The art of the get-away
We prepare for yet another intimate experience for a couple celebrating their anniversary with a trip through Indochina. Mr. and Mrs. Copeland are married for 25 years and booked a second honeymoon through Laos and Cambodia with us. While they are getting on a bicycle and visit the beautiful countryside that surrounds Siem Reap, we are preparing our cooking materials. We prepare for them a pagoda picnic lunch while they are off to see the rice fields, meet the local people and explore the hidden treasures that Cambodia’s forest still houses.
We on the other hand are packing our rice, meats and vegetables. Grab our crates with ingredients and gas bottle and tuktuk our way to a pagoda 21km outside of town. This is the meeting point where Mr. and Mrs. Copeland and their guide Mr. Vannak will meet with our chef Savuth. Here is where they will enjoy a perfectly quiet and tasty pagoda picnic lunch.
A Local Touch
The pagoda is a community institution where young children from the community can learn more after school. This is where monks study Buddhism and where pets that cannot be taken care off are brought to. This is a sanctuary.
We arrive at the pagoda and pay our respects to the abbot and hand over a donation for the development of the pagoda. The nuns are waiting for us and we instruct the nuns what needs to be prepared for the pagoda picnic lunch. Savuth fires up the cooking place and starts preparing the 3 course meal we have planned. We seek a nice and quiet place around the pagoda and put a mat on the floor. A set of pillows, a low table and plates and cutlery are set up to complete the experience.
Peace and quiet
Towards 12PM, Vannak arrives with Mr. and Mrs. Copeland and they make a round around the pagoda, meet the monks and learn more about the incredible paintings. The Abbot performs a blessing. In the meantime, Savuth has prepared the pagoda picnic lunch. Mr. and Mrs. Copeland sit down, take a can of softdrink from the cooler and start a magnificent 3 course meal in a surrounding even more astonishing. No restaurant or hotel back in town can compete with this experience. The peace and tranquility have taken over. No other tourists in sight. Only the admiration of green paddy fields, a colorful pagoda and the orange robes of monks that catch our eyes.
Enjoy your meal!