Three people you should meet in Siem Reap

Published on Friday, 28 September 2012 

The Malaya Business Insight

Written by ELLEN TORDESILLAS

‘One remarkable thing about Siem Reap: You don’t see any sign warning tourists about pickpockets because there are none.’

I NEVER cease to be awed by Angkor Wat.

The first time I stepped on the once- sacred grounds of the sprawling (covers an area of almost two hectares) the 2,000-year-old temple was an overwhelming experience. That was in 1987. I was with a group of journalists of different nationalities covering Southeast Asia. It was a side trip from our main coverage which was an interview with Cambodian officials led by Hun Sen, the former Khmer Rouge commander who abandoned the genocidal regime in 1977 and emerged as the leader of the Vietnamese-backed government in Phnom Penh. He is currently the prime minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia.

Last week, I went back to Siem Reap with my friend, Marilyn Robles. For three days, we went temple-hopping, a total of 23 temples in three days. In the process of being enthralled by the distinct features of each temple, we met interesting persons.

One was Muk Moon, former monk and a resident of Angkor Wat.

He approached us as we were about to enter the main gate of Angkor Wat, asking if we needed a guide. “This is my hotel,” he said to underscore his familiarity with the place.

Indeed, he knows Angkor Wat like the palm of his hand. From the information he shared including his views about life, one can sense his innate intelligence.

Moon (pronounced Mawn), 37, learned English in the United Nations refugee camp at the Cambodia-Thailand border. He said his parents are gone.

He was born in the year (1975) that the Pol Pot-led Democratic of Kampuchea started implementing their experimental “socialism without a model.”

 Cambodia expert David Chandler, said in his , “A history of Cambodia”, “To transform the country thoroughly and at once, Communist cadres ordered everyone out of the cities and towns. In the week after April 17, 1975, over two million Cambodians were pushed into the countryside toward an uncertain fate…” News accounts put the number of those who died of famine, disease, and torture during the Khmer Rouge short-lived regime to two to three million.

Moon said he was recruited by the Vietnamese-backed Cambodia Army to fight the Khmer Rouge.

He didn’t like the war, he said. He joined the monks.

He is no longer a monk but he continues to live with the monks, who have their living quarters in Angkor Wat. Some days, he said, he spends the night in one of the many rooms in the temple.

He exudes an air of serenity. Although there are things that he laments about life in Siem Reap (the loss of huge part of the forests), he has learned to accept things as they are. “Big talking, big smiling,” he said of his life.

The other interesting Cambodian we met was So Rith, a history student, who works as guide when he has no classes. We met him at Preah Khan temple last Sunday.

We noticed a lot of well spaced holes, about one inch in size, on a certain rooms of the temple and So explained that diamonds were embedded on those walls as décor. Thieves, known as tomb raiders, took them out.

Just like Moon, So also pointed out to the headless Buddhas, as the handiwork of tomb raiders.

Preah Khan has four medicine rooms. (Angkor Wat has one). Moon explained that the room is where the medicine man performs a ritual to cure those who consult him. To test if a person is well, he is made to stand against the wall, and is made to tap his chest three times. While doing that, if one is healthy, one can feel the echo of the tapping.

If you have more time, visit the St. John Catholic Church at East Riverside Road at Slokram Village. The parish priest is young Indonesian Jesuit priest, Fr. Stepanus Winarto. He said he has spent time in “Ateneo, Katipunan.”

Fr. Winarto said he has a lot of Filipino parishioners. The church has a gift shop with items produced by victims of land mines. Their Jesus Christ has one leg.

One remarkable thing about Siem Reap: You don’t see any sign warning tourists about pickpockets because there are none.

That’s one of the things Filipinos should learn from the people of Siem Reap if they want attract more tourists.