- 59 minutes ago
Tony returns to Cambodia to reconnect with this historically rich country.
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00:00This is where madmen, missionaries, relief workers, journalists, and backpackers and westerners come to behave badly.
00:19We're going to buy some crunchy, tasty breakfast, maybe a little fruit, and then go discharge some heavy weaponry.
00:26First, a haircut.
00:27Cambodia.
00:30It was my first shoot in Asia, and I was doing this trip in particular for all the wrong reasons.
00:35Basically, this place was described as sort of the last place in the world that any sensible tourist would want to go.
00:41So naturally, we're going there.
00:42Looking back at that grainy video, I see someone glib, green, and generally clueless.
00:49A guy who had a lot to learn.
00:55I'm Anthony Bourdain.
00:56I write, I travel, I eat, and I'm hungry for more.
01:03Ooh!
01:04You got this!
01:08Yeah!
01:08No reservations.
01:13In the spring of 2000, head full of a lot of romantic ideas and knowing nothing about nothing, I came to Cambodia with a camera crew.
01:35I came here seeing Cambodia as part of this romantic slash tragic, narcissistic notion of the type of place I wanted to see and experience.
01:56This was a completely inappropriate place for some kind of post-ironic attempt at gonzo tourism.
02:05It was a place still reeling from its own destruction at the hands of a fanatical regime.
02:11A regime that promised an agrarian utopia, but instead delivered a genocide.
02:17The city of Phnom Penh was still filled with people missing limbs.
02:23The streets were unpaved, it was like a moonscape, there was a sense of real menace, a real sense of anything could happen, bad things could happen.
02:32For the first time, I realized I was in way over my head, inadequate to the task of even attempting to describe this place or what the people here had been through.
02:43It's been 10 years since I've been to Cambodia.
02:45The country has changed.
02:48I've changed.
02:49And hopefully, I'll get it right this time.
02:51I've changed.
03:21Gee, www.whatthef**k.com
03:27Last time I was here, 10 years ago, this was a fragrant slash fetid wonderland of mystery meats, itinerant vendors.
03:39You had to sort of walk along, ducking underneath sort of tarpaulins and makeshift cloth coverings going from stall to stall, eating all sorts of mysterious squiggly bits.
03:48Now, I mean, this is like, I guess I could use a t-shirt.
03:54A newly painted, cleaned up, or tourist friendly central market.
03:58A striking difference about which I have, of course, mixed emotions.
04:03T-shirt? You like Avatar? DVD?
04:06You like CD by American Bandit.
04:08Van Halen?
04:09Sammy Hagar.
04:10Very good.
04:10These streets weren't paved last time I was here.
04:22It was wilder and far more dangerous.
04:25A place still wheeling from the days when this city was reduced from a population of two million to just a few Khmer Rouge officials.
04:32Clerks, office workers, taxi drivers, cooks were marched into the country and forced to farm.
04:40Anyone unfortunate enough to be a doctor, a lawyer, a professional, multilingual, even if they only wore glasses, they were killed.
04:50One must admit that things look strikingly better, at least on the surface.
04:54And there are cool-looking, non-touristy markets, large and small, all over the place.
05:02And I've also said it over and over again.
05:04If you're going to a country, particularly in Southeast Asia, you've never been before, it's a very good idea to go to the market first.
05:10See what they're selling, get an idea of, you know, what they're good at, that people are buying.
05:14This is more the way I remember Cambodia, it's smelling it.
05:24Jackfruit, wood smoke, dried fish, raw chicken, and breakfast.
05:36This is certainly more familiar territory, but the food seems better, the conditions better, the vibe, less desperate than I remember.
05:44I do love the spectacular array of condiments in this country.
05:53I mean, look at this.
05:54This is part of the world in general, but extravaganza, one might say.
05:59Katcha, a pho-like noodle soup with chicken, pork meatballs, and greens, and a vibrant-looking and tasty broth.
06:07Always the expressway to my heart.
06:10That's beautiful, huh?
06:14I'll tell you, just when you think you're dying of heat stroke, exhaustion, jet lag, and dehydration,
06:28a bowl of spicy noodles saves the day.
06:31Robin Williams ate this shit.
06:34His back hair would burst into flames.
06:35See, that's a healthy sweat.
06:45Not a, I'm currently dying.
06:47Please get me oxygen kind of sweat.
06:50That's a, I feel pretty good about the world kind of a sweat.
06:54Ooh, meatball.
06:57Good stuff.
06:58It's pretty too.
07:00Nice colors.
07:0010 years since I've been here.
07:08It's better.
07:09It's better.
07:09Cambodia.
07:10Day two.
07:27And here's where things go terribly wrong.
07:36Last time I was here, I got my hair cut.
07:40They do that here, right out on the street.
07:43Rows of barbers ready to give you an open-air job.
07:47I'm a big believer in sidewalk grooming.
07:51Last time, everybody in Cambodia seemed to get the same haircut.
07:55Not a bad look.
07:56Kind of a young Elvis, rogue Jonas brother kind of a thing.
07:59He looks like he does good work.
08:02I trust that man with a razor.
08:04I figured, what the hay, clean it up a bit, get a trim.
08:07Good TV, right?
08:10Whoa.
08:12That's not good.
08:15Just a little bit.
08:16Thank God.
08:16Thank you, sir.
08:46Lookin' good.
08:49Well, not really far.
08:50My producer, Tom Vitale here, is supposed to be on this.
08:54He memorized the Khmer word for trim and everything.
08:57Though apparently he confused that word in his mind with the word for shave that mother
09:01down to the polished, sun-bleached skull.
09:04Tom, the part where they start to shave me bald, that's generally the time when the producer
09:09steps in.
09:10I didn't want a stovepipe.
09:12It looks good.
09:13It's youthful.
09:14Yeah, I think I look like I swam too close to Three Mile Island.
09:17Your turn now, my friend.
09:18Yeah, you can look as good as me.
09:20That's not possible.
09:21It's interesting with the glasses.
09:27Yes, thank you.
09:32Suddenly, getting out of town seems like a very good idea.
09:35So I head south on the open Cambodian highway.
09:39A kidney-crushing enterprise, but a hugely improved and safer situation than the last
09:44time I was here.
09:45Along the way, remnants of Cambodia's past.
09:55Ten years ago, at Angkor Wat, the centuries-old seat of power of the Khmer Empire, I gave up
10:01taking photographs of my travels.
10:04How could any lens capture the scale, the grandeur of a kingdom that once ruled this part of the
10:10world and then inexplicably crumbled into the jungle?
10:13It's been an enduring mystery ever since.
10:16What happened?
10:17What exactly went wrong?
10:19And apparently very quickly.
10:35Continuing south towards the Gulf of Thailand, it's another two hours over bumpy, dusty highway
10:41until right there, hiding in plain sight, something well worth an unscheduled stop.
10:48All right.
10:49Look at this.
10:50Really fresh, incredibly delicious spring rolls in the middle of freaking nowhere.
10:55Oh, that's pretty.
11:00That's delicious.
11:04And the hits keep coming.
11:06Oh, it's really kooky.
11:07All these shrimp, a little herb, and it's like a mix of radish and potato.
11:12It's really refreshing.
11:12And here we are, a food that in Manhattan would blow anybody away.
11:16They don't have a line out the door for this.
11:18Pork skin, rice noodle, mint, cucumber, salad, green.
11:23And then, of course, this fried.
11:25Delicious, satisfying, and refreshing.
11:26This lady just keeps giving me stuff.
11:34I don't know what it is.
11:37Oh, glutinous rice, coconut.
11:39Feels sort of testicular.
11:44Mmm.
11:45You know, in this heat, my stomach shrivels to the size of a chiclet.
11:50Or Mick Jagger's penis, according to Keith Richards.
11:53I could eat these all day.
11:54And I might.
11:56Because I'm not going back out in that sun, man.
11:57That sun is brutal.
11:59That sun is suffocatingly hot.
12:02You know what's interesting about this scene, dude?
12:04Is it like I'm in the shade and you're in the sun?
12:06Like, I mean, I can literally see you wilting before my eyes.
12:09It's like watching fruit rot.
12:11Let's wrap it up, boys.
12:17We've got places to go.
12:20Hakun.
12:22Oh, that was good.
12:25Oh, man.
12:28It's a little toasty out here.
12:41A hundred miles south of Phnom Penh, near the border with Vietnam, Kampot.
13:00Originally settled and heavily developed by Chinese traders, Kampot was once Cambodia's main port city.
13:06The Chinese merchant class, of course, seen as foreign by the Khmer Rouge, were very nearly wiped out.
13:13What the Khmer Rouge did is a story known by
13:43many.
13:44Where Cambodia is now, who exactly is running it, where they came from, and what they're doing is less known.
13:52I'm having lunch with Musa Kua, an ethnic Chinese Cambodian member of parliament.
13:58Now, you were in the opposition party.
14:00I am.
14:01Not an easy thing to be.
14:02Not an easy thing to be, but very proud to be in opposition.
14:07Why, of all of the things you could do with your life, would you want to become involved in politics?
14:13And not politics anywhere, but politics in Cambodia in particular.
14:18I've been here over 20 years.
14:21We raised our daughters here.
14:23Why politics?
14:23It's because the absence of war doesn't mean that there's quality of life.
14:29You see progress.
14:31The roads are getting better.
14:33There are more schools.
14:34You have high, tall buildings and so on.
14:38There is progress made.
14:40But for how many?
14:42We have in total over 4 million people who just eat one meal a day.
14:47So they go to bed hungry.
14:49I wanted a clean government and taking care of corruption so that the money does not go
14:55into the pockets of the rich.
14:59Kampot and the surrounding area is Musa Kua's constituency.
15:02Today, the area's Chinese population is a shadow of what it once was, but its influence is still
15:09visible in the architecture, the people, and the food.
15:13This area was also known for peppercorns and its once thriving pepper plantations.
15:19Some time ago, the tabletop standard for all of France.
15:23Also for its seafood and its signature dish, Kampot pepper crab.
15:29And these are river crab or ocean?
15:31It's river crabs.
15:31River crabs, yes.
15:32With ingredients, this fresh, simple preparation is all that's needed.
15:37Garlic, fresh, green, sautéed peppercorns, and fresh river crab.
15:46The way to eat it is to not use any utensils.
15:53Is it fresh?
15:54Mm-hmm.
15:54Now the sauce.
15:56And from time to time, you need to take one piece of the pepper with it.
16:02Ah, to keep waking up the palate.
16:04Mm-hmm.
16:06It brings you back to the old days.
16:09I come back and want this kind of food and go to this region, to the province to find this
16:15kind of food.
16:15Mm-hmm.
16:15Because my mother took me there.
16:17Sometimes I just want to smell.
16:18That's a powerful, a powerful forest smell.
16:21How old were you when you left here the first time?
16:27Eighteen.
16:28Eighteen.
16:28Eighteen.
16:29Mm-hmm.
16:29And I came back when I was 36.
16:32At what point did you leave?
16:341972.
16:35So that was before the Khmer Rouge marched into...
16:38Three years before.
16:39Suffice to say, had Musa Kua not left Cambodia when she did, she would not be sitting across
16:46the table today.
16:49On April 17th, 1975, the Khmer Rouge rolled their tanks in a Phnom Penh.
16:56It was a day that brought an end to years of bloody civil war.
17:00It was also a day that ushered in a period of terror, madness, and mayhem on an unimaginable
17:07scale.
17:08Three years, eight months, 29 days.
17:13And they managed to kill how many people in that time?
17:15Over 1.7 million.
17:181.7 million.
17:20Led by French-educated Pol Pot, who referred to himself as brother number one, they set
17:27out to create an ultra-Marxist agrarian wonderland.
17:31But first, the past would have to be erased.
17:342,000 years of Cambodian culture and history came to an immediate end.
17:40It was declared year zero.
17:43And everything that came before it was to be erased from existence.
17:47Literally overnight, entire cities were emptied.
17:52Their inhabitants marched off to the countryside.
17:55Slave labor forced to farm the land as a means of realizing Pol Pot's agrarian utopia.
18:02Money was abolished.
18:03Books were burned.
18:04Families purposely broke it apart.
18:06Teachers, merchants, doctors, and almost the entire intellectual elite of the country
18:13were murdered.
18:14The scale of killing was so immense that whole areas, later known as killing fields in and
18:19around Phnom Penh, were used to dispose of the bodies.
18:23In a blink of an eye, an entire way of life, over.
18:28Completely eradicated now?
18:30No.
18:31There are scars everywhere.
18:33There are signs of the Khmer Rouge everywhere.
18:36People talk about the Khmer Rouge.
18:37Still?
18:38Ah, everybody talk.
18:39The top leaders live in total denial that it was not them who did it.
18:46When in 1979 the neighboring Vietnamese overthrew the Khmer Rouge, sending Pol Pot and his buddies
18:51into the jungle, it may have saved the country.
18:54But the troubles hardly ended.
18:56Simply put, some of the same bastards from the old days are in positions of power today.
19:01The legacy of the Khmer Rouge is something that we have to live with.
19:07What is added from the chaos system is the level of control.
19:14Right.
19:15Of who are you?
19:17Ah, so the gears, the gears are still there.
19:20Yes, always who is the enemy.
19:22Do you expect to see, in your lifetime, the Cambodia, anywhere close to the Cambodia you
19:30dream of?
19:33Or do you think of, no?
19:34You didn't think about that long.
19:35You said that right away.
19:36You said no.
19:37I know right away.
19:38Because the language that people speak, it's not the same language.
19:41The food that I used to find with my mother, it's no longer there.
19:45The noodles that used to be made by the Chinese, the real Chinese, like my grandparents, not
19:52there, killed, couldn't pass it on to the next generation.
19:56The schooling, the quality of education, not the same.
19:59Not as still?
20:00Not the same, totally not the same.
20:03Given a situation where they always win, you're still fighting.
20:09They don't win.
20:10I just got out of a case with the prime minister.
20:14I sued him for defamation.
20:15He sued me back.
20:16He went all the way to Supreme Court.
20:18I still lost.
20:19But I got the popular vote.
20:22Right.
20:22So in the end, they may win, but they lose.
20:25That's it.
20:26We are the winners.
20:28Morally, we are the winners.
20:30And it makes them look ridiculous.
20:31Exactly.
20:32Exactly.
20:33And that, to me, is a road toward, it's defending the rights of the people.
20:40With dignity.
20:41And that, to me, is a road toward, it's defending the rights of the people.
21:11From that day, silence.
21:20When the Khmer Rouge came, all my cows and my aunt, they left Phnom Penh, of course, because
21:27they evicted them.
21:27And I had no use.
21:30Cut off.
21:34From my father, I got only two cows in life.
21:39From my mother, only three.
21:43Like, the rest died.
21:4535 years ago, the Khmer Rouge brought down Cambodia.
21:57And with it, a way of life that has yet to return to this day.
22:06Kep, Cambodia.
22:08In the 1950s and 60s, this was the Hamptons, the Riviera of Cambodia.
22:14A sleepy but glamorous resort town, where the princes and princelings of the royal family,
22:20the wealthy and international classes, built villas by the sea.
22:24Naturally, this represented everything the Khmer Rouge wanted to destroy first.
22:29Today, most of the villas lie in ruins.
22:34Burned out shells of their former modernist splendor.
22:38One of Cambodia's most prominent citizens is this woman, Kek Chiv Poon, known as Madame Kek.
22:50Famous for her tireless efforts on behalf of humanitarian causes, of which there are many,
22:56many pressing concerns.
22:58Today, she brings me to the crab market in Kep, for one tradition that still remains.
23:03It's an understatement to say that competition at the market is fierce.
23:11Pull out a dollar, and the merchants descend on you like seagulls on the carcass of a beached whale.
23:17Buying in bulk is encouraged.
23:19Now, it's funny, the first time I came to Vietnam, first time I came to Cambodia,
23:23you know, when you go to the markets, it looks like only women work in this country.
23:26But of course, it's the men around on the boats.
23:29Yes, working very hard.
23:31Right.
23:31The women do the selling, yes.
23:34Right.
23:35So back before the 70s, when this was still the playground of the rich, was life better for these people?
23:42I mean...
23:42Yes.
23:43I can see that before 1970, we compare the salary of the civil servant.
23:49One teacher can have enough salary to live with the family of four.
23:55And they can make a living.
23:56They can make a living.
23:57You compare now, now it's not possible.
23:59Yes, that's good.
24:00Yes, that's good.
24:01Yes, that's good.
24:02Five kilo each.
24:03Oh, tomorrow...
24:04I hope you guys are hungry.
24:06Okay, now the woman here asks if we want some fruit.
24:19A little rambutan, yes?
24:20Yes.
24:21Yeah.
24:22Okay, that'll be fine.
24:23Yeah.
24:24Yeah.
24:25She is a little bit disappointed that we take only one kilo.
24:28Let's take two then.
24:29Yeah, yeah, yeah.
24:30This is sticky rice.
24:31We take two?
24:32Uh, yes, sure.
24:33Well, you know what, this will be enough, one of these.
24:34Yeah, yeah.
24:35So this is the shrimp.
24:36Right.
24:37Let's get a kilo of the...
24:38Of the big one?
24:39Yeah.
24:40Ah, so now that's...
24:41He bless you.
24:42He bless you.
24:43Good health.
24:44Live long time.
24:45Great success.
24:46Yeah, yeah.
24:47And live for a long time.
24:49A hundred years.
24:50A hundred years.
24:51No, I don't want to live that long.
24:52And good health.
24:53That I could use.
24:54Yeah.
24:55Yeah.
24:56Yeah.
24:57Yeah.
24:58And live for a long time.
25:00A hundred years.
25:01A hundred years.
25:02No, I don't want to live that long.
25:03And good health.
25:04That I could use.
25:05Yeah.
25:06But once you leave the market, things quiet down fast.
25:23The thatched roof gazebos slung with hammocks are a popular picnic spot.
25:31What is this place?
25:32This place is a small outside restaurant.
25:37So people come.
25:38Their picnic here.
25:39Their broad day food.
25:41So you rent it for the day.
25:43You can just come.
25:44Sleep.
25:45Sleep.
25:46You can sleep here.
25:47You can eat.
25:48You can bring what you want.
25:49Or you can ask them to go and buy for you.
25:52Oh, really?
25:53Yeah.
25:54Beautiful.
25:55Ah, like that.
25:56Mmm.
25:57Oh, that's good.
25:58I don't think it needs anything.
25:59It's so sweet and it's got kind of a lobster-y, buttery kind of a thing going on that I love
26:13it.
26:14Mmm.
26:15I gotta tell you though, the thing that's really blowing me away about this meal.
26:18The shrimp are extraordinarily good.
26:20Good.
26:21But with that Kampot pepper and lime, wow, that's great.
26:25A little bit lemon in that, you see?
26:28Oh, that's delicious.
26:29You know, the world that you were accustomed to in the 60s is so different today.
26:34You are, by Cambodia standards, enormously privileged.
26:39Why have you chosen the path that you've chosen?
26:44My mother was the first woman at Mamba Apartment from 58 to 62.
26:52My sister and I said, okay, we want to choose another path.
26:56And I love to help people.
26:58So, both of us became medical doctors.
27:01My sister stayed in France.
27:03I came back to Cambodia on 68.
27:05Worked as a medical doctor.
27:08Until 70, the coup arrived.
27:10The Cambodians were fighting against each other.
27:13This was civil war.
27:15So, I could not stand.
27:17I stayed one year until 71.
27:20I was so unhappy that I left Cambodia on 71.
27:26Will the average Cambodian 20 years from now, 30 years from now, will they get to go
27:31to the beach and play and have a recreational life?
27:36I hope that we are going to have more middle class.
27:40Because it's good for them.
27:41Now they understand that having a break like that, especially the children.
27:47They need, you know, to go to the beach.
27:49They need to be able to swim.
27:52They need to see another province than the place that they used to live in Phnom Penh.
27:57They need to come to the beach.
28:22that it didn't change at all when you come here you have peace
28:31so whose house was this this house belonged to her royal highness the former wife of king rodham
28:46almost there kek hasn't been back to this villa since she was a teenage student
28:52studying for her exams young beautiful of good family well connected back then it looked like
28:59the world couldn't touch her and i mean it must have seemed for you particularly an enchanted time
29:05i mean it was it was truly a kingdom then yes yes i can close their eyes and i can see myself younger
29:15of course walking here you know uh it's look at it's a very strong emotion yes happy times here
29:26yes very happy very happy we didn't have war the farmer in the countryside they had their rice
29:35fishes to eat no one grabbed their lamb
29:38it looks from here it looks like it was burned uh yes i have been told that khmer rush did burn a lot
29:51of house for them is a sign of uh riches so that they burn it's a mix of feeling you know it's first of all
30:03sad but it's also a lot of uh sweet souvenir because i was very happy to stay in that house
30:12i hope that good person will buy this house this land me too and build something uh beautiful beautiful
30:21yes it's like in the past
30:31so
30:51Udong District, Kompong-Spew Province.
31:16A quick breakfast before catching what passes or has passed for mass transportation around
31:21here since the KR destroyed the train system.
31:26Wow, I think that's my ride.
31:32They call these lorries, basically a homemade platform of wood and some kind of makeshift
31:50engine and hand braking system, anything from a lawn mower to hamster power.
31:55Since only the rusting tracks remain from the French, the gap has been filled by enterprising
32:01private entrepreneurs.
32:04This is my new friend Sonny who knows his way around these parts.
32:11There are few, if any, roads running deep into rice country like this.
32:15And if you want to move goods or bodies to town, this is the way to go.
32:20So many people in this village have no access to the roads, this is the only means of getting
32:27connected to the market.
32:29Now it seems to be coming to the end because the government is going to build a new train
32:35soon, the proper train will run, this time of transportation will be no more, no more.
32:41They say the trains are coming back soon.
32:44Of course, they said that about democracy too.
33:05He's taking me to visit the Soys, an extended family of rice farmers who live along the route.
33:11The family lives in a traditional stilt house designed to weather the frequent storms during
33:15the rainy season.
33:17Mother, the father, much more Anthony.
33:22They work hard.
33:24They've always worked hard.
33:26This spread is a relative feast for an honored guest.
33:30What are we eating here?
33:31Chicken with shredded banana flowers, lemon, coriander.
33:36And this one is called in Khmer.
33:39Sour beef stew flavored with lemongrass, turmeric, fermented fish and cantrop leaves from a tree
33:45in the yard.
33:46Sticky rice cooked in bamboo.
33:48And a dessert made with palm sugar.
33:53Mmm, that's good.
33:54So basically they have all the, basically they have melon to papaya to cucumber.
34:01They've got a lot of stuff they need to grow them around here.
34:06Living off the land is of course a way of life around here.
34:09So too are thundershowers.
34:11This being monsoon season, it's no big thing.
34:14Adapt.
34:15I'm fascinated by rice farming.
34:30A, because it looks so difficult.
34:32There's the planting, irrigating, planting, replanting, right?
34:37And then harvesting.
34:38Which is the hardest part of that process?
34:42The most difficult part for them is to cloud the land.
34:53They start from 6am to 11 o'clock.
34:56Everybody else here is too young to remember.
35:00But during the K.R. years, how did life change for them?
35:07They moved them to the other side of the river.
35:09They grow rice in the rice field.
35:11And he said a lot of rice products that they grow,
35:13which is other people come and work on this land.
35:15Right.
35:16He said the Khmer Rouge sent all the rice to China.
35:19Sent to China in exchange for weapons to fight the Vietnamese.
35:23A decision that led to mass starvation.
35:27During the K.R. years, could they still live as a family?
35:30Like at a house?
35:31Or how did they live?
35:33During the Khmer Rouge, they do not have a house to live.
35:36They live under a hut.
35:38A hut, right?
35:39And they have to work all day and more in the early evening and night.
35:44How did people survive this?
35:47Or did they survive?
35:48A lot of suffering, a lot of work.
35:53But there's no choice.
35:55They have to bear with it.
35:57And then until 1979.
35:58That's that.
35:59Just tell you how to survive.
36:05When were the good darts?
36:06And how does today relate to them?
36:11He said this is the happiest time in his life.
36:13Now.
36:14Now.
36:15Somebody control over your agriculture product.
36:17Whatever you produce is yours.
36:19As long as you work hard is yours.
36:22What they got from the first thing they wanted.
36:24Where they reach the point.
36:27That okay, we have enough money.
36:28Life is okay.
36:29What's the first thing?
36:30What's the next thing?
36:35For him, the first thought he had was that when he make money,
36:37he will build the house first.
36:39House first.
36:40Now he got a house.
36:41Yes.
36:42Yes.
36:43And then after that, he bought a motorbike.
36:44But he have the TV.
36:46Since he have the smaller house.
36:49Seems like he have a TV before anything.
37:11Last day in Cambodia.
37:12And there's one goofy but classic expat thing I sort of have to do.
37:26Thank you sir.
37:27As far back as the first time I was in Phnom Penh, Happy Pizza as it's known.
37:33It's really something of a indigenous classic around here.
37:34Mmm.
37:35Let's put it this way.
37:36What makes this pizza so happy?
37:37Let's just say there's a powerful herbal component.
37:38to this pizza.
37:39I think anyone can tell.
37:40Now when I say herbal of course, don't be misled.
37:41Don't be misled.
37:42What makes this pizza so happy?
37:43Let's say there's a powerful herbal component to this pizza.
37:44I think anyone can tell.
37:46Now when I say herbal of course, don't be misled.
37:49You can be sure that as a responsible individual I would neither use or use oil.
37:52As far back as the first time I was in Phnom Penh.
37:55The Happy Pizza as it's known.
37:56What makes this pizza so happy?
37:59Let's just say there's a powerful herbal component to this pizza.
38:04I think anyone can tell.
38:06Now when I say herbal of course, don't be misled.
38:10You can be sure that as a responsible individual I would neither use or use oil.
38:14Use or approve of the use of any controlled substance.
38:19It's going to be okay, right?
38:20It's freaking a little bit, man.
38:22It's the pizza that makes you insane in the membrane.
38:28Cures glaucoma, too, I'm told.
38:323D.
38:33The crust could be a little crispier.
38:35But really, which is more important?
38:37Crispy crust or crispy diner?
38:40Now, remember, just because I say there's a powerful herbal component to this dish
38:45in no way suggests or implies that any controlled substance is included in this, uh...
38:55What was I saying, man?
39:09I was out!
39:10He's walking out!
39:15Every once in a great while, something comes along.
39:34A moment, an hour, a few, where everything is magic.
39:41Where suddenly it's good to make television again.
39:45Really good.
39:54Mmm.
39:57This gets me every time.
40:00What kind of twisted evil freak wouldn't love this?
40:04It's me. Magical.
40:08Seeing something, feeling something really rare and really extraordinary.
40:13A once-in-a-lifetime thing we'll never really be able to describe.
40:17Never be able to share with anyone who wasn't here.
40:20Never be able to experience again.
40:23This, this is one of those moments.
40:27What have we learned today?
40:29I think we've learned that it's good to be alive.
40:33Back in Cambodia.
40:34Since my first trip here ten years ago, I've been to nearly every corner of the globe.
40:45And I'm not going to say as much as I'd like to believe it that I've gotten any smarter.
40:49After a while, even the most beautiful scenery threatens to become moving wallpaper, background.
40:57But other times it all seems to come together.
41:00The work, the play, all the places I've been, where I am now.
41:05A happy, stupid, wonderful confluence of events.
41:09Rice paddies whipping by, the music in your skull, just right.
41:30If something profound ain't happening, at least it feels like it is.
41:35So, how do I sum up Cambodia?
41:43That's the wrong question.
41:45You don't sum it up.
41:46You open your eyes, you let it happen, you breathe it in.
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