Let’s go Cambodia – our way to Phnom Penh

bus journey from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh

After we left Angkor temples, we took a 7-hour bus to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. I was leaning on the seat, looking at the scenes from the bus windows that I had never seen in real life. The extremely poor villages and living. The journey was eye-opening.

We traveled on a gravel road by bus. There were shacks built on wooden stilts off the ground beside the road we traveled, for clearing the floods of the next monsoon. These shacks mostly built facing the road, with the backyards used for agriculture.

We took a look daily life of the villagers on our way: most of the villagers farm the land or fish to obtain their food, and they live with minimal or without electricity, safe drinking water or any other support. So the place was totally dark at night, with only lights of vehicles on the road visible. What amazed us was the sardine like quality of transportation, vehicles such as motorbike, car or truck was overloaded with passengers or goods.

On the half of our journey, about 4-5pm in the afternoon, we stopped at a village for some fresh air. I don’t even know the name of the place, yet without wasting the few minutes I’d got, I quickly took some shots of the people living there. They seemed to us like strangers.

Most of us would never experience life like the Khmer villagers. Such living conditions gave us the impression of a poor and an unhappy life, many of the villagers however seemed contented and happy with their life: kids running wildly, women relaxing in hammocks, men having drinks and chit chat together. This situation reminded me of an old Chinese story:

When Chuang-Tzu (an influential Chinese philosopher who lived around the 4th century BCE) was talking with a friend about some fish in a pond.

He said, “Look at those minnows darting here and there. How free and pleasurable is the life of a fish.“

His friend pointed out to him, “You are not a fish – how do you know that their life is free and pleasurable?” – in other words, you aren’t a fish, and you are making an assumption about what kind of life a fish leads.

Chuang-Tzu retorted, “You’re not me. How do you know that I don’t know what makes a fish happy?” – in other words, you are also making an assumption about what I know or don’t know.

Our mind creates our world, thus contentment is the key to happiness. We have to consider ourselves always to be very fortunate to have what we have now in our life and learn to appreciate them.

The 7-hour journey in fact broadened our mind. We then continued to Phnom Penh.

May all beings be happy. Sharing some shots I took when we stopped for a short break:

road signs

villagers

Khmer father and child

food stall

my friend, Zam (left) and a Khmer boy

on hammock

lollipop, melt in mouth

my friend, Amy (left) and the villagers

adorable Khmer kid

sharing the candy

smile?