as i type this entry in the boarding area of siem reap airport, my travel companion sits next to me slurping down a tom yum soup while checking his blackberry before we head to back to hong kong via ho chi minh city. this is the conclusion of our easter "break" through cambodia, having spent the past few days traversing the majestic angkor wat temples, learning the dark history of khmer rouge rule, and meeting the local people, just living and breathing cambodian culture.
my limited southeast asian travels had brought me to thailand and laos prior - i'd also been to singapore probably 10x which doesn't count - but cambodia was definitely not what i expected. "same same but different" is a popular print on nightmarket t-shirts here and aptly describes that comparison. of particular note, the developed aspects of tourism were impressive: communicable english (at times nearly perfect, even by hawker children), clean toilets (encountered a few squatters but there are worse things), and general ease of getting around and finding places. food was unsurprisingly a fusion-combo of thai, chinese, french influenced flavors, delicious and super cheap.
internet access was also a great (and terrible) thing. while I ZAO'd, my companion checked the latest on financial markets; after all, not everyone shuts down to celebrate easter. truth be told, we must have spent more time on our macbook airs than we did in massage chairs. one night at the local dive bar angkor what? we met some hong kong tourists, one of whom had just heard of ZAOZAO a week ago. i gave all of them my biz card. networking in cambodia, BAM.
of all the activities we partook in, my favorite was the ATV/quad tour in siem reap. zig-zagging around cattle through the rice paddy fields reminded me a lot of my grandfather's farm in southern taiwan. most people who grow up in america (or non-rural areas in general) likely cannot relate, so it's a new cultural experience for them. for me, as the village people with their cows waved in passing, i thought of my father's stories about working on his farm and really making an effort to go to school despite more pressing tasks like feeding the chickens or injecting sugar into the watermelons. yet again i am reminded how lucky i am to have the opportunity to pursue my startup dreams. which brings me back again, to why i love my job enough to be motivated to work for free and during my holiday. with these thoughts in mind, hopping on that VC call tonight at 12:30am after i land and answering emails by the pool doesn't seem so bad anymore.
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