Contradiction in Cambodia

I spent little more than a week in Cambodia, but even that short amount of time was enough to understand the contradiction within that country that all the guidebooks warn you about. You go to admire some of the most amazing architecture from one of the richest civilizations ever to exist n this part of the world, and yet you have to pass through a gauntlet of skinny, dirty children asking for money. You see some beautiful countryside and majestic animals, yet you hear story after story of corruption and exploitation. One minute, you're smiling with the fruit vendors in the market, the next minute, you are looking at the killing fields where Cambodians killed nearly a quarter of their fellow countrymen, women and children only forty years ago.

Killing Fields of Choeung Ek

Stupa containing hundreds of bones of those killed at Choeung Ek

Choeung Ek

Tuol Sleng - an old high school that became a Khmer Rouge torture prison

Some of the thousands of victims from Tuol Sleng, many ended up at Choeung Ek

Every Khmer you meet as a tourist is very friendly, and very welcoming. And yet an ex-pat Dcotor told me he had received death threats working in Cambodia, and an ex-pat businessman told me that he was shunned by most of the Khmer community, except his wife's family who kept asking him for money. He also told me that absolutely everything in Cambodia runs on corruption; for example, he only paid $35 in tax, and that's because $15 of it went to the local taxman.

Khmer kids

Phnom Penh

Sa, aka Batman

Seeing children begging the whole time, and having to refuse to give them money in order to try and stop their parents from making them beg, was really really difficult. In Angkor, I finally solved part of the problem by carrying a see-through bag of fruit with me into every temple, and when a child would ask for money, I would refuse, then when they asked for fruit, I would give them whatever they wanted from the bag. Happy enough, they would then move on to the next tourist. I asked my driver, whose name was Sa, why they weren't in school, and he told me that children in Cambodia only go to school for half the day so they can help their families by selling trinkets at the temple.

Kid placated with fruit

Temple kids

Kids trying to sell to tourists

The good in Cambodia made the bad so much more poignant. I have some lovely memories from my time there, for example, when a market vendor in Psar Thmei tried to persuade me, without any encouragement, that a tiny little bra built for tiny little Khmer women would fit me. She kept putting various lingerie over my t-shirt, and fastening the strap, and telling me it looked great, despite all my remonstrances over cup size and the physical evidence of flesh spillage. I'm not really sure who was laughing more, me or the other vendors gathered around to see the show.

Monk performing some ritual involving throwing water on this family

Guests lining up behind the groom for a Khmer wedding

Kids bathing in the old Angkor Royal bathing pools

I also saw some amazing things, even aside from the temples of Angkor. From an unexpected wedding party lined up outside my hotel, to a wrong turn that led me to a monk performing a ritual, to kids making new use of ancient royal bathing pools, it was the people of Cambodia who provided me the most insight. But the loveliest morning I spent in the country was without a doubt the one I spent near Kratie, watching some of the few remaining Irrawaddy dolphins in the world frolicking in the Mekong river.

Mekong River near Kratie

Irrawaddy dolphins

Irrawaddy Dolphins from Tina Cone on Vimeo.

Finally, the most charming custom I heard about in Cambodia was told to me by Sa, my driver around the Angkor temples. He told me that in his hometown, not far from Siem Reap, they treat Christmas like a sort of Valentine's Day. Girls and boys give flowers to their would-be lover to show their interest and if their love is reciprocated, they get a flower back.

Tourists getting a massage from tiny fish eating dead skin off their feet in Siem Reap

All neon in Siem Reap

Old school pub in Siem Reap

Thanks in large part to the massive, and growing, tourist presence in Siem Reap (the gateway to the Angkor temples) opportunity is growing in Cambodia. I can only hope that the next time I visit this remarkable country, that everyone else is benefitting as much as those skimming off the top. Though whether that resolves any of Cambodia's contradictions is anybody's guess.