Just Go Places Magazine Cambodia Cambodia | Page 16

photographic records maintained by the Khmer Rouge
was something that I will never forget, all the more so
because there was zero other tourists there at the time
I visited. On the more lively side, I also vividly recall
browsing the Phnom Penh central market featuring
fruit, vegetables, marijuana, various animals and other
exotic delicacies.
Acquiring a domestic air ticket at the Kâmpuchea
Airlines office was quite the experience, superseded
only by the flight itself in an old Russian
helicopter with the not so reassuring
sight of UNTAC chopper wreckage near
the runway at Siem Reap airport. Most
of the other passengers were locals or
military types. As one would expect, the
airport was not exactly buzzing with
activity. One friendly local face, Kim, did
approach me with the offer of a
comfortable guest house for $5 a night.
For an additional $5, he would escort me
into the Angkor Wat temples complex via
the "back route" to avoid the interim
government imposed fee of $120 which
seemed rather steep all things considered. I would later
reflect that I should have probably spent the extra cash.
On the first day I rode pillion on the back of Kim’s
small motorbike when he asked me to please make sure
to maintain my balance. When we reached the tree line,
he stopped, looked back, and then confessed that we’d
just navigated our way through a mine field.

The next day I was assured was much less risky. At
5:45am, as we sped along the approach road to the
main Angkor temple entrance (which is left open
overnight for the locals to pass through the complex),
one army guard had obviously woken early and rushed
out to pull the boom gate down. Kim accelerated and
we passed underneath avoiding decapitation with a few
seconds to spare. Not sure which day was worse, but I
decided that in future paying $120 was definitely more
conducive to extending one’s life and
significantly reducing stress!
One of the very few places to socialize
in Siem Reap back then was the Minefield
bar. It was owned by an affable New
Zealander who had apparently mentored
the Khmer Rouge in seve