Siem Reap: General Impressions

The food in Cambodia was amazing. Every Cambodian meal I had was delicious. They used a lot of meat and rice, like the Chinese, but it was prepared differently. Nothing was fired and the meat was always somewhat spicy. It was not spicy like curry, it was just a hint for flavor.

The roads in Cambodia were absolutely horrible. One or two roads around the Old French Quarter were somewhat decent, but outside of that, the newest major road was barely chip and seal. The road we took into the country side was what I assume to be a high way. The government had started work on improving it. Construction was even more unorganized then back in the States. There were no lanes blocked off by orange cones, just piles of gravel dumped haphazardly in the middle of the road. Everyone traveling on that road would just have to figure out how to get around it. Later down the road it turned to dirt. Interestingly enough, the Cambodian government still had a toll booth on the dirt road. Whether the road was "paved" or not did not improved the condition of the road for the most part. Driving was often slow because there were so many pot holes and other giant imperfections. No matter where you were, I don't think there was much rule of the road. I don't remember seeing any traffic signs or lines on the road. It was more or less free for all.

The Cambodian people seemed pretty nice (unless they were trying to get money out of you). Our driver, Tong, was very polite and helpful. In the restaurants, the waiters/waitresses seemed to enjoy interacting with customers. At one, the waiter thought Wes and Francesca were related. We thought this was humorous as they look nothing alike. Wes pointed out to the waiter that they even have different ancestral backgrounds. The waiter then took interest in the fact Americans have diverse backgrounds. When I told him I was Scottish and German he asked if I could speak Scottish. He seemed very disappointed and confused when I told him Scots speak English. And on the topic of language, everyone seemed to speak English pretty well. Most had only had a slight accent and rarely were we ever asked to reword our sentences into simpler phrases. Even the children were nice (except for the ones described below). If we passed them while they were playing they would often wave and say "Hello." In the markets the vendors were less aggressive then in China or even Hong Kong. However, out at the temples, the vendors act pretty desperate. Typically, you would tell a vendor "I already have one" to get them off your back (telling them you don't want it invites them to try to convince you otherwise). On a couple of occasions the vendors replied "But you haven't bought one from me!" A common thing all of them would do is ask "Where are you from?" When I replied that I was American, they would also list random facts such as the capital is Washington D.C., the biggest state is Alaska, etc. It was almost always in the same order too.

The corruption in Cambodia was pretty bad and became very apparent. Cambodia is a democracy with freedoms, but still carries the burden of corruption like most other developing nations. Tong would speak freely on the subject when we asked him. At the temples you need a license to give tours. However, there were plenty of people without license trying to give tours to people. They wouldn't ask for money until the very end. To do this, they have to pay off the police. The same goes for selling things at temples, you have to pay the police. On a couple occasions I even saw the police standing with the vendor (my guess either making sure he gets his cut or was being paid a little extra for protection). At the Bayon temple we even had a police officer try to give us a tour. They are pretty aggressive and often catch you if you try to sneak away. Fortunately, we managed to lose that police officer and did not run into him again.

Often times you would see kids selling stuff, mostly at the temples but some on the streets of Siem Reap. When I say kids, I mean easily under 10 years old an no supervision what so ever. They would have simple and small items like post cards, bracelets, fans, and magnets. They were just as aggressive, if not more, then the adult vendors. At Angkor Wat one little girl was very aggressive and followed me around while I was looking for where Tong parked. Like everyone else she asked me "Where are you from?" which after responding that I was from the States she very rapidly said all kinds of facts about the states. She ended with "Your President is Obama. You know Obama? I am his daughter. I am Sasha! You need postcards!" Fortunately at that point I finally found Tong and the little girl left with out me having to reply to such an odd argument. Another argument the kids would use, and use frequently, is that they have to pay off the police. Sadly this is true. I never found out if what the children were doing was technically illegal (it would certainly be for the parents if this was happening in the States) but law or no law they system would work the same. The police are underpaid and everyone wants money.

On the topic of money, the way currency is used in Cambodia (or at least Siem Reap, but I have a feeling it is the same in most parts of the country) is quite interesting. Cambodian current is called the riel and is US$1 to about 4,130 riel. I was looking forward to having to have over 100,000 in currency on me. However, when I got to Siem Reap, everything was quoted in US dollars. In fact, the ATMs only gave out US dollars. The visa and the tickets to the temples, both from the government, were paid for in American dollars. It was the preferred currency. Even though cash registers everywhere were full of American bills, the American coins were no where to be seen. So if there were ever cents involved (for example I got ice cream for US$1.50) the change was given in riel. Everyone just rounded US$0.25 to 1,000 riel. By the end of my trip, I was used to using two different currencies in the same transaction.

The poverty in Siem Reap was pretty bad, or at least it seemed to us Americans. There were a lot of shacks. The poorest were out in the country side. Tong said that if we wanted to see poor people we would have to drive about 80km out of the city (he didn't think those living in shacks in the city were poor, he called them "normal"). The area around the river was the poorest we saw, and it was pretty poor. When we got off the boat a small group of children started to follow us. There were a couple adults not too far away yelling at them, and each time they yelled the children got more aggressive for money. One little girl seemed rather shy and didn't say anything. She just pointed to the empty water bottle I was carrying. I noticed she had a bag full of empty plastic bottles. I handed it to her and she seemed pretty happy. There was one little boy who kept asking for money. After we got in the car, he banged on the window asking for one dollar. Despite the depressing first impression, we did see a lot of hope. At one point we ventured out of the Old French Quarter to see what the typical life was for a local. There was a surprising amount of development hidden from the main road. There were apartment buildings (granted no where near the standard we are used to, but significantly better then a dirt floor). Schools were also everywhere. Even in the floating village, the most common building (aside from a house) was a school. Friday was the only school day we were there and the schools we saw open were overflowing with children. Cambodians are definitely eager to develop and are making progress on that front.