Marcus and his wife, Maya Haile, called Phum Baitang Resort their home away from home. Marcus met with local chefs to learn how to create local dishes and even crafted his own bowl of noodles, all sourced from nearby markets.
“Cambodia has a level of mystique and ‘je ne sais quoi’ about it that I wanted to discover, especially with my wife, Maya,” explains Samuelsson. For him, traveling is a window through which to see the world, and an opportunity to discover what is only revealed through patience, time and an open mind. “Whatever I think a place is, traveling there has always taught me that it’s ten times more than that, a thousand times more than that,” he says of learning to never pigeonhole a place he has yet to visit. A new culture and way of life is learned, for Samuelsson, through spirituality, language, and local flavors.