"Kingdom of Wonder Feel the Warmth"
We were busy collecting the luggage once we got down from the bus in Siem Reap. It was almost 7 o'clock in the evening. A boyish looking man approached us offering tuk-tuk service to drop us to the hotel. We have read enough material online about hiring tuk-tuk driver in Cambodia, Kingdom of wonder as their tourist tagline goes. He seemed soft-spoken, energetic, and could speak decent English to boot. After negotiating hard and smartly (as we would like to believe) we hired Blak as our tuk-tuk driver for four days including pickup and drop off service. He agreed to meet us at the hotel lobby the next morning at 7. Due to our late night shenanigans we were little late to arrive the next morning. Our thought was anyhow Blak wouldn't be here on time. How wrong we were? It must be the first time we had to apologize to somebody for being late. First we thought about going to the farthest point, that is Kbal Spean. The journey was memorable. It reminded us so much of Goa. When we explained to him what are all the places we would like to go he just smiled nodding his head. Later we realized the secret behind that smile. Angkor Wat and it's complex is HUGE. As the day moved forward our enthusiasm slowly declined.
That evening we wanted to attend Beatocello concert. We invited Blak to join us. Initially he was hesitant, but later accompanied us. Being a Cambodian he isn't aware of this show. It's always the traveler who knew about these details because he/she does research before visiting a place. At the end of the show he had tears in his eyes. We weren't that emotional because we are outsiders. We can understand what Cambodian went through during Khemer rouge (Choeung Ek Genocidal Center & Killing Field) and later days, but only a Cambodian can feel the pain and hardship he/she had to endure.
Blak is a hardcore football fan and if we could remember correctly he even named his son after some football player. He told us about his family, home, wedding, and about his kid. When he showed us the family picture we could see the pride and love he has for his family. And his wife is totally gorgeous.
He has seen few Indian movies dubbed into Khmer (Cambodian language). As it is common he knew about Amitabh Bachchan. He was joyous to explain the scene from the movie Slumdog Millionaire where a kid dives into the shit hole to get a glimpse of Mr. Bachchan. He enjoyed a few south Indian action movies too. He was amused when we explained India has many languages and film industries too.
He was friendly, cool, and full of energy. He wanted us to suggest how to improve his business, which we did to our best of knowledge. He picked and dropped us wherever we wanted to go without any complaints.
While dropping us off to the bus station we invited him to come to India and he said he will one day. He invited us to visit Cambodia again with little Tarun. We would like visit Siem Reap again for Blak, Pub street, and the Angkor complex.
Contact Details:
Blak Nouern
Phone Number: +855977438028
E-mail: blaknouern@gmail.com
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