My Travels with Tintin – Cambodia

I only have a single Tintin album in Khmer, “ផ្កាឈូកខៀវ.” (The Blue Lotus), but then again, that’s all anyone else has – it’s the only Tintin album officially translated into the language. It was published in 2001 by Casterman, as a three-way joint effort between the French Cultural Center (CCF) and the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP).

Of course it’s not really surprising that it’s the only album available as it took students at RUPP two years to adapt French colloquialisms and historical technical terms into appropriate Khmer.

Knowing this going in though, I had very little hope I’d be leaving Siem Reap with a copy.

Of course, where there’s a will, there’s a way… and a sketchy looking Frenchman manning a booth in a local market came to my rescue. There he was, hidden in amongst the various tourist fare of silver teapots and elephant-print t-shirts – a guy who looked like he’d been wandering around South-East Asia for a long time, and who engaged in “employment” only as a means to continue his transient lifestyle. He was not much of a salesman, in fact he barely mumbled a few words at me in French, but who cares? Somehow this guy had exactly what I was looking for – the Tintin album in Khmer!

Or so I thought.

Upon closer inspection my enthusiasm quickly dampened as I realized that the crappy B&W photocopy and cheap “hole in the wall” print shop binding meant it was obviously a pirate edition. Now normally I would shy away from something like that, but honestly, 15 years out of print with a very limited print run to begin with? This was about as good as it was going to get… besides, it’s not like I wanted to READ it. So I handed over a few riel and walked away with my Cambodian pirate edition and a similarly bound photocopy of “LE FIGARO Hors série – Tintin reporter du siècle“.  I’d never seen it before, so I negotiated a price for the pair. It was barely legible though, and have since replaced it with a legit copy.

To be honest, even though it’s a pirate copy, it somehow feels more “legit” as representation of my trip to Cambodia. I mean, it’s kind of one-of-a-kind. I bought it there, on the ground during my trip, from a scruffy-looking guy in crowded market. Not an experience you can replicate through online shopping.

If I can ever find a true copy (that I can afford), I’ll be happy to replace it… but in the meantime, I’m happy I have it.

My trip to Cambodia:

I’ve only been to Cambodia once, for a “just after Christmas to New Year” family vacation, from December 27 2017 to January 2, 2018.

At the time, we were living in Seoul, so it wasn’t THAT far a flight – only about 8 hours. When we arrived at the airport my son, Elliot spotted his schoolteacher who had also been in Siem Reap for her own Christmas vacation and was just leaving. The meeting was a bit of a blur, she and her family trying to get on an airplane to leave and we were just arriving, so it really wasn’t much more than a few waves and well-wishes.

However, when we got to the hotel, I was informed that I had some correspondence waiting for me. Actually it was for my son. It was a wonderful hand-written letter addressed to Elliot from his teacher, wishing him a great vacation, offering a few tips on what to see/do, and wishing us all a very happy new year in 2018.

It was just a small gesture really, but it had a profound impact on all of us – but none more so than Elliot who felt… seen. I will never forget that lesson that sometimes its the small gestures that really matter.

Of course, we didn’t really need the suggestions on what to see in Siem Reap – it’s an amazing place. First on the list though – and the biggest reason to visit Siem Reap – was Angkor Wat. Wikipedia will tell you that Angkor Wat is a Theravada Buddhist temple complex, constructed between 1113 and 1150 CE during the reign of the Khmer king Suryavarman II, and the largest religious complex in the world.  It also started out as a Hindu temple dedicated to Vishnu, but in the late 13th century onward, the complex was gradually transformed into a Buddhist temple and has remained an active center of Buddhist worship for centuries. It is a national symbol of Cambodia and appears on the Cambodian national flag.

It really is one of the wonders of the world. The grounds are vast, the stone work is amazing – so it’s hard to believe that when Portuguese traders and missionaries re-discovered it hidden in the northern Cambodian jungles, it had been abandoned for over 150 years. Just swallowed right up. Walking around the grounds – despite the drone of humanity caused by the massive amounts of tourists – you can feel an amazing serenity. One thing that did bother me though was that there are basically no Buddhist statues with their heads intact. It’s a bit odd to walk around all those headless statues – and it’s even worse when you find out that the main reason for this is the Khmer Rouge. Cambodia has a troubled recent history – more on that later – but according to our local guide the Khmer Rouge decapitated all the statutes. Their stated reasons for this were ideological and based on their radical communist ideals, but like most ideologies, it usually comes down to cold hard cash. Those Buddha heads were worth a lot of money on the black market – and it’s cheaper to just grab the head rather than the whole statue, that’s the only part the collectors care about anyway. It’s probably the least of the crimes of the Khmer Rouge – especially when you think of the literally millions of Cambodians who were killed at their hands – but it was a lasting symbol, and it struck a rather somber chord with me.

Oh, and It was also HOT… and a long long way to walk. So if you’re going, pack some water.

Not far away from Angkor Wat is another temple worth seeing – Ta Prohm. It’s another of the many local temples. What makes this one special though is that it was built without mortar, so after it was abandoned the jungle trees started grow around, over and generally through it. It’s got a unique and amazing look to it, and it was made even more famous by Angelina Jolie when she filmed Tomb Raider (2001) there and used the temple as an iconic bit of scenery. Sadly people now refer to it as “the Tomb Raider temple”.  Hopefully that will pass. It’s been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1992, so hopefully it will be around a long time after everyone has forgotten about that bit of it. Not that I dislike Tomb Raider mind you, it just seems a bit of a slap in the face for something so ancient and iconic.

As I said, Cambodia’s recent history is quite sad. As a product of the Khmer Rouge’s genocide policies from 1975-1979 when the were finally ousted, Cambodia has literally been overrun with landmines. They’re still finding them today – usually when they blow up. So, even though we didn’t want to dwell on the sad local history, I think we felt a bit of an obligation to make ourselves more aware of it. I always find it a bit of a balancing act. I’ve been to several terribly sad museums, in Hanoi, in Riga, in Washington, in Seoul… on the one hand I feel like I should know about the sad parts of their history, but I try not to be a gawker. Still, we did take a few hours out of our afternoon to tour the Cambodian Landmine Museum. It was eye-opening to say the least. The staggering numbers of the ordnance was sobering, and the examples on hand were illustrative to say the least.

On a happier note we also signed up for a boat tour to head Tonlé Sap Lake and see the Kompong Phluk fishing village. It was quite amazing because the village is designed to withstand the massive seasonal water level changes. We were there during the dry season – which is probably the best time to go – so after a pleasant cruise in a long, traditional-style boat out to the village we were able to see it up on stilts. Like a lot of things in Cambodia, even though they village’s main industry is arguably based on fishing in the lake, tourism plays a huge role. I don’t really begrudge them the opportunity, but everywhere you looked, someone had their hand out. Besides the money, it also made me wonder how much of the “authentic fishing village lifestyle” was just there for show.

Still, the people were friendly and it was quite strange to see the houses built quite high up off the ground and image how different it would look during the wet season. At first it seemed quite odd, but then I thought about how different my own house in Canada looks depending if you come and see it during the pleasant summer, or when it’s buried under a meter of snow. I’ve told people before – especially international visitors who primarily come during the summer months – that the infrastructure in Canada is built for the cold. It’s not suddenly cold, and our homes and network infrastructure is built with that in mind… so really, it’s not that different, right?

After we toured the village a bit, we were off on a canoe tour of the mangrove forest. It was neat, but probably the activity during the day that I liked the least. The canoe was paddled by a couple of women and while I know they knew I didn’t speak Khmer, so we wouldn’t have had anything to discuss, but they didn’t seem to want to make any effort to engage with us in anyway. Honestly though, that seemed on brand for most of the tourist related industries in Cambodia. There was always just a feeling of expectation. I’ve travelled quite a bit and a lot of places engage more with their tourists (sometimes a little too much!), but in Siem Reap I got the feeling that they felt since I was “rich” I should just hand over money for things. The boat ride was the same, we just sort of paddled aimlessly through a relatively small section of the mangrove forest – well within sight of several other boats doing the same thing. It kind of felt like a merry-go-round at an amusement park, not that exciting and not really going anywhere. Then, every few minutes we’d pull up next to some parked boat that had water, snacks, or small souvenirs for sale… and even though we clearly signaled we weren’t interested, it took a while for our guides to get moving again.

Oh well, at least we ended the day by taking a larger boat out into the Tonlé Sap Lake to see the sunset. That was pleasant if not particularly spectacular on the day. Of course that also meant that we had to ride back to the bus in a quickly darkening evening.

All in all though, I think this was one of the better trips we took in South-East Asia. Although if felt odd to be listening to Bing Crosby croon “White Christmas” while we were enjoying a tropical buffet for breakfast, it’s the only place we’ve been where we got to enjoy New Years fireworks on the beach.

Although I was disappointed that many of the vendors left me with that feeling of expectation, at least they hadn’t swung too far the other way either. I’ve been to other places (Thailand for example) where the tourist industry is much more developed, but is also much more aggressive. Generally speaking the people were kind, the sights were amazing, and the food was great, so you can’t really ask for more, right?