Butsudan

Several centuries ago, according to Khmer legend, a wealthy woman named Penh built a temple for the Buddha on a hill not far from the Mekong river. The temple attracted throngs of pilgrims and before long a city had sprung up around it. This city was called Phnom Penh— the city on Penh’s hill. Unlike those legendary pilgrims, however, I was not drawn to Penh’s city by religious zeal; I had come here to revel. Cambodia often finds itself in Thailand’s shadow because of the latter’s global reputation as a tourism hotbed. However, this nation of 14 million received more than 6 million tourists in 2017 and can easily match the best that Thailand has to offer in terms of attractions, culture, cuisine and beachlife. But it was a starkly different destination from the first two nations on my itinerary. At the airport, I had paid a total of 45 dollars in bribes; twenty to two immigration officials, five to a photographer who took no photos, and another twenty to the faceless “...