The airport at Siem Reap is small and is kept quite simple but the Visa application process is unique. For citizens of most nationals, the visa can be obtained on arrival. The Visa processing team sits behind a long table with the first officlal collecting the passport and the last one presenting it back to the tourist. The last official also has a special privilege of shouting out the name of the tourist whose passport he just received. Your visa details are hand-written on the passport; thats called giving a personal touch! The details on my passport were written in a unique hand-writing which I found very difficult to understand, almost cyrptic.
Cambodia has a tropical climate; its hot and it rains once in a while. So, not having a mosquito repellent is like inviting mosquitoes and insects on a feast.
ProYouth is a small village adjacent to the national highway and we were in ProYouth to teach English to students at the Boy Brigade Learning Center. With Angkor Wat declared as a world heritage many years ago, many among the youth of Cambodia want to become tourist guides and one of the prerequisites for tourist guide is a grip of basic english speaking. Tourist guides in Cambodia make a decent amount of money when compared to other traditional jobs like farming, herding, poultry.
The spirit to strive and emerge as outstanding is visible the most in situations and times of adversity. The students at BBLC have an inner motivation to learn English and about the world, things that is so much taken for granted in many 1st and 2nd world countries. When we reached there, we found students very eager to engage in conversations with us. They were intrigued and excited about what we do in our daily unexciting jobs that we occupy ourselves with. BBLC has students ranging from an age of 8 to 18. If you find joy in donating and helping, do not miss a chance to shape the life of these kids who are the future of the country which was so wasted in turmoil and war in recent history!
Angkor Wat is a magnicent and enormous cluster of temples that sterches over several kilometers. It takes an entire day to view the entire structure and will definitely take many days if you wish to closely analyse it. Angkor Wat means "temple city". A city constructed by a 12th century king from southern India, who married a local Cambodian princess and established a kingdom there.
A few things to not miss when you are at Angkor Wat:
1. The view of the main temple and its reflection from a lake located near the temple.
2. There is a temple structure in Angkor Wat, in which, if you stand with you back on the inner walls and hit at a particular location on your chest, you will hear the sound created and amplified around the entire temple.
3. The many carving displaying the wars fought by the kingdom and carvings depicting the Hindu epics Mahabharata and Ramayana.
4. Four huge ponds in the temple that represent 4 major rivers in India.
The restoration process is still ongoing and so one may be disappointed by the many missing and broken statues. Many statues are stolen everyday to be smuggled and sold in international markets. Cambodia has surely had a very rich history. The first religion establised was Hinduism, followed by Buddhism.
Other places to visit are an extermination camp and a prison established by the ruthless Cambodian dictator Pol Pot.
For a person interested in business opportunities, I believe Cambodia can pose many avenues. The economy is still very much behind when compared to the economy of many developing countries in Asia. There are ample opportunities to sell FMCG products in the cities as well as in the rural areas. Another great opportunity, I feel is waiting to be grabbed, is in the telecom sector. In the next few years, Cambodian young generation will become mobile savvy and telecommunication will soon become an important sector. Setting up a telecommunications company in such an ecomony will keep the company as a frontrunner in mobile and broadband sector during the boom time. Most of the Cambodian population is young because many people of the previous generation were killed through extermination by the Pol Pot regime , by the many landmines that are still buried in the ground or by the vietnamese army. I did not get a chance though to check how open is the government to foreign investors and ventures.
And Cambodia does have a night-life. Siem Reap has many pubs, bars and restaurants that offer a variety of foods. You will also find massage parlours that offer "special services" and the so-called Karaoke clubs which are actually brothels.
If you are a person who likes exploring different cultures, understanding history and getting inspired by the spirit of human endevour, you will enjoy your visit to Cambodia.
