End of P2 Holidays: Cambodia and Thailand

It has been really quite a long time since I wrote anything here but my recent trip around Asia has given me a little free time to put some thoughts together. Talking about INSEAD in any detail is impossible. It's wonderful, hard work, fun and utterly bewildering at times. One of the very many wonderful things about being here is the trips away to local countries and that is a more manageable task.

My most recent trip was to Cambodia and Thailand. I decided that it was finally time to see Angkor Wat and since we were granted a full 6 days holiday by the school I sandwiched the cultural bit between Phnom Penh and Bangkok. I make it sound as though I organised the trip when in fact it was fully planned and managed by a delectable Spaniard named Antonio. He was kind enough to bring along two fabulous friends who, apart from being handsome and charming, treated me like a princess the entire time.

We started in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, with a fairly upsetting visit of the killing fields and the city prison. It is essential viewing for any visitor to the country and a terrifying reminder of what can happen when evil and power combine. As a fairly naive European I had assumed that the world had learnt its lesson with the Nazis but clearly malignant dictators can pop up anywhere, at any time. It's astonishing to think that in 1979 the regime was killing off anyone who was educated, spoke a foreign language or even wore glasses to the tune of almost 20% of the population. Even now, with Pol Pot dead and the regime disempowered, the country struggles to provide any labour to the professional segment. It's a tragic situation for a nation whose ancestors lived in a conglomeration of around 1 million and worshipped in exquisitely carved temples while London was still only a 50,000 people town.

Phnom Penh also has a happier side: a gilded, sparking jewel of a Palace and the Silver Pagoda beside it. There are hundreds of smiling buddhas bringing serenity to the place and a wonderful riverside promenade lined with restaurants and bars. The first night we dined on, among other things, deep fried frogs. It was a little reminder that the French had colonised the place and now at least partially justifies those who insist on saying that I am "Half Frog". They don't really taste like chicken, by the way.

From Phnom Penh we drove at terrifying speed to Siem Reap which was our base for visiting the temples. Angkor Wat was spectacular, obviously, and even though I knew it would be, the place still took my breath away. The temple is surrounded by a vast moat which reflects the building itself and protects the visitor on arrival from the buzzing tourists inside. Across the long stone bridge is the rambling temple itself with its labyrinthine passageways and intricately carved walls. Angkor Wat is the largest and most famous of the temples but there are scores of smaller ones and energetic Alberto, renamed "The Motivator" soon moved us on to more wonders. The temples are reminiscent of those in Tikal and equally ghostly and exotic. What is delightful is that there are still functioning shrines to the buddha and benedictions from elderly ladies who hand you josh sticks, a piece of orange string to wear as a bracelet and mumble at you in return for a couple of small notes. Somehow the fact that they are still in use, and the locals come to pray too, makes them even more enchanting.

On our final day in Siem Reap I got up at dawn, woke the boy who was sleeping in his tuk-tuk outside the hotel and got him to drive me to Angkor Thom for a final glance around this second large temple. It was wonderful to get there before the tourists, before the hawkers had become desperate to sell their wares and simply shooting photos to try and take it all in. When I ran out of battery power I simply sat and enjoyed the tranquility of the morning sun and tried to imagine how it might have looked before the giant roots of the trees bore through the stonework and toppled the columns. Part of the pleasure is trying to conceive what grandiose buildings they once were and their delapidated state leaves a lot to the imagination. Like a great book they reward time and reflection but sadly the schedule was tight and it was time to move on.

Bangkok is already one of my favourite cities in Asia. It seduced me with it's shopping, restaurants and nightclubs on a previous visit but this stay was to be a little more cultural. First stop was the Royal Palace which although similar to the Cambodian one (this pagoda is Golden) is better restored and, as they say here "Same, same but different". Apparently the princess was due to make an appearance later in the day so the Thais were out in force and wearing the royal colour, yellow. From there, The Motivator whisked us off to the Giant Buddha who, at 43m long and entirely gold coloured, somehow manages to still look serene. This was followed by the greatest scam of the century which involves buying a little pot of old coins and then throwing them into brass pots for luck (and so that they can collect them again to resell). Replete with luck and serenity we rushed over to the river for an hour tour of the canals which run throughout the city and give an interesting view of how the people (and some scarily large lizards) live.

Later, at the cool bars on our street the Thai capital was true to its reputation with the boys worriedly checking out the girls and wondering if they were really boys. I now have the solution to this problem. I have discovered that all the lady boys work at Paragon department store make-up counter. The day of a night out the boys need to have a walk around the shop and remember the faces of those that they find attractive while still under the bright lighting of the store. Later, on the dance floors of Q bar and around the tables of Bed Supper Club they'll know if their target is a man if there's a strange feeling of deja vu.

There was more fun to be had with Paragon's staffing choice. Someone at NARS has an interesting take on lipstick names resulted in the wonderfully naughty experience of my asking a transvestite for "One orgasm".

Insead Integration Party

This weekend was the Insead Integration Party. It was held at Km8, a beach and pool (as in swimming) bar on Sentosa Island. The island is a natural park and so we drove past signs warning us of "Monkeys Crossing" and drivers were warned that parked cars might suffer peacock attacks. In fact the most worrying thing was the apparent lack of sunshine.

Even though it rained it was hard not to feel pretty pleased with ourselves for choosing to start the year on the Singapore campus rather than in Fontainbleau. P1s (that's us) and P3s (those who graduate in July) attended and the aim was to "integrate". There's nothing like polysyllables to create an excuse for a party.