contrast, I was struck by how comforting it was to return to Phnom Penh after a short absence -- I calmly watched the hundreds of motos weaving their way around me and once again admired the wide boulevards with the tree-lined parks and the ornate French architecture whizzing by my window. Best of all, the family who runs my favourite guesthouse welcomed me back with warm smiles as if I had returned home.

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Shortly after I started work, I travelled with three tourism university students and some of the Cambodian CRDT staff to Koh Pdao, the village that I had visited a month earlier. The students were conducting a basic training session for the villagers about tourism (what is tourism? what services do tourists need? etc.) and I felt it would be good for me to attend even though it would be conducted in Khmer. One of the activities in particular was especially memorable - the 85 villagers were divided into three groups and asked to answer: "What services can Koh Pdao provide to tourists"? Even though I couldn't understand a word being said, I couldn't help but laugh and clap along with all of the villagers as they excitedly shouted out their answers. The group with the least number of answers had to get up and dance in front of the whole crowd! Later, two of the village elders sat next to me and as one peppered me with questions about Canada - what time is it there now? What's the temperature? -- the other clasped my hands, and told me how happy he was that I was visiting their village and to be sure to return in December for a big festival.

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As I drove back from the village, I gazed out of the window and marvelled at just how vividly green and lush the surrounding rice fields and swaying palm trees were now that the rainy season had started. I spotted a young boy - naked, covered in dirt - toddling around in front of his ramshackle home and my heart suddenly ached - for the breathtaking beauty of Cambodia and for its warm and friendly people who after 30 years of war are now stumbling their way to a new and uncertain future. It was that moment that I realized, like so many before me, I had fallen completely in love wih Cambodia.