Despite my rather reticent attitude at the beginning of my trip this year I am stepping back into the shoes of my more sociable alter-ego and making an effort to really get to know the people around me. Cambodia is blessed with friendly and open people, and if you take the time to answer their questions and listen to what they have to say, you can learn a lot about living in a country like this one. With most of the population living in extreme poverty, and even the hotel workers in the tourist areas earning only $60 USD a month according to one tuk-tuk driver I spoke with, it really throws the economic situation into perspective when you learn that a night in a cheap hotel here costs $5 and a good meal about the same. A very similar situation is to be found in India, but with a tiny fraction of the population that the latter has to feed. Sitting face to face with someone who could never realistically hope to travel to the U.K, and knows it, yet still treats you like a honoured guest with a friendly smile and polite manner has moved me greatly. We might be experiencing the beginnings of poverty once more in the U.K now, but it’s nothing compared to here, really it isn’t. Jack told me that it’s only in the last decade that Cambodia has fought its way off the starvation line. Interestingly, three of the rickshaw drivers so far have spoken, without provocation, about how the people here are unhappy with their government. Very unhappy actually. Something about a rigged election. This topic interests me but at the moment I’m reluctant to follow it up to closely: I don’t know this place well at all yet, and etiquette aside I don’t think it’s too wise to be a foreign guest in a politically unstable country, asking too many questions about a government that’s still run by a former Khmer Rouge manipulator. The folks working in the tourist industry here speak fair English, I’m interested to see what else I can find out from them.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 10:05:17 +0000
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