Dear Friends,
Thank you very much for the interest in my book and for the number of letters I had received from you.
Also, please be advised that the full version of my book "The Kingdom of" will be exclusively posted on the site of Cambodia Business Network at: http://www.cambodiabusinessnetwork.com/
Thank you very much for the interest in my book and for the number of letters I had received from you.
Also, please be advised that the full version of my book "The Kingdom of" will be exclusively posted on the site of Cambodia Business Network at: http://www.
Read part five here.
By Gregory Shukhman
Part Six: Brothers
Mikhail introduced us to Volodya and Murat, two guys who had always appeared to me to be the minister’s bodyguards. They were both originally from Kiev, so we had at least one thing in common. And, we exchanged our smiles, which I took to be a good sign.
The Minister took our passports, as well as the tickets for our baggage, and handed the documents to one of the custom officers in order to proceed with the necessary visa procedures. Meanwhile, we went outside and waited at the café.
Bunnaroeun reported to Mikhail on his work, which was complete by this time. He had located a few possibilities for housing, as he had been directed to do by Rabinovich. In fact, the goal was not to find just any house. The purpose instead was to determine appropriate lodging and facility space for a future Ukrainian Embassy. Michael complimented Bunnaroeun on his efforts, and then moved to a new point of discussion. He indicated that the sale of available agricultural commodities would be assigned to their American counterparts, and then looked to Alex and me for agreement.
Whoever happened to be watching us would definitely notice that we were engaged in a serious business atmosphere at the café, a tense environment that was only heightened with a temperature at only 10:00 a.m of 90 degrees Fahrenheit and a humidity level that stood at close to 100%. The tropical heat, which was not normal weather for the area, had all of us sweating. During this conversation, it became clear to me that the recent visit from Rabinovich had been constructive in taking the first steps towards creating a substantial team.
We were all thankful that the twenty dollars we paid to the custom officers meant that we were not waiting too long for our paperwork to be processed. In only about twenty-five minutes, we were inside our car and enjoying the hard-working air conditioner.
Mikhail, Alex, and I were sitting together in the car’s back seat and it only took a few minutes before we were freezing. The minister seemed oblivious to the effect of this temperature change, as he was sitting up front touring and telling us some exclusive stories about the history of his country, including the buildings, monuments, and the great Wat Phnom.
Our escort of three cars was moving comfortably through the chaos on the streets of Phnom Penh, which were mixed with a thousand bicycles, scooters, cars, and pedestrians. I have been a New Yorker for twenty years and surrounded by terrifying yellow cabs, but looking at this crazy street motion caused an excitement in all of us. There was also a sense of pity, though, when we had to watch blood of the street’s next victim.
Our lead car was an official car, similar to an open jeep, with special flashing lights and a siren. There were eight people wearing guards’ uniforms who were seating face-to-face to each other, with four on each side of the car. They were carefully observing the moving traffic and if some rule wasn’t obeyed or our convey was threatened, our security threw everything available, which usually ended up being plastic bottles filled with unfinished water.
That ride, which was my first experience in Cambodia, now seems really funny and exotic to me. The fact that our host had endured this extraordinary spectacle all for a prospective business opportunity forced me gradually to begin to fall in love with this country.
We soon entered the gates of a single standing house which, as I understood, Minister Bunnaroeun had found for Mr. Rabinovich. The Minister provided us with a brief description of the house, including the impressive fact that it belongs to someone from the royal family. The building sat on a big open space complete with an ornamental statuary fountain. It was by this fountain that we met a female real estate agent who welcomed us in traditional fashion by bowing and holding her praying hands to her nose. We returned the greeting with cheers and smiles.
The house was big, about 10,000 square feet, and detailed with chiseled mahogany. There was a beautiful, scenic garden created in the eastern tropical style, with a huge terrace to enjoy the views. The price for the property was listed at $18,000 a month, which definitely was different from Mikhail’s expectations of Cambodia. He once asked me what price he should consider to be too high. My opinion was based on my knowledge of the "Platinum Triangle" in Los Angeles. At that time, I shared, “In Bel Air, you may rent a home with the tennis court, an Olympic-sized swimming pool, and a beautiful garden equal to the size of a house. I’m sure Rabinovich may find such a place for $15,000 in Cambodia.” But, I did not take into account that the home might be from the royal family. Despite my poor guess at the cost of the home, I filmed all of the details requested by Mikhail so that Mr. Rabinovich could make the final decision.
Pacific Phnom Penh Hotel, the place at which the Minister made a reservation for us, was located conveniently in the city center. It was not particularly expensive or luxurious, but it would be fine. As the Minister had explained, we would only be there for the nights as we would have busy schedules and various meetings to attend. The Minister got individual rooms for our entire party, so we ended up occupying the entire fourth floor.
After we got settled into our assigned rooms and offered to the Minister some presents which we had brought with us, our group met downstairs. The Minister kindly offered massages and sauna treatments at the hotel spa to relax for the first day, which was a very nice gesture. These relaxing appointments made everyone feel close to perfect. The sense of tiredness was gone and a new stream of energy exploded, with the new sense that we could become friends and not just business associates.
We walked through the hotel to a restaurant at which the Minister introduced us to some of his friends. The men politely greeted us as is customary, bowing and raising their hands to the forehead line in a praying manner. This act was quickly followed by the men passing their business cards to us with the two hands that just had been used in prayer. We copied this ritual and gave them our cards in the same manner. I had never before been in that region of Indochina, so all of those customs were new and interesting to me.
We walked to a private room, following the restaurant owner. In the room was a big, round table with a moving top, such as you may expect to see in places like TAO or China Grill restaurants in New York. This feature is very convenient for big parties to share the food. Two of the chairs in the room were draped in white covers as if they were designed to be thrones for a king and a queen. Bunnaroeun made the note that these chairs were reserved for important guests. Despite some protests, I was able to persuade Alex and Mikhail to sit on these chairs due to their seniority and they looked funny. Next to me was seated Mr. Kanara, who happened to speak English and who often visited his relatives in New York. He was a friend to a minister and had some business position with the Cambodian Lottery.
We enjoyed traditional Cambodian food, including shark fin soup, frogs, and spiders combined with Ukrainian vodka, which Mikhail had brought with him. The meal was a lot of fun; we managed to have perfect understanding among the group using the three languages of Russian, Khmer and English. We found common interests, from business to women, which led to no shortage of jokes and fun.
After quite a bit of vodka, the minister promised that all of us would get married to beautiful Cambodian girls. In high spirits from that idea, we decided not to end a wonderful evening and we all went to Rock, a huge entertainment center that included a disco club, a hotel, spa and massage services, and karaoke at a nearby hall. The Minister was well known at Rock and the personnel there presented him a few rooms from which to choose for our entertainment. He picked a big room and our entire party of sixteen, including drivers and some members of security, was seated in one line along the wall on a nice and soft sofa which literally swallowed up our backs like a featherbed. A moment later, organized young men and women were bringing small steel tables to serve the group with a variety of nuts, fruits, and drinks.
There instantly appeared a wave of young and beautiful girls, no less than fifty in number. They stood in the center of the hall, looking pleadingly at each of us. Minister gave us priority to choose first, but our inexperience caused us to hesitate. Then the Minister, like a conductor, knew which instrument should be played in each section. He sent a girl to each one of us until the spaces between us started to fill with beautiful melodies.
After the girls who weren’t selected left, a new group entered and posed for us in the center of the room. Two girls, who were sitting on either side of me, started pouring drinks and massaging our shoulders. Our dialogue was limited to “you’re beautiful” and “you’re handsome,” which was perfectly fine with me. Murat, Volodya, and Mikhail, on the other hand, were asking the minister to translate, indicating that they were falling in love.
And definitely, a beautiful melodies and dances of ram vong, ram kbach and ram saravan, carry you dipper and dipper into the world of pure love and understanding.
At nine in the morning we all had breakfast at the hotel restaurant and prepared for business following our meal. Everyone was in a good mood and felt younger after the sense of energy they enjoyed last night. There were yells of “leah sen heuy” and "bong sra-lun oun na,” meaning “goodbye” and “I love you,” as we had learned from our minister.
We traveled from province to province seeing rice fields and fish farms—from factory to factory and land to land, everything was available for sale. We were meeting mayors, businessmen, friends, and brothers and we were impressed with the symbol of Cambodia Angkor Wat. Our food experience was growing and no longer limited to monkey brains, turtles, lizards, cobras and cobra’s blood mixed with vodka. As our brother Bunnaroeun used to say, borrowing an expression from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, “It’s very good for a ‘central committee.” We all laughed and drank at that truth. Every day continued pretty much the same but in different places. Through it all, our brother Bunnaroeun was at the center of the action and everyone started to prize him as a future Prime Minister.
To be continued:
By Gregory Shukhman
Part Six: Brothers
Mikhail introduced us to Volodya and Murat, two guys who had always appeared to me to be the minister’s bodyguards. They were both originally from Kiev, so we had at least one thing in common. And, we exchanged our smiles, which I took to be a good sign.
The Minister took our passports, as well as the tickets for our baggage, and handed the documents to one of the custom officers in order to proceed with the necessary visa procedures. Meanwhile, we went outside and waited at the café.
Bunnaroeun reported to Mikhail on his work, which was complete by this time. He had located a few possibilities for housing, as he had been directed to do by Rabinovich. In fact, the goal was not to find just any house. The purpose instead was to determine appropriate lodging and facility space for a future Ukrainian Embassy. Michael complimented Bunnaroeun on his efforts, and then moved to a new point of discussion. He indicated that the sale of available agricultural commodities would be assigned to their American counterparts, and then looked to Alex and me for agreement.
Whoever happened to be watching us would definitely notice that we were engaged in a serious business atmosphere at the café, a tense environment that was only heightened with a temperature at only 10:00 a.m of 90 degrees Fahrenheit and a humidity level that stood at close to 100%. The tropical heat, which was not normal weather for the area, had all of us sweating. During this conversation, it became clear to me that the recent visit from Rabinovich had been constructive in taking the first steps towards creating a substantial team.
We were all thankful that the twenty dollars we paid to the custom officers meant that we were not waiting too long for our paperwork to be processed. In only about twenty-five minutes, we were inside our car and enjoying the hard-working air conditioner.
Mikhail, Alex, and I were sitting together in the car’s back seat and it only took a few minutes before we were freezing. The minister seemed oblivious to the effect of this temperature change, as he was sitting up front touring and telling us some exclusive stories about the history of his country, including the buildings, monuments, and the great Wat Phnom.
Our escort of three cars was moving comfortably through the chaos on the streets of Phnom Penh, which were mixed with a thousand bicycles, scooters, cars, and pedestrians. I have been a New Yorker for twenty years and surrounded by terrifying yellow cabs, but looking at this crazy street motion caused an excitement in all of us. There was also a sense of pity, though, when we had to watch blood of the street’s next victim.
Our lead car was an official car, similar to an open jeep, with special flashing lights and a siren. There were eight people wearing guards’ uniforms who were seating face-to-face to each other, with four on each side of the car. They were carefully observing the moving traffic and if some rule wasn’t obeyed or our convey was threatened, our security threw everything available, which usually ended up being plastic bottles filled with unfinished water.
That ride, which was my first experience in Cambodia, now seems really funny and exotic to me. The fact that our host had endured this extraordinary spectacle all for a prospective business opportunity forced me gradually to begin to fall in love with this country.
We soon entered the gates of a single standing house which, as I understood, Minister Bunnaroeun had found for Mr. Rabinovich. The Minister provided us with a brief description of the house, including the impressive fact that it belongs to someone from the royal family. The building sat on a big open space complete with an ornamental statuary fountain. It was by this fountain that we met a female real estate agent who welcomed us in traditional fashion by bowing and holding her praying hands to her nose. We returned the greeting with cheers and smiles.
The house was big, about 10,000 square feet, and detailed with chiseled mahogany. There was a beautiful, scenic garden created in the eastern tropical style, with a huge terrace to enjoy the views. The price for the property was listed at $18,000 a month, which definitely was different from Mikhail’s expectations of Cambodia. He once asked me what price he should consider to be too high. My opinion was based on my knowledge of the "Platinum Triangle" in Los Angeles. At that time, I shared, “In Bel Air, you may rent a home with the tennis court, an Olympic-sized swimming pool, and a beautiful garden equal to the size of a house. I’m sure Rabinovich may find such a place for $15,000 in Cambodia.” But, I did not take into account that the home might be from the royal family. Despite my poor guess at the cost of the home, I filmed all of the details requested by Mikhail so that Mr. Rabinovich could make the final decision.
Pacific Phnom Penh Hotel, the place at which the Minister made a reservation for us, was located conveniently in the city center. It was not particularly expensive or luxurious, but it would be fine. As the Minister had explained, we would only be there for the nights as we would have busy schedules and various meetings to attend. The Minister got individual rooms for our entire party, so we ended up occupying the entire fourth floor.
After we got settled into our assigned rooms and offered to the Minister some presents which we had brought with us, our group met downstairs. The Minister kindly offered massages and sauna treatments at the hotel spa to relax for the first day, which was a very nice gesture. These relaxing appointments made everyone feel close to perfect. The sense of tiredness was gone and a new stream of energy exploded, with the new sense that we could become friends and not just business associates.
We walked through the hotel to a restaurant at which the Minister introduced us to some of his friends. The men politely greeted us as is customary, bowing and raising their hands to the forehead line in a praying manner. This act was quickly followed by the men passing their business cards to us with the two hands that just had been used in prayer. We copied this ritual and gave them our cards in the same manner. I had never before been in that region of Indochina, so all of those customs were new and interesting to me.
We walked to a private room, following the restaurant owner. In the room was a big, round table with a moving top, such as you may expect to see in places like TAO or China Grill restaurants in New York. This feature is very convenient for big parties to share the food. Two of the chairs in the room were draped in white covers as if they were designed to be thrones for a king and a queen. Bunnaroeun made the note that these chairs were reserved for important guests. Despite some protests, I was able to persuade Alex and Mikhail to sit on these chairs due to their seniority and they looked funny. Next to me was seated Mr. Kanara, who happened to speak English and who often visited his relatives in New York. He was a friend to a minister and had some business position with the Cambodian Lottery.
We enjoyed traditional Cambodian food, including shark fin soup, frogs, and spiders combined with Ukrainian vodka, which Mikhail had brought with him. The meal was a lot of fun; we managed to have perfect understanding among the group using the three languages of Russian, Khmer and English. We found common interests, from business to women, which led to no shortage of jokes and fun.
After quite a bit of vodka, the minister promised that all of us would get married to beautiful Cambodian girls. In high spirits from that idea, we decided not to end a wonderful evening and we all went to Rock, a huge entertainment center that included a disco club, a hotel, spa and massage services, and karaoke at a nearby hall. The Minister was well known at Rock and the personnel there presented him a few rooms from which to choose for our entertainment. He picked a big room and our entire party of sixteen, including drivers and some members of security, was seated in one line along the wall on a nice and soft sofa which literally swallowed up our backs like a featherbed. A moment later, organized young men and women were bringing small steel tables to serve the group with a variety of nuts, fruits, and drinks.
There instantly appeared a wave of young and beautiful girls, no less than fifty in number. They stood in the center of the hall, looking pleadingly at each of us. Minister gave us priority to choose first, but our inexperience caused us to hesitate. Then the Minister, like a conductor, knew which instrument should be played in each section. He sent a girl to each one of us until the spaces between us started to fill with beautiful melodies.
After the girls who weren’t selected left, a new group entered and posed for us in the center of the room. Two girls, who were sitting on either side of me, started pouring drinks and massaging our shoulders. Our dialogue was limited to “you’re beautiful” and “you’re handsome,” which was perfectly fine with me. Murat, Volodya, and Mikhail, on the other hand, were asking the minister to translate, indicating that they were falling in love.
And definitely, a beautiful melodies and dances of ram vong, ram kbach and ram saravan, carry you dipper and dipper into the world of pure love and understanding.
At nine in the morning we all had breakfast at the hotel restaurant and prepared for business following our meal. Everyone was in a good mood and felt younger after the sense of energy they enjoyed last night. There were yells of “leah sen heuy” and "bong sra-lun oun na,” meaning “goodbye” and “I love you,” as we had learned from our minister.
We traveled from province to province seeing rice fields and fish farms—from factory to factory and land to land, everything was available for sale. We were meeting mayors, businessmen, friends, and brothers and we were impressed with the symbol of Cambodia Angkor Wat. Our food experience was growing and no longer limited to monkey brains, turtles, lizards, cobras and cobra’s blood mixed with vodka. As our brother Bunnaroeun used to say, borrowing an expression from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, “It’s very good for a ‘central committee.” We all laughed and drank at that truth. Every day continued pretty much the same but in different places. Through it all, our brother Bunnaroeun was at the center of the action and everyone started to prize him as a future Prime Minister.
To be continued:
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