Even though excessive amounts of MSG (Monosodium Glutamate) added to the food I was eating with the villagers from Sras Srang during the last day of the Pchum Ben Festival made it taste awful so I didn’t have much of it, I still had enough to cause further stomach problems. At this point I had enough pointers to start being apprehensive about MSG and went on the internet to read up on it.
As with many other things, the information available on the internet is rather conflicting. Some said intake of MSG was harmful, while others stated they experienced no problems whatsoever, even after years of use. It was hard to come to a solid conclusion based on other people’s reports, but potentially harmful side effects caught my attention so I started to ask around in restaurants whether they could cook the food for me without MSG.
Eating MSG Free Foods
Harmful or not, I didn’t feel like eating too much food that had its taste enhanced with chemical seasoning. In my mind, the premise was simple – I’d ask a waiter in a restaurant if it was possible to cook the dish I’d order without any MSG. I said I didn’t care if the cook thought it didn’t taste right without MSG, but I made it a requirement if they wanted to get my business. I made it clear that it didn’t matter to me what they believed each dish needed in order to taste right, or what they’d continue serving to other customers, but as for me… you either ensure there is no MSG in my food, or I will never dine in your establishment again.
Unfortunately, Khmer Family Restaurant was unable to accommodate my requests. I used to dine there a lot but since I couldn’t get anyone to take my requests seriously, I quit going there. Luckily, there is no shortage of restaurants anywhere a guy goes and many will be more than happy to oblige in order to earn your business so this was not an issue. Amazingly enough, after I started asking for no MSG in my food, the stomach problems went away.
Habit of Asking for No MSG
Since I already know what the food with loads of MSG smells and tastes like, I could often tell whether what I was served had the taste “enhanced” with it, or not. However this is not always possible as small amounts of it won’t have much impact on taste. It’s like with salt – if you overdo it, you can tell the dish is too salty, but if you put just right amount, then it simply tastes just right.
There were a few occasions when I forgot to ask for no MSG and I found out about it the following day when the stomach cramps came back. Since I was supporting the establishments that were happy to accommodate my requests for no MSG in my food, after a few regular visits I no longer needed to remind them of how to cook for me. But that threw me off the habit of asking for no MSG each time I was ordering food and failed to do it with a few restaurants in which I hadn’t dined before.
Why Such Sensitivity to MSG?
I attribute my initial sensitivity to MSG to clean digestive system. My diet consisted of at least 80% organic food when I was in Canada. Everything that could be had in 100% organic form was a staple of my diet with the rest consisting of either organic, or if not available, then natural foods. Not everything could be had organic, but majority of my diet was chemistry free (except from occasional fast food munchies) so my digestion was nice and clean.
But then when I came to Cambodia and started bombarding my stomach with excessive MSG, the impact was instantly noticeable. I appreciate that people who eat foods full of pesticide all the time have their digestion used to the chemicals and may not feel the negative effects of MSG so harshly. That’s perhaps how one could explain the conflicting reports on MSG intake on the internet.
MSG Free Dining
From my own experience, MSG is definitely bad for your health and has a very negative effect on your body. Elimination of MSG from my diet resulted in elimination of stomach problems I was experiencing while eating foods that contained MSG. But seeing how more and more restaurants with signs that none of their foods contain MSG keep popping out all over Asia, I’m guessing I’m not the only one who experienced similar problems with MSG and that resulted in growing demand for MSG free dining.
Photo: Growing Demand for MSG Free Cooking Signals There Is Something Fishy About the Additive
My initial days in South-East Asia were accompanied with excitement. Not only am I a big fan of Asian kitchen, it was also encouraging to see that I could buy a complete meal for some $3 in Cambodia. I have a stomach of steel that doesn’t get easily upset, but when I realized that I will be eating homemade, cooked food for the next little while, I started looking forward to significantly improved health. Swapping canned dishes and junk food from fast food restaurants with cooked, restaurant-style meals is bound to positively affect my overall health, right? Well, that’s what I thought.
That’s why it shocked me when shortly after arriving to Cambodia I started experiencing severe stomach pains. My stomach, which handled most dubious foods in the past without a wink started giving me insane problems shortly after my initiation to Cambodian food. It was making no sense. I expected to start feeling better, not significantly worse. The cramps were not something I could easily ignore either. When a cramp got me, it delivered intense stomach pains as if I had an Alien trying to rip out of my innards. It would take a hold and not let go for good two minutes.
Search for Causes of Stomach Problems
I was really having hard time trying figure out what could be causing it. After more than a week of persistent stomach pains, I knew I needed to start looking for the reason that causes them. There was no way a simple change in diet could have had such severe effect on my digestive system. I knew there must have been either particular food or a particular drink that was causing it. I only drank bottled water and even brushed my teeth with it, so I didn’t anticipate the cause of problems originating from there, but I was determined to nail it down at any cost. I deployed the elimination method.
Each day I completely left out something out of my diet what I used to eat during my stay in Cambodia so far. If stomach problems continued even after elimination of that particular food or drink, I would go on to eliminate something else until it becomes clear where the cause of problems lied. I even suspected beer as I used to have a couple glasses every day but to my joy it wasn’t the case. I enjoy a good glass of cold beer so having to go without would be rather painful, but I guess I would just need to try a different brew which was not a big deal. I really couldn’t imagine beer possibly causing any stomach problems, but I needed to be sure so I tried. Luckily, it wasn’t the beer that cause my stomach problems.
Food Additives and Stomach Problems
As I kept moving forward with my experiment, it became clear that this was strictly food related and nothing I was drinking was causing the problems. However, it also became clear that it’s not just general food, it’s something added to the food that causes it. I could for example eat Cambodian Lok Lak dish and not get cramps from it, but if I ate Cambodian Amok Fish, the cramps would be there. However, grilled fish with rice caused no problem at all. It was not fish, it was not rice, it was not vegetables or fruit and it was not other meat. So what was it?
I kept getting closer and closer to the answer but didn’t quite have it nailed down until the last day of Pchum Ben. I was invited to take part in the celebrations by the villagers from Sras Srang village in the Angkor area and it involved big lunch on the side of the moat surrounding Angkor Wat. Munchies were done the Cambodian way – everybody joined the food they brought with the food of others creating a feast of available dishes and everyone was free to load up their plate with whatever they liked. Since I didn’t have the kitchen in my room, instead of cooking, I brought a bunch of fruit.
Truly Cambodian Food
I followed the example set by the villagers who gathered round for the lunch and put a little bit of every dish available on my plate. I expected the same or similar tastes I was exposed to in local restaurants so far but these village dishes were nothing like that. Each of them had a very overpowering taste of some bad seasoning that was defeating the taste of everything else. Fish didn’t taste like fish, it tasted like that seasoning. Soup with herbs didn’t taste like soup with herbs, it tasted like that seasoning. The smell and taste of it was so distinct and so unpleasant, I was having hard time swallowing anything but rice.
Even though rice was the only dish that was seasoning free, at least there was one such. It tasted bland because it was cooked without any salt, but at least I had something to put in my mouth. To my disbelief, villagers also brought extra bags of that seasoning that each of the dishes instead of plain rice already had too much of and kept adding spoonfuls upon spoonfuls of it to the mix on their plates. It was a white, powdery substance similar in look to sugar but smelled horribly and made food that contained it taste like crap.
I asked what the substance was and was told that it’s a seasoning they always add to food because it makes it taste much better. I picked up one of the bags and through a bunch of Cambodian script writing I was able to distinguish a few words in English – MonoSodium Glutamate.
This discovery of MSG was a key point that eventually lead to the elimination of my stomach problems. It was just shocking to see how Cambodian villagers think MSG was the best thing since sliced bread and can’t imagine their lives without it. Local shops that specialize in business with the locals sell more MSG than anything else and have shelves full of it, usually placed at the most prominent location of their store. So much love for such a bad thing.
My English class had on average 30 people attending. That’s about as many as could be fit within the space of our classroom. Strangely enough, there was only one girl in the class, the rest were boys (of which about 10 were monks). Because class was open for anyone who wished to improve their English (this was an advanced speaker’s class), there were odd days when we had two girls in the class, but for the most part there was only one. The disproportionate gender distribution was instantly noticeable and got me curious.
View of the Classroom from the Wat Preah Prom Rath Grounds
Since it was not only my class that suffered from severe lack of women in comparison to men, I asked why there were hardly any girls attention the classes in Wat Preah Prom Rath Pagoda. What I was told was not a bit surprising. My students simply said that if I went to the Khmer University in Siem Reap, I would see the same ratio of women vs men. They said only about 4 girls attended the university, the rest were all boys.
I was curious why that was so I kept asking. Did Cambodian women have aversion to education or was there something else in play? The responses from my students suggested that based on Cambodian cultural and societal beliefs, the place for a woman is at home, looking after children and making her man happy. She is not to care about anything else and should always stay by the side of her man, even if he cheats on her or beats her up, which is a common treatment Cambodian women receive from their husbands.
The world has moved forward and both sexes are deemed equal in most of the world, but some countries still perceive women as the lesser of the two. Cambodia appears to be one of them. High rates of rape also suggest that many Cambodian men perceive and treat women as mere sexual objects. Sadly enough, it is socially and culturally unacceptable for a Cambodian woman to admit pre-marital sex, even if she was brutally forced into it. Because of that, most cases of rape don’t get reported and remain a burden a woman-victim is left alone to bear.
I enjoyed my English class profusely. The class was lead by a Buddhist monk with great command of English (the best English I’ve heard any Cambodian speak – I’m guessing he must have gotten scholarship to study in an English speaking country, but I never actually asked to know for sure) and the students, who came from all walks of life were a wonderful bunch. Anyone was welcome to attend the class, but after the class, students paid the Khmer teacher (the monk) 500 Riel (there are 4,300 Cambodian Riel to a US Dollar) each. This didn’t apply to monks. Monks don’t pay.
The students also didn’t have to pay anything to me. The 500 Riel fee for the Khmer teacher was a regular per class fee they’d have to pay regardless of whether I was there or not, but there was no extra cost for the class with me. However, I had to make something very clear right from the get go. Unfortunately, being a foreigner, the first and foremost thing each of the students saw when they looked at me was money. It was really disappointing and it took me a while to eliminate it. Lesson after lesson, either during the class or right after it, various students would approach me with seemingly personal questions, but they always swerved into business solicitations. It would typically go about something like this:
Student: How long have you been in Cambodia for, Mark? Me: Only for a little over a week now. Student: How do you like it so far? Me: It’s very hot, hotter than anything I have previously experienced but I drink lots of coconut so it’s manageable. Student: Have you been to Angkor yet? Me: Yes, I went today. It was my first day and it was amazing. Student: Would you like a tuk tuk for tomorrow? Me: No, thank you. I have a bicycle and I enjoy riding and exploring at my own pace. Student: Where are you staying? Me: In Prom Roth Guesthouse, right around the corner from here. Student: I know a better guesthouse, can get you a special price. Me: Thank you for your offer, I may take a look at it later but for now I’m happy with this one.
…
Day after day, lecture after lecture my students would be approaching me with offers clearly directed at making money at me. It only confirmed what I already knew – for a Cambodian, a westerner is nothing more than a wandering cash cow. It was a dog eat dog world in Siem Reap, though. Millions of tourists keep coming year after year, but for each tourist, there are dozens of relentless touts out there. Tourists are pushed beyond their limits and forced to lock in, disregarding any and all locals trying to approach them.
Needless to say, any foreigner who’s been in Cambodia for more than 5 minutes will be so fed up with aggressive touts, they will not accept any more locals into their personal space. As a result, locals know that their chances at striking a successful conversation with a random foreigner on the street are minimal. They simply know that each foreigner, regardless of how long they’ve been in Cambodia, has already been jumped so many time by locals (and each time it was solely for the purpose of making money at them), they have had enough of it and will just beat each next one off without listening to what they had to say.
Siem Reap is overflowing with money hungry Cambodians who wish to skin every foreigner that comes into view off every single dollar they have, but are unable to get to them because their boundaries were already crossed and all locals are already seen as aggressive, money hungry machines that don’t stop at nothing to get their dollars. And then they see me, standing right in front of them, within the walls of the same room, looking straight into their faces instead of looking away to avoid eye contact (in Cambodia, if you make an eye contact, it is perceived as an invitation to let them sell you something) and talking to them without them struggling to get to me. So what do they do?
That’s right… I threw myself right in the viper’s nest. Each of my students had the most seemingly helpful advice for me, because apparently if I buy from anywhere else but from where they say I should, I will buy badly. It went on like that for a few days until I could not take it anymore and made myself clear in front of an entire class. I said the following:
I come here to help you study the English language. I do not take any money for it and I do not expect any. I am here because I enjoy the lectures and like to share the knowledge. However, I do not like that you see my presence as an open invitation to sell me something or get commissions for me. I volunteer my time to help you improve your English speaking skills, but I must ask you to respect me and stop looking for the ways to make money at me all the time. Whatever the type of business you are affiliated with, whatever the type of services you offer – do not solicit any of it to me just because I make myself an easy prey by coming to your class.
Sadly enough, my class was not a part of some overpriced school so anyone was welcome to attend. This was a good thing on one hand, because not many Cambodians can afford to pay $400 per semester for a fancy classroom with a fly-by teacher. Classes like the one I joined allowed people without a sponsor or with lower income levels to still get some education and improve their chances at scoring a better paid job. But because it was so open and affordable, it left me exposed to endless solicitations. In the end, it was all about money for them. You offer them a finger, they don’t just take whole hand. They’ll take all of you.
While I could say my mission to make a suicidal girl feel better so hopefully she’ll never consider killing herself again was successful, I found out two days later that both her and her sister were fired from the ice factory. Because of her suicide attempt, she was unable to show up for work and when their boss found out that she attempted suicide, he fired them both. Hard to blame him – who wants to have to deal with people with suicidal tendencies? Tough for the girls, though.
Suicidal girl went back home to the village, while her sister stayed to try to look for a different job. She was gonna start to learn English so she has a wider field of possibilities but needed to fill the gap while she was jobless and came knocking at my door the following day. My English class student who introduced me to her came along as an interpreter and it all ended up being one embarrassing ordeal.
She came to me to make some money and was ready to do anything to “deserve” it. My student explained to me that her father is still ill and needs money but now that both sisters are out of work, I was her only option, because I was the only foreigner she knew. Then he just got up and said he was gonna leave us alone and started walking towards the door. I had to vehemently halt him and explain to him that this is not gonna work and neither her nor him should have considered this an option. I asked him to translate this to her:
“I understand you need money for your father, but you will have to earn it with real work. And you have all you need to do it. Don’t give up, it’s just one job lost and that job sucked anyway. It was wearing you out too much and paid very little. It’s good you’re out of it, but now you need to collect yourself and get out there to find yourself a better job. In the meantime, I won’t give you any money because I follow a strict policy on hand-outs, and I want you to walk out of this door the same strong and proud woman you were when you walked in. But I don’t want you to be hungry or have nowhere to sleep. When I go to eat, you are welcome to join me and I will pay for food you eat. If you can’t afford to pay for an accommodation, I will pay for your room until your first salary. If your new job requires you to purchase certain clothes, we will go out and I will pay for what is suitable and fits you. But every day you will have to show me where you went to apply for a job and what the outcome was. You will also have to show me the plan for the following day so I know which other places you are going to apply for a job with.”
I do not do handouts. There are way too many Cambodians out there already who are used to getting handouts and as a result – do not do anything to even try to get a job and improve their lives. They make the skill of asking for handouts their lifetime profession. I follow an example from the bible. Instead of giving the needy free fish, I will teach them how to fish. Encouraging the culture of handouts does Cambodians a great disservice. What they need is someone to teach them how to be responsible for their actions and pro active about their future.
The girl who came to sell herself out – quite possibly for the first time in her life – was saved from her own mistake and sent to become more successful than she’s ever been before. She scored a well paying job the very next day and I hooked her up with an English class for beginners. All this was possible without losing her dignity, she only needed someone to kick her in the right direction, instead of making her used to getting money the easy way… no matter the cost.
Unlike her sister who went back to the village, this girl stayed in Siem Reap so I got a chance to meet with her on a few occasions again. We had this common understanding which went without saying that we will never talk about the day she came to me and will treat it is if it never happened. I’m positive that she has a good future ahead of herself and I wish her the best of luck.
I continued attending my English class at Wat Preah Prom Rath, but I missed a few lectures while I was at Angkor. This one time when I did make it back before 5pm, a student came to talk to me after the class and said the his friend’s sister was in a hospital after she nearly killed herself in a suicide attempt. He said the girl swallowed an excessive amount of pills and ended up in an emergency care of the Siem Reap Referral Hospital where she’s recovering.
I knew where Siem Reap Referral Hospital was as I passed by it many times, but I had never actually been inside. I don’t even know why said student would come to tell me about the suicidal girl but I asked him if he could take me to her so I could speak with her and make her feel better about herself so she doesn’t try to take her life again. He said the girl was from a remote village in north-west Cambodia and couldn’t speak any English so there would be no talking to her. He could try to translate but he wasn’t sure how that would go about.
There Was Once a Girl…
The girl and her sister came to Siem Reap a few weeks prior. The village where they came from was very remote and the life in it existed without money. People grew what they needed to eat and used what nature provided to create tools and shelter. The life in the village was simple, but for the most part fairly self sustainable and unless some significant event crossed the path of any of the villagers, they would live and die without ever leaving the place.
The first time either of the girls saw a foreigner was when they came to Siem Reap. Their village was nowhere near any popular tourist route and there was nothing worthy of mention anywhere in the area so their lives consisted exclusively of farming. Had it not been for their father’s illness, they would have never left the village and would have dedicated their lives to the village life like everybody else who lives there. But they were not meant to.
Under normal circumstances, none of the villagers ever worry about money. All they need to worry about is to make sure they have enough rice and live stock to feed themselves with throughout the year and that’s about that. But when girls’ father fell ill, this all has changed and all of a sudden there was an unexpected need for money. So the girls packed up and left for Siem Reap the buzz about which has reached the ears of the villagers.
Because Siem Reap welcomes millions of tourists year after year (and growing), Cambodians associate it with a gold mine. Trouble was, that our two sisters did not speak English or any other foreign language to take advantage of town’s growing popularity and had to settle with non tourism related jobs which don’t usually land as much cash. Both girls started working for an ice factory (like Bruce Lee in Fists of Fury).
Attempted Suicide
They weren’t making much money, but there was at least something left over so they could send it home to support their weak dad. But then something happened and one of the sisters attempted suicide. After just a few months in Siem Reap she tried to kill herself. The world of money sure changes people and enslaves them to the point of no return.
I don’t know why exactly the girl tried to kill herself. She never actually told the truth. I asked, but her response implied that she didn’t want anyone to know. She simply said that she attempted suicide because of family problems. That made little sense though, because in villages where people live together their whole lives, family is the strongest of institutions. People stick together through the fire and the flames because all they have is one another and they know it very well.
It was not my goal to stick my nose into what was none of my business. Whatever the real reason behind attempted suicide, I just wanted to make her feel better at least for that short moment while I was there. I knew that because of where she came from and where she worked in Siem Reap, she never actually had a foreigner talk to her. So, having a foreigner come visit her in a hospital definitely made an impact and I also brought her a small toy to try to put a smile on her face and despite severe stomach pains caused by the pills still in her system, it worked.
Siem Reap Referral Hospital
This was my first time in the Siem Reap Referral Hospital which is not particularly a high class establishment. The bunk beds are cramped together in dark hallways so rooms can be available for operations. While I was there, I saw several badly injured people brought in. Those were the victims of traffic accidents which there are never too few of in Cambodia.
But the most devastating experience was to watch a young man carried in by his brothers. He was in excruciating pain and twitched on bed as if he was being skinned alive. Expression of pain on his face left little out for guessing. I think he was suffering from kidney stones as there are few things that can cause this much pain. The response from a doctor on duty was nowhere near what I would call timely given the suffering this man was going through, but this likely goes with the venue. There are better health facilities with more professional and prompt medical care, but not everybody can afford it. Those who can’t are left with what’s attainable by their means and whether inadequate or not, Siem Reap Referral Hospital is definitely better than nothing at all.
Back to our suicidal girl – I asked a doctor if I could bring my fan to make the hospital stay more bearable for my friend. It just so happened that she tried to kill herself when Siem Reap was hit with a heat wave so wherever you went, if there was no air-conditioning, it would be unbearably hot inside. Siem Reap Referral Hospital is not only not air-conditioned, there are no fans there either.
The hospital was so hot inside, mere sitting there was making people nauseous so when I imagined that there was a girl who suffered from severe stomach cramps that forced her into vomiting every few minutes, I instantly knew she needed a fan to pull through. I wanted to bring my own, but the doc said “No” and there was no changing his mind. I had to go with it, though. I don’t know whether care provided by the Siem Reap Referral Hospital is paid or free, but either way it is available to people with little or no money so they don’t have the resources to cover for the electricity my fan would burn.
Later on, there was a whole groups of people who came to see the suicidal girl. It almost seemed as a solid way to receive compassion and make new friends. We spent a little time with the girl but eventually everybody had to go as it was getting late at night. I was in a group of the last people to leave but the girl wasn’t going to spend the night alone. Her sister was staying by her side so we wished her courage and strength and left. I’ve never seen the suicidal girl again, but that was not the case with her sister.
Brief video of the encounter with the suicidal girl is below:
My first visit to Cambodia was in September – in the middle of rainy season. I wasn’t sure what to expect and thought that when it starts raining in the beginning of June, it doesn’t stop until the end of October. Luckily, this was not the case and as it turned out, there was advantage to visiting Angkor in rainy season. I wasn’t able to make that comparison until I made my follow up visit in April and spent a couple of weeks in the country during dry season, but it was pretty obvious.
Photo: Rainy Season Brings Out Lush Greens and Adds Density to Grey Walls
From strictly photographer’s point of view, the temples of Angkor gain rich hue during rainy season because the stones are frequently bombarded by heavy torrential downpours. This makes the temples look more saturated (richer in density – if you will) than when the stones are parched dry by the intense sun rays of dry season. To put it bluntly – thanks to super high humidity which gives ancient stones richer shades, temples of Angkor look better in rainy season than they do in dry season. Plus all of the trees that grow along the temple walls look greener and livelier too.
Besides, it doesn’t rain nowhere near as much as you would think it does in rainy season. After 3 months spent in Cambodia during rainy season, I noticed that rain patterns are not frequent enough to severely disrupt your plans. It hardly ever rained for more than one day straight. One rainy day is usually followed by four or five sunny days when sky is cloudless and roads are dry. Then you would get some rain, which would typically be restricted to an afternoon downpour, but that would again be followed by a sequence of several rainless days. Make no mistake, though – the afternoon downpours are so heavy, they can fill up all ditches and bury the streets in a foot deep pool of water within a couple of hours.
Sometime it would rain whole night and the following day would be rather gloomy and overcast, but seeing continuous rain for an extended period of time is unusual. As a matter of fact, the number of sunny days you’ll get in rainy season will be about 4 times as high as the number of rainy days. Super high humidity with insanely intense sun will make for a sweaty stay, but the pictures will look awesome. There’s no reason to feel sketchy about visiting Angkor in rainy season. It really doesn’t rain all that much but you will catch the temple at their best. And that in my eyes gives visits to Angkor in rainy season an advantage.
To an average visitor, the temples of Angkor may appear as piles of rock – ancient structures in a great state of ruin, often overrun with jungle but we must not forget that they were built to be sacred places that are still used as places of worship by the local populace. Most of the temples that are still standing contain at least one sanctuary housing a statue of Buddha (or other divinity) and are deeply venerated by a steady flow of worshippers, including monks. It was with great disappointment that I saw so many westerners disrespect these sacred spaces by walking around wearing baseball hats sideways (wigger style), speaking loudly with their friends, and even walking in front of a person kneeling before the statue, interrupting their connection with the deity portrayed.
Photo: Cambodian Woman Praying Before the Statue of Buddha at Bayon Temple
Cambodians must have grown used to the westerners and their apparent lack of respect (or understanding) for their religion, because I’ve never seen or heard any of them speak up and request the westerners to adjust their behavior as a sign of respect for the holy space they are within, but this was something one should not have to ask of another. Just because Cambodians are tolerant of inappropriate behavior of westerners in their sacred places, it should not be seen as open invitation to completely disrespect and desecrate them.
Yes, exploring the temples of Angkor involves a lot of sweating and an exposure to an intense sun, so head covering is often a necessity, however removing your hat when you enter a space with a decorated statue that has incense sticks burning at its base and people praying in front of it is the least of trouble. Yet I’ve always been the only westerner doing it.
Why do so many westerners think that they are too good to have to remove their hats upon entering the Buddhist sanctuary? Does that really make you feel macho that you were able to disrespect the sacred statue of Buddha and got away without? Does it really make you feel macho to announce your presence by shouting when you enter a sanctuary where people are praying to their deities in silence. And does it really make you feel macho to wander in front of a person who’s praying to that statue so you can pose yourself up for a cool photo?
I was definitely a happier camper than most other tourists at Angkor. Their faces ware telling stories of utmost frustration and there was no wondering why. Spending a day exposed to the abuse Angkor touts put foreigners through is enough to drive even the most hard core individual insane. Yet here I was still able to walk through the viper’s nest, into its very core where at the end of it was the shop I wanted to buy a coconut from.
As I saw kids sprinting towards me with various low quality items hanging off of them like shiny balls off a Christmas tree, I countered each of them by reciting their rites before they got a chance to start. I simply said right off the bat that I was from “Canada, capital city Ottawa, population 32 Million, we speak two languages” and concluded my chant by firmly stating that I’m going to the second last shop where my friends work so I can buy everything I need from them. Bam… that shut them off.
It was very hot, I was very tired and was wearing clothes that got drenched many times over with sweat during the day. Sipping energizing fluids out of a cold, freshly opened coconut provided me with an uplifting feeling. Trees provided much needed shade and at times I even caught a little bit of breeze that helped to wash the sweat off my face. Having previously spent over an hour with those girls, we kept chatting about random things and even though many freelance touts still kept trying their tricks on me, I was for the most part left alone. And then I noticed something that was going to completely change my approach towards dealing with touts.
Learn from the Koreans
As I was sitting there blended with the shop, I noticed that if any westerners came into view, all of the touts would jump them in a relentless tactics of pressure but when a group of Korean tourists showed up, none of the touts would make a step towards them, never mind trying to pester them. That instantly boosted my interest and I started asking around:
How come nobody tried to sell anything to any of those Korean people? There was a group of about 30 of them, most of them in their productive years implying that they have their lives well secured and have disposable income to be able to buy anything they want. Yet none of the touts would even try to come to them but if a western backpacker, someone who looks like they’ve been on the road for a while and have to watch what they spend their money on shows up, they get dozens of pestering touts jump them and follow them around not giving them a minute of peace. How is it possible that Koreans are left alone, allowed to enjoy the experience undisturbed, while westerners are pestered on every single step of their way by dozens of relentless touts at any given time?
I asked my new friends why none of them jumped any of the Koreans given that there was such a large group of them. One person trying to sell something to a group of 30 should have a better chance of getting business than 30 people trying to sell something to one person. Yet nobody even moved when the Koreans showed up and I really wanted to know what their secret was – why are Koreans allowed to enjoy the experience undisturbed while westerners are put through hell. It was a million dollar question and I got a million dollar answer:
“Koreans are rude and they ignore us when we talk to them!”
Tip 1 – Ignorance is Bliss
Bingo! I could not have asked for a better pointer. So this is the secret to turning a bastardized Angkor experience into an enjoyable one? Start fighting fire with fire by responding to rudeness with rudeness? Is this really the key to having a peaceful and enjoyable time at Angkor? As it turns out, it really is!
The thing is – Cambodians realized that westerners are brought up being polite and started abusing that fact against them. They knew that us westerners are always told that ignoring is rude and it is not only polite, but downright necessary to at least acknowledge, if not respond to every person who approaches you, even if they are a stranger on a street. As such, you don’t even think about responding when approached by a stranger trying to sell you something – you naturally respond by politely stating that you were OK and didn’t need anything at the moment. Of course, after you have done that the first two million times within a span of one day, it will wear you out and you’ll turn grumpy and look the same all westerners you see at Angkor in the afternoon do.
So the tactics of pestering Cambodian touts is to abuse the fact that westerners are polite by being rude to them, yelling at them, clapping at them from across the street, honking horns at them or otherwise verbally abusing them – because they know it is natural for westerners to respond.
Korean culture and way of life is entirely different so for them – if you approach them with rudeness, you will get rudeness back. Whether by being ignored – which as described here is one of the most powerful tools you can utilize to save yourself from an ongoing headache of being in Cambodia or if that doesn’t do the trick, they’ll deploy the ever so powerful sweeping hand movement.
Tip 2 – Sweeping Hand Movement
Even though vast majority of Cambodian touts won’t bother Koreans, there are still oddballs who go over and beyond the call of duty and wish to take pestering foreigners to a whole new level. After spending a while observing how touts operate, I did on occasion spot a random one trying their luck with a Korean. The response was absolutely priceless:
If a Korean person does get jumped by a tout, they still ignore and say absolutely nothing, but they’d make this hand sweeping movement as if to knock the pestering tout off their coat like bread crumbs. Without any attempt to make an eye contact with a bothering pest, the hand sweeping movement seems to be an extremely powerful way to end the abuse. Following this valuable experience, I’ve tried the hand sweeping movement myself and it worked like a charm. For some reason it looks as though Cambodians found it very offensive when you sweep them off like this so if nothing else works, if you get a super aggressive tout on you that wouldn’t leave you alone no matter what, trying the hand sweeping movement could still do the job. Almost each time I tried it after all else failed, it did free me up from even the most pestering of pests.
This is especially helpful with your pimps who would drive by you on a motorcycle trying to sell you a lady bum bum, cocaine, heroin and whatever other fishy substance you could think off and wouldn’t leave you alone no matter what. Don’t say a word, don’t even turn your head, just do the hand sweeping movement and you’ll see them get right on their way. It’s pure magic.
Photo: Huy Meng Mini Mart in Siem Reap - Many Child Slaves Insist on Buying Them Food from There
Another good example of use are pimped out kids working for organized cartels. These kids are purposefully dressed up in torn up clothes and made to look dirty. They can cry on command and will grab your hand and won’t let go, insisting that you must buy them food or they die hungry. Of course, if you offer to take them to the restaurant where you would buy them the food so they can eat on the spot, they won’t go. They will only accept food from a nearby convenience store with which they have a “contract”. These are extremely difficult to brush off and they are also the rudest of all. Now don’t get me wrong – being rude is natural to all Cambodians so being told to “F%$k Off” if you don’t give them a hand-out, or if you give them not as much as they think they are worth, or if you give them something they don’t particularly like – is absolutely normal and happens all the time in Cambodia, but the pimped out kids are particularly aggressive and particularly rude and will usually not settle with mere “F%$k You”. There will be a whole slew of swearings if they don’t trick you into buying something from the convenience store they are a part of.
Deploying the sweeping hand movement can be the only way for you to get rid of those kids. They will grab you by the hand or by the piece of clothing and will not let go no matter what. If the hand sweeping movement fails, you will be left with no other option but to board a Tuk Tuk and drive away. In this case it’s still you who loses, only now not a pestering kid, but a different tout (Tuk Tuk driver) will get your money.
Tip 3 – Video Camera
It is recommended to eat in westerner owned restaurants when in Cambodia as most local owned ones will attract and won’t deter pestering kids from bothering you while you eat. There is nothing more irritating than spending 20 minutes waiting for your meal after a whole day of exploring Angkor, when you can’t wait till your sizzling stuff makes it to your table cause you’re starving like a lion, then the moment comes, you get your dish, you dig right in, savoring the flavor to the fullest and then a pestering kid comes, shoves itself one foot away from your face and starts chanting some incoherent shite. Needless to say, you just want to enjoy your meal in peace cause you’re really hungry and need energy but this kid will not leave your side and will spoil your dining experience entirely.
There is very little you can do when this takes place. If you happen to find yourself in a restaurant that won’t send the pest away for you (or worse yet, one which encourages them – like a few I have dined in) you won’t be able to explain to them that you can’t buy them food because you only have enough to pay for yours. They either don’t speak English or pretend they don’t which serves as an excuse to stay in your face.
Sweeping your hand doesn’t work very well with these kids. They don’t care that they are disrupting your dinner as it’s that disruption that may force you to shell out so you can finish your meal in peace. Because of that, you usually only have one choice that could still work – point a video camera at them to make it look like you are vidoetaping them pestering you. This will work in 9 cases out of 10. Camera equipped cell phones and 5th generation iPods work just as well.
The thing is – unless you do something that will safely send these pestering kids on their merry way, you will still have them murmuring crap into your ear 5 minutes later. They are extremely hard to shake off so for the most part, unless you have a backup from a Cambodian speaking person who can yell at them in a language they do understand, the only thing that could help is the camera in their face.
Lesson Learned
Even though Cambodia is a country of extremely aggressive touts, you can make it easier for yourself by following the Korean example. It won’t save you from verbal abuse and rude remarks as even Koreans are subjected to it and there’s nothing they can do about it, however you can still cut down on about 95% of direct pestering by completely ignoring them, sweeping your hand at those who still won’t leave you alone and shoving your video camera in the face of the rest of them who make a point off turning your stay in their country into a miserable experience.
Angkor area touts have been bastardizing the experience for visitors to Angkor Archaeological Park ever since the beginnings of the mass tourism in Cambodia, but the more visitors the temples attract, the more aggressive they get. Needless to say, regardless of how majestic the temples of Angkor may be, a visit to the park is accompanied with a great deal of frustration and dismay. You can only say “No, thank you” the first two million times before it gets disheartening and demoralizing. Visitors are justifiably resentful and often turn bitter with each additional importunity that befalls upon their every step. You can see the frustration on their faces when after a long struggle to shake off an aggressive tout they get jumped by a fresh load of new half a dozen.
Photo: Touts Pestering Tourists at One of Angkor Archaeological Park Temples
Locals realized that noone can put up with so much pressure and still be willing to listen to them when they want to sell you some more useless junk, so they instructed the kids they use to pester the visitors with to respond to each turn-down with the “Where are you from?” question. Obviously, every foreigner who has been in Cambodia for more than five minutes will have already been subjected to so much pressure from the Tuk Tuk drivers and omnipresent scammers they can no longer take it so by the time they make it all the way to Angkor, they are already in full “ignore” mode and will not consider any offer from a tout, no matter what it is they have. To counter this defiance foreigners are forced into, pestering kids are instructed to engage the foreigner by asking them where they were from.
Touts plain and simple already know that every foreigner will respond with either a polite “No, thank you” or by not responding at all when initially approached by a pest. No matter how hard boiled you are, no matter how much you can take, Cambodians are so aggressive and rude, the threshold will be crossed within hours, if not minutes of your visit. So it is natural you will not be willing to consider any additional offers from any more of those touts and they know it darn well. Their way to get by it is by asking the “Where are you from?” question, because it’s a question everyone who’s traveling likes to be asked and – what’s important for the touts – to answer. By asking where you were from, they will engage you in a conversation despite your initial defiance you were forced into by excessive hostility from touts you have previously been exposed to and that’s what they want.
The “Where are you from?” question is nothing less and nothing more than a sneaky way to trick you into spending more money on useless junk after you have already been tricked into spending more than too much money on useless junk. When a Cambodian asks you where you were from, it’s not because they want to know where you were from. They don’t care one bit about your country of origin or anything else related to you. All they care about, all they want is your money. Remember, to a Cambodian you are not a person, but a wandering ATM machine.
So in order to succeed with their sole goal of getting the money out of you, the kids who are set on foreigners are instructed to counter their defiance with the “Where are you from?” question. They are further taught basic facts about the top ten (or so) countries that send the most visitors to Cambodia to follow it up by impressing you with what would appear as “knowledge of your home country”. In my case, it would go something like this:
Tout: Hello, buy postcard? Only one dollar! Me: No, thank you. I’ve already bought postcards and have more than I need. Tout: Where are you from? Me: Canada. Tout: Capital city Ottawa. Population 32 Million. You speak two languages. Me: That’s right. Very impressive…
And now they have me engaged and in a frame of mind which to a civilized westerner dictates that you should feel obliged to reward them for the time and dedication they had demonstrated. And this is exactly what they are counting on. They play with the psyche, knowing very well that the westerners are brought up being polite so they abuse it for their personal enrichment.
Being me, however, there was no way I could buy any more of their postcards. When you travel around the world, you only have so much room in your backpack and the more you buy, the more you have to carry and that’s really not an option. On top of that, I’m a traveler on a budget so no matter how hard a tout would try, I’m not buying anything that’s not a necessity.
They got me the first time and I played their game when asked where I was from, but then I changed the rules of the game and made myself the leader, not the follower. That gave me instant advantages plus it gave me amusement and saved me from a lot of headache. I had them figured out all throughout so when next time a tout got on me to pester me with useless junk, I already knew how I was going to respond. This is how my next encounter went:
Tout: Hello, buy postcard? Only one dollar! Me: No, thank you. I’ve already bought postcards and have more than I need. Tout: Where are you from? Me: Guyana. Tout: …
Not a word of response. The tout simply turned around and never bothered me again. I really liked this game and kept playing. Next tout jumped me and it went like this:
Tout: Hello, buy postcard? Only one dollar! Me: No, thank you. I’ve already bought postcards and have more than I need. Tout: Where are you from? Me: Why are you asking? Tout: What? Me: Why are you asking? Tout: I don’t know what capital of wiasing is 🙁
I got them by the balls and kept playing my game to ease my way through Angkor. Kids kept pestering me on every step but by playing my own game with them I caught them off guard with responses they did not expect which resulted in fast and easy shake off. Obviously, when they spot a Caucasian guy, they anticipate to be told that he was from one of the countries that make for 95% of all Caucasian people who visit Angkor. Those likely include the USA, Canada, England, Germany, Russia, France, Sweden, Belgium, etc. They memorize the capital cities and a few impressive facts about each of those top countries and recite them as responses matching the answer you provide. Quite a clever way to pester the visitors but it didn’t get them too far with me.
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