Sitting in his favorite breakfast haunt, savoring real Cambodian rice and chicken and enjoying the company of his three young children he hasn't seen for a year, Major Savouen flips through photos while on brief leave from his tour of Sudan as part of the Cambodian peacekeeping force serving under the United Nations.
"This photo was taken just after we came under attack," he says, showing a picture of him smiling out from a sea of Sudanese faces, apparently unperturbed now the danger has subsided, wearing the famous UN blue beret and camouflage fatigues. "There is serious fighting there. It is dangerous, yes."
Savouen is a veteran soldier with a very Buddhist attitude to life and a workmanlike attitude to war, although he admits homesickness is a constant companion while he is in Africa. This Khmer New Year he returned home to his family on leave, but he returns at the end of the month for his second year-long tour.
"I didn't recognize my daughter when I came home - look at her," he says of his now three-year-old girl. "And the two boys as well - kids grow up so fast."
Around 100 Cambodian troops left for Sudan almost a year ago to the day to join UN peacekeepers. That makes around 300 in total, mostly deminers, since 2006 who have volunteered to do their bit in a foreign country most had never heard of before.
"We are not invading soldiers and not colonial soldiers, but we are soldiers for peacekeeping who have to respect the independence and sovereignty of that country," Prime Minister Hun Sen wrote in a letter to the soldiers at the time.
Major Savouen agrees with Hun Sen. He is proud to be the only Cambodian serving in his particular unit alongside a virtual rainbow of nationalities, from Germans to Greeks, as well as Sudanese and the odd Chinese.
He neatly sidesteps political issues such as "the American actress with the torch", referring to Mia Farrow and her Dream for Darfur rally, which visited Phnom Penh to make a statement at Toul Sleng genocide museum last year and was rebuffed. This merely draws a laugh and a quick change of subject.
He wants to talk about the similarities of Sudan to Cambodia's history, and his own record as a career soldier, which had him fighting Khmer Rouge guerillas on the frontline in Battambang from the 1980's.
"This is a very complicated situation in Sudan. It is a conflict with a long history and many causes, including what part of the country has the valuable commodities," he says. "China is very clever. It never negotiates like a hammer - it is behind, in the background. We are peacekeepers for the UN, not politicians."
And the US is also behind in the background in the south, he says. The US seems to like the south when it gets involved in a country, he notes wryly.
"It is very similar to before 1993 in Cambodia in a lot of ways. There are refugee camps scattered everywhere. The conditions in the camps are terrible - they live like animals. There is no food or water in many of the camps. It is very bad," he says.
"And around Darfur there are 27 different factions with different territories, all fighting and changing allegiances. It's very complicated, very dangerous, very difficult to understand and analyze for an outsider."
Sunrise is a good time, he says, before the scorching heat begins to make the ground shimmer with mirage. Sunrise reminds him of home.
"When that light comes in the early part of the day, then I can look out and almost pretend I am in Cambodia. The Sudanese are sometimes hard to make friends with, because they have a different culture, religion and tradition and they have been at war so long, but the country is beautiful and sometimes it looks like home."
Finding food that reminds him of home is a problem, however, and despite the UN doing its best to ship in vegetables and fruit, these items are often kept in storage for up to a month before they are consumed - a far cry from the bustling fresh markets of Phnom Penh, where people buy fresh every morning and eat it by lunchtime.
"And they don't have rice. They just eat bread, bread, bread. You can get rice from Uganda or Kenya if you order it in, but you have to order a month in advance. The food that is there has no taste. For a Cambodian, that is hard - no rice and no taste."
But he continues flicking through photos, showing pictures of Sudanese officials who have helped introduce him to the country, helped show him around, helped him understand the complex politics, and invited him into their villages. The peacekeepers are welcome, he says.
And Major Savouen has another reason for risking his life, besides pride for his country, a sympathy for people suffering as Khmers did and still do from landmines and the legacy of a protracted civil war and the welcome income needed to educate his three children and help his wife and family make ends meet.
"This week I am returning to Svay Rieng province with my wife and children. I have finally earned enough money through this job to honor my parents with a proper Buddhist ceremony. More than 30 years ago, the Khmer Rouge killed my family. Now I am going to fulfill my dream and return to pay my respects."
For Savoeun, although he knows his efforts in Sudan are just a drop in the ocean, one tragic war is at least helping to salve the wounds from another.