Ang - cor! - what?

Just after finishing university, I went on my first big trip away from home, and found myself in Laos not long after its borders had opened to tourists. It was 1998; the same year Laos’ neighbour, Cambodia, finally defeated the last remaining Khmer Rouge guerrillas who had been hiding out in the hills and was at last declared to be at peace. That summer, as I made a slow-boat journey down the Mekong River to Luang Prabang, checking in with communist party officials at official posts along the way, we heard of the odd intrepid traveller going across the border into Cambodia - not exactly the safest tourist destination at the time - into what really did seem to be a ‘Heart of Darkness’.

How things change. Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, has become the world epicentre for charities and NGOs, with aid workers trying to sort out the very real mess that emerged from the country’s decades of strife. As a result, Phnom Penh has been catering for the international development crowd for over a decade, and now boasts a plethora of smart organic food café’s, fair trade coffee shops, bars, restaurants and funky clothing boutiques.

As far as locations go, Pnhom Penh is a great place to be if you’re a charity worker. For anyone with a sense of altruism and a penchant for spring rolls, this relaxed and attractive city seems to have an organisation for pretty much every issue that you could think of. From large areas of unexploded ordinance and the associated need for prosthetic limbs, to child prostitution and sex-trafficking; Cambodia's problems are widespread and well publicised. But despite its sad history, and deeply traumatized population, Cambodia is one of the most welcoming and friendly places in the world. Like many places in South East Asia, including Thailand and Laos, the Cambodian people have a natural warmth to strangers that makes the country a joy to visit.

We had decided to come to Cambodia after a small NGO, ‘KID’ (Khmer Institute of Democracy), had said they’d wanted help making short films to teach local villagers about the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, an international effort to bring the perpetrators of the 1970's genocide to justice. As it was a legal affairs organisation, Jonny and I had offered them a month of our time, Jonny to give a hand with the legal side and I to help them with their film projects. Unfortunately, as it turned out, the time and resources simply weren’t available for me to make a film for them, as the films are in the Khmer language and they couldn’t afford a translator. So instead, Jonny and I spent a day giving much-needed advice, but were sorry that KID couldn't make more of our offer to help. I guess some problems are just insurmountable.

Voluntary work having fallen through, we headed to Siem Reap to visit Angkor Wat. The world famous temple complex is heavily influenced by Hinduism, and it seemed strange to be looking at bas-relief carvings from the Ramayana (an important Hindu religious epic) when we’d so recently said goodbye to India. There are several different sites to explore, each dating from the reign of a different Angkor King, and the carvings and temples are beautifully preserved and of exceptional quality. I was in full 'geek' mode: years of making popular history programs have instilled in me a great love for archaeological sites like this, and I eagerly read every word in our guidebook.

The place is so extensive, you could get lost at Angkor for days on end, so to make everything more accessible the authorities at Angkor have built a tarmac road running right through the park and in close proximity to some of the most amazing ruins, such as Ta Phrom. Tuk-tuks and motorbikes zoom past, pumping exhaust fumes into the air (which can’t be good for the ancient stone), and sadly destroying the tranquil atmosphere that you might to find at an ancient site in the middle of the jungle.

In search of a more ‘Indiana Jones’ experience, a couple of days (and another bout of food poisoning – damn that ice-cream!) later, we headed off to Beng Mallea, another temple site two hours drive away. Beng Mallea has undergone little or no restoration since it was ‘discovered’ but has thankfully now been cleared of land mines, a major problem for archaeological work in this area. Here in the forest, in an ‘otherworldly’ atmosphere with very few visitors, you climb through ancient doorways on the verge of collapse, and over enormous piles of stones and rubble whilst trying to picture what the ‘second library’ really did once look like. I loved it – and although we hadn’t been long in Cambodia and were due to head off to Indonesia for the diving season, I was so glad we came.