Beauty in the eye of the beholder

Wednesday 16 December 2015

What a difference a day makes. I was perhaps starting to despair of Cambodia as we drove the 100km down the coast from Sihanoukville in a “VIP” mini-bus, its broken seats filled to bursting with sweating, tattered, slightly morose backpackers of all nations along with their bags, guitars, etc.

Outside the bus as well as inside is scruffy, dirty and uninspired. The road to Kep is not too bad but it passes through some fairly dull countryside - miles of flat recently harvested rice fields, with innumerable tin shack houses. And always the litter! Every road is lined with piles of rotting garbage and plastic. Why? Do they not see it? I was searching for the beauty everywhere.

I can't help feeling that beauty – both natural and made-made - makes all the difference to quality of life. Surely there's more to Khmer culture than Angkor Wat? The only place I found any sense of aesthetics in Sihanoukville was at the wat near Otres. Yes, it was a building site of course, but at least someone had planted flowers and they were painting the temple buildings. Maybe it will take another generation or so to recover from the civil war. Sadly, in the mean time other dominant cultures continue to flood in – from the western backpackers to the Chinese tourists. And now the Russians are in there too. The delicate flowering of Khmer culture doesn’t really stand a chance.

But then the bus journey was over and we got to Bacoma in Kep and suddenly there is beauty possible in Cambodia! It's fab! We stayed at Bacoma for two months back in 2013/14 and loved it. It is quite possibly the best-run bungalow resort in SE Asia with clean, well-maintained bungalows (with hot showers – hooray!) set in a lush green tropical garden filled with flowers, birds and butterflies. The air is much drier here and a gentle sea breeze keeps the temperature below 30. The village is much more integrated, with westerners and Khmers together. And best of all we don’t have the constant anxiety of the petty crime to put up with. Our home for 3 weeks. And relax ...