| Given the recent history of Cambodia, you might | | | | To be honest, Cambodia is not as wild a place as |
| wonder why I refer to it as the happiest place on | | | | you might think given its recent history. These |
| earth. Well, there is a real reason if you | | | | are some seriously strong people from a mental |
| understand what happy means in Cambodian | | | | perspective. If you walk around the major city, |
| slang. | | | | Phnom Phen, it looks like nothing happened. In |
| Cambodia - The Happiest Country in Asia | | | | fact, you keep seeing signs for happy this and |
| Cambodia is located in Southeast Asia. It is | | | | happy that just about everywhere. I am not |
| bordered by Thailand to the west, Laos to the | | | | kidding. The signs literally say "happy dinner", |
| north and Vietnam to the east. As you may | | | | "happy pizza" and so on. Gee, these people are |
| know, some very nasty things happened in | | | | happy. |
| Cambodia in the 1970s and 1980s. During this | | | | As you might imagine, happy has a particular |
| period, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge ruled the | | | | connotation in Cambodia. Do I even need to tell |
| country or were fighting to do so. | | | | you? Yep, it refers to that funny tobacco that so |
| Reign of terror is a phrase often over used, but | | | | many in the hippie generation liked to enjoy. |
| not when it comes to the Khmer Rouge. The | | | | Simply put, the Cambodians mix marijuana with |
| group implemented what can only be called bizarre | | | | just about any type of food stuff - pizza, cake, |
| policies and managed to starve and murder | | | | shakes, tacos. It is used like a spice, to wit, it isn't |
| roughly twenty percent of the total population of | | | | obvious it is in the food. If you don't know what |
| Cambodia. The reign of terror was eventually | | | | happy means, you can be in for a BIG surprise an |
| ended when the Vietnamese invaded and pushed | | | | hour or so after eating! It was not uncommon to |
| the Khmer into a small, isolated pocket of land in | | | | see tourists giggling and staggering around the |
| the far north. | | | | sidewalks. |
| A few years back, I had the urge to travel. I get | | | | At the end of the day, I found Cambodia to be a |
| it every two or three years. I get it bad. I usually | | | | great place to enjoy notwithstanding its past and |
| sell off whatever I have and travel for as long as | | | | the happy food. Angkar Wat and the surrounding |
| I can. In this case, I flew into Thailand because I | | | | Khmer structures are stunning and definitely |
| didn't have a lot of money and the flight from Los | | | | should be on your list of things to see. So go |
| Angeles was cheap, cheap, cheap! Thailand was | | | | ahead and take off to Cambodia, but make a |
| pretty touristy, so off to the wilds of Cambodia I | | | | mental note regarding the happy food! |
| went. | | | | |