It was 1996. We, a group of devotees from Sri Krishna Mandir, went on a preaching expedition to Cambodia to see if we could introduce them to Krsna Consciousness and to explore possibilities of opening a Hare Krsna center there.
We landed at Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, and since we had no contacts we checked into a lodging house with facilities to cook for two weeks.
We found Cambodia to be a beautiful country just like Malaysia with the people being very friendly and helpful. We soon made friends with some of the locals and saw that there was a good potential for setting up a temple there. We did not have any books in the local language and many did not speak English well enough to be able to read many of Srila Prabhupada's books. There was a need to eventually translate them to Cambodian in order to spread the teachings more effectively.
Nevertheless, we devotees went on regular Harinama to the social hub of the town each day while we were there and many local Cambodians joined us for the Kirtan and were also singing and dancing along with us. They were very easy going people and were very friendly. Since they were predominantly Buddhist, they did not see us as a threat to their beliefs. We soon made friends with people who showed symptoms of being potential devotees. It was very encouraging for us to see that Srila Prabhupada's desire to establish many temples around the world would also take place there in Cambodia. We were very excited and began seriously looking into the possibility of opening a Cambodian Hare Krsna temple.
We then made plans to travel up north of the country to Siem Reap to see the famous Angkor Wat temple. This is the biggest ex-Hindu Temple in this part of the world. It was built by King Jayavarman, a Hindu king, during his reign sometime in the 12th century.
It is something that Cambodia is famous for; in fact, if anyone coming to Cambodia does not visit the Angkor Wat, they are deemed to have missed the very purpose of their visit to the country. Furthermore, we had read too much of it to give it a miss. In addition, as it had been a Vishnu temple before being converted to a Buddhist one, it was a must-see for us. There was no looking back.
We made plans and soon discovered that it would take a six-hour boat ride to the place as that town was situated on the northern bank of the largest fresh water lake in South East Asia called Tonle Sap. We had two options to go there – either a 45 minutes' flight by helicopter or a 6-hour speed ferryboat ride.
We decided to travel by the ferry and since there were six of us, it was more economical. Soon we boarded one and were travelling. We had a chance to interact with the locals and to witness their day-to-day life style.
It was amazing to see how the people were caught up in the webs of Maya and how they were struggling to maintain their livelihood. The modes of nature do not spare anyone even if they are unsophisticated. The advantage they seemed to have was that they were very simple in their living; if that can be coupled with the mercy of a pure devotee, Srila Prabhupada, it would be to their tremendous gain. Their lives would become successful.
The ferry was stopping at various stations en route and there were a constant pool of people embarking and disembarking. Some were coming in with their children and others with their provisions of daily necessities. It was like taking one of the public buses in a rural area of a third world country.
The ferry was actually a small fast boat with three powerful 750 horsepower outboard engines. On account of these powerful engines, the boat was skimming on the surface of the water at great speed. We were feeling very insecure as this might have caused the hull of the boat to crack, thereby sinking the boat.
Notwithstanding all the water-slapping, it all went well for us and we safely reached Siem Reap town. We again checked into another small lodging house for our stay.
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