Cambodia and Thailand - October, 2005 Asia Trip Home Page
Comments on Cambodia
From Chiang Mai we flew to Siem Reap, Cambodia, connecting through Bangkok.
Cambodia has seen some impossibly tough times. Largely due to the irresistible lure of the ruins of Angkor Wat and vicinity, in the past eight years or so it has reappeared as a premier travel destination . Before that, it wasn't a safe place for tourists.
Its history from 1969 through the mid 1990's is pretty grim, with the brutal Khmer Rouge regime killing an estimated 2 million people from 1975 to 1979, and civil war claiming even more for many years thereafter. Cambodia's population in 1970 has been estimated at about 7 million. Including deaths during the American bombing from 1969 to 1973, the Khmer Rouge atrocities and the ensuing 20 years of civil war, something like 40% of the country's population was killed. Some believe the death ratio exceeds 50%.
I strongly recommend that you take a few minutes and read the recent history chronicled at the following web site.
If you took the time to read and reflect on the recent Cambodian history you may have some sense of the backdrop to our visit to Angkor Wat and Phnom Penh. It certainly wasn't much like Thailand, which by comparison is a wealthy developed country with an established tourism industry. It is a very poor nation, filled with unemployed people of all ages. We marveled at the number of Cambodians we saw every day with absolutely nothing to do, or so it seemed to us. We likewise marveled at how many Cambodians were working so hard to produce so little. One example: We passed a road construction area on a major highway. The work was being done by an army of men and women mixing cement by hand, shoveling sand in hand-held wicker or perhaps rattan baskets, placing road base crushed rock in place one small irregular rock at a time, like a three dimensional jigsaw puzzle, all the while enduring 95% humidity and 95 degree heat. Down the road a short distance we noticed a single front-end loader, idle. Public data indicates a low unemployment rate for Cambodia which may be a result of so many Cambodians involved in agriculture. However, cultivating rice looks like the kind of work requiring strenuous effort for a few months out of the year. These people appear to have lots of idle time between these work periods.
Beggars missing limbs were commonplace, a product of living in a heavily mined country. Tourists are still warned to stay on established paths, even around the popular ruins. Most small children in the country are not clothed. Houses are shacks by western standards. Thatch rules, with corrugated metal roofs a distant second. Bicycles are the conveyance of choice, followed by motorbikes, usually a Honda or a competitor, 125 cc or so (small).
So how does this background and cultural environment impact a visitor? That probably depends on the visitor. We saw plenty of tour buses filled with folks hitting the high spots around Angkor Wat. These groups were staying at good hotels and their itineraries were largely structured. However, even these groups couldn't escape the realities of beggars and hundreds of vendors around the ruins shouting out for business.
Madame, cold drink? Scarf? Tablecloth? Buy a flute, bird, bracelet, carving, eat lunch here?
We can't even start to explain what we saw, because we simply don't understand it very well. Abject poverty most places, but always a smiling "Hello" for the farangs pedaling by. Where is Cambodia headed? Angkor Wat is the hope for tourism, a world-class attraction unmatched by any of Cambodia's neighbors. There are hopes for continued economic growth, foreign investment and other elements necessary to build an underdeveloped nation. On the other hand, having a corrupt government, great poverty and limited opportunities, well, you have to wonder whether hope will prevail. Time will tell.