Ah, The Weekend - and opportunity to write endlessly... and then, our mate Galen only gives us 500 words to describe our best holiday! Let's give it a crack! But I warn you, you're not getting an entire holiday out of me, perhaps, I'll give you 10 minutes of it!
Before I tell you about the above photograph, taken at the end of 2018 - let me tell you how we came to be in front of these magnificent doors!
It was the 28th December, 2018 - my wife and I had just arrived into Cambodia. It had been our longest ever flight, and we'd had a quick stopover in Singapore. We arrived in Cambodia utterly exhausted, but so excited to be in a place that was very different from Australia. We exited the airport and was approached by a local gentlemen; we asked if he had a Taxi and he said 'Yes'. The truth was, he had a tuk-tuk - which was actually rather better! - But, I must confess to a certain pragmatism; I'd read on the review sites of Cambodia that luggage was often pinched from tourists on Tuk-Tuks. I told my wife to hold on tight - although, there were no concerns, and I've never been to a country with lovelier people (well, perhaps Fiji - but that's a holiday tale for another time!)
We started to speed through the streets of the capital, Phnom Penh getting a glimpse at the bustling of the city people, and the river flowing through its centre. The foreignness of the place to us was so electric, and as we passed by the street vendors, we were intoxicated by the culture. Looking left and right, with a cool breeze from the travel on our faces, you couldn't wipe away our smiles.
I don't know what the local time was, but the sun was setting, and the city was painted in an orange glow. We knew we'd made the right choice by coming here - and then, we started going through back alleyways and it felt very much that we were heading deeper into the heart of the capital. We started to see some of the poverty on the streets, which was juxtaposed against great wealth and symbols of western intervention. We started wondering whether we'd booked the right hotel - the key ingredient in any vacation for us, we like to come back a hotel to escape from the day.
And then we turned up next to a large brick wall, and these magnificient doors. Have you ever seen anything so grand? Entering them, we were met with an oasis - overgrown gardens hanging over pathways to and from villas. The whole place had a sense of calm about it and flames lit the way to our room. This was a taste of first class luxury, and the base for what was to become, our perfect holiday!
PS: A sneaky cheat. A second photo inside the retreat.