Addiction on the up in Cambodia

Fresh off the Bus

This is a cautionary tale for anyone wanting to come to on Cambodia holiday and I hope the story you read makes you all think long and hard. Visiting Cambodia has had far reaching and potentially irreversible effects on my life.

I could never have imagined the course of events that my first and subsequent trip would set in motion and now I am utterly ruined and in a place from which there may be no return. My first trip was temples and beaches and Pagodas and rain and humidity and grit and eyes bulging out of my head at the myriad of visuals that Cambodia constantly throws at you.

I marvelled at families of five comfortably travelling on a single scooter, saffron robed monks with parasols strolling the streets and colonial French architecture aplenty. Poverty on a scale I had never witnessed before existed alongside completely unexpected and obscene wealth. Shiny new Cadillac Escalades and Hum Vees jostled with rickshaws and tuk tuks and traffic obeyed one simple rule – tonnage on the road has right of way at all times!

I was agog at the beauty of the women, aghast at some of the seedier “visitors” getting around and gob smacked by the vibe city put out. Every day I spent in Cambodia that first trip brought something new and exciting and left me craving more and more like the worst of addicts. I was up early every day taking hundreds of photos and exchanging pleasantries with the locals both young and old. The smiles that emanated from the Khmer people’s faces only fuelled my growing addiction and I knew things were getting out of control but I felt powerless to stop it.

My travelling partner, who happened to be my older sister, could see me spiralling out of control and knew she could only watch as her brother gave himself over to his new addiction like a kid who had discovered candy for the first time. I returned home with my life in a one way spiral. I had to somehow hide my situation from my family so that they would not try and intervene or drag me off for counselling.

I returned to my job with a solid company where I was middle management and earning a good wage and convinced everyone I was really glad to be back. They had no idea! As the weeks passed, my cravings got stronger and stronger and I soon found myself planning my next binge. Before I knew it the time was upon me again and I was soon leaving my family yet again for the place that could satisfy my itch and get my synapses firing again.

Would it be the same the second time around or was it just experimentation fuelled by boredom the first time? Would I be utterly disappointed and return dismayed at my own stupidity for getting hooked in the first place? Would it completely ruin me forever? Well…..yes, no, no, no and yes.

My second trip confirmed that I was indeed a Cambodia addict. Certified hardcore. Craving. Raving and to be avoided at all costs.

The immediate high I got from landing on the tarmac was well worth the seven month low I endured whilst I was home and I wasted no time in getting out and about. I revisited people I had met the first time, Khmer and Barang alike, and travelled to Kratie and Mondulkiri for out of the way experiences.

I got more adventurous with the local cuisine, screwed motodops to the last Riel and worked on my Khmer vocabulary. All the time becoming ever more realising that this was where I needed to be for the next while. With my mind set, I returned home, quit my job (“you are going where? “), rented out my house, packed my bags, said goodbye to my family (“you ARE coming back aren’t you? “) and got straight back on the plane with a one way ticket. Cambodia got under my skin unlike any other country I have ever travelled in and now I live here, totally hooked and enjoying my drug of choice.

I can not say what the future holds but I can say that I am now experiencing something special and enriching and I would not have it any other way. My colleagues in the office are running a book on when I will get married (I think my girlfriend’s family are already planning it?), my Khmer teacher says I am doing a fine job of taking on the language and every day brings a new and interesting experience – whether it be dodging elephants on my motorbike or seeing shot up LandCruisers in the street.

So that’s my tale of woe. I hope it serves as a warning to any of you that are thinking about dabbling with this country of contradictions. Everything about it gets to you and gets to you quick and perhaps the best advice I have had comes from colleagues who tell me “Just give yourself over to it….don’t fight it…you won’t win!” or, as my wise father succinctly put it before I departed, “My lad….you aren’t the first man to be seduce by the East and you won’t be the last! “ Truer words were never spoken.

Justin Garnett