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.
Unaware of the issues with lighting, I made the same mistake most of the people visiting Angkor Archaeological Park make and started my small circuit tour with Angkor Wat. Because Angkor Wat faces west (very unusual for a temple), the face of it is shaded in the morning light with the sun acting as strong backlight making for pictures that are not very visually flattering. That’s why it’s best to change the itinerary and start the small circuit tour with Banteay Kdei so by the time you get to Angkor Wat, it will be late afternoon with sun illuminating the face of the temple, allowing for all the details to stand out and gain three dimensional depth. Unlike my morning photo gallery of Angkor Wat which features the temple in bad lighting, this late afternoon gallery features it in good lighting and lets its magnificence take flight.
Because outdoor lighting has little effect on areas inside the temple, I only focused on taking pictures of the temple’s exterior which gets affected by bad lighting the most (as far as the photography is involved). The basin on the north side of the central causeway, right by the shops full of touts and pestering kids is the best spot to take pictures of Angkor Wat. By standing by the basin you will get a slightly angled view of the central temple so all of its five towers can be seen while basin will reflect that view for a stunning mirror image with the sky getting an extra vivid hue densed by the water.
I backtracked directly to Angkor Wat after cutting my small circuit tour short. Upon reaching the Chau Say Tevoda Temple I decided to be done exploring any new temples due to unbearable heat and relentless and hostile con artists. The Angkor experience is greatly bastardized by pushy locals and fighting them off is an extremely tiring struggle which you are bound to lose. You can’t truly appreciate something you are not allowed to enjoy. By the time an afternoon comes, you can read the same message from the face of every foreigner – enough already, please! It takes a great deal of effort to shake off any one of those Angkor touts yet there is never any end to them. As if struggling with intense heat was not bad enough, you will constantly have someone breathing down your neck, pressuring you from every side to trick you into buying worthless junk from them. No matter how impressive the temples of Angkor may in fact be, if you can’t even take a picture without someone bothering you, the entire experience gets bastardized.
Photo: This Is What Angkor Wat Looks Like When You Try to Take a Picture Against The Sun
Photo: Best Spot for Photography of Angkor Wat is By the North Basin
Photo: Entrance Causeway Leading Across the Moat Surrounding Angkor Wat
Photo: Angkor Wat Central Causeway is Less Busy in the Afternoon
Photo: Angkor Wat Central Temple with the Causeway Leading to It
Photo: Main Gopura – Entrance Gate to Angkor Wat Seen in Good, Afternoon Lighting
Photo: Angkor Wat With Its Reflection in the North Basin
Photo: Well Composed Picture of Angkor Wat Shows All FIve Lotus Shaped Towers And the Reflection
Photo: View of Angkor Wat from the North West Corner of the Ancient City
Photo: I Put The Camera on Top of Balustrade to Take This Picture of Angkor Wat
Photo: Beautiful Chinese Girls Took a Picture With Me at Angkor Wat
Photo: On Top of Cruciform Terrace of Honors, Angkor Wat, Cambodia
Photo: Partially Damaged Naga Multi-Headed Serpent at the Entrance to Angkor Wat
Photo: Stairs Leading to the Terrace of Honors, Angkor Wat, Cambodia
Photo: Wide Angle Picture of Angkor Wat with the Reflection in the North Pool
Supporting local economy by buying from small local businesses is definitely a good thing and is both rewarding and empowering. I always follow this golden rule to the last letter and strongly encourage all travelers to support local businesses any way they can but as with everything, there are exceptions to the rule. Unfortunately, unless Cambodia puts an end to open discrimination their society is riddled with, I will maintain that supporting local Cambodian businesses is equivalent to promoting racism.
Unless you pop in a business that’s part of a nationwide chain, you are unlikely to see any prices posted visibly next to the items they apply to. There is a very good reason for that. Prices are not clearly displayed to allow for racial profiling which results in business owners applying different prices to different ethnic groups.
This type of racial profiling is not practised in any of the neighboring countries but then again, most businesses in the neighboring countries try to establish themselves by offering quality product and/or service whereas most Cambodian businesses specialize in ripping the customer off at any cost the first time they come to buy something.
Not all Cambodian businesses are like that, though. Visitors to Cambodia have an option to do business with non discriminatory companies and support good business practices, instead of scam and racism. Examples of good businesses to shop with in Siem Reap are Lucky Mall, Angkor Market or Angkor Trade Centre. In these businesses, prices are clearly marked and visibly posted and apply equally to everyone, regardless of the color of their skin.
Photo: Lucky Mall in Siem Reap - Sustainable Business Worth Supporting
Aside from wider selection of items, these businesses also offer better pricing on most items however when it comes to fresh produce, you will always end up paying more when buying it from any of the non discriminatory businesses. Going to a local market and haggling for a price with a vendor there will land you a significantly better price. For example an average price for a water melon (an excellent source of energy and hydration in this heat) in Lucky Mall is $1.05 – $1.50 whereas the price for the same in Center Market or Old Market would only be 2,000 to 3,000 Riel (equivalent to roughly $.50 to $.75) or somewhere in that neighborhood. However in my mind, I will gladly pay a premium for the privilege of being treated equally than to be subjected to racial discrimination even if it saves me some money.
Unfortunately, you will also get local Cambodians shopping at these malls and Cambodians believe lines don’t apply to them. If you go shopping during a busier time of day, you may have a few people at every open cash register, so you just step in line and wait your turn. Other foreigners will step in line behind you or behind whoever the last person in the line where they want to wait their turn is, but when a Cambodian comes, they will simply step in the personal space before you and start rudely piling their stuff on the counter, completely ignoring everyone who have been politely waiting in that line for their turn. Cambodians are naturally rude and disrespectful so this type of behavior is normal.
By supporting local businesses in Cambodia, you will be directly supporting racism and discrimination. Small local businesses are an essential part of local economies, but if Cambodians care about their local economies, the change must start with them. I would never pass by the business that displays their prices visibly and gives me room to look at their merchandise without pressuring me into buying something from them. The formula is simple – you either leave me alone so I can carefully evaluate what I want to buy, or I’m not buying anything from you at all. I continuously need stuff to sustain my travels yet no business that tried to pressure me ever succeeded in making me to buy from them. I always go where I feel comfortable and am granted with space to breathe and time to decide.
Cambodians like to whine that business is slow, yet they don’t try to address the reason behind it. Nobody likes to be discriminated against and treated like crap. Many foreigners who come to Cambodia end up spending less money that they would if they were not constantly under pressure from aggressive touts. They go to local markets, but end up just passing from one stall to another, avoiding eye contact with the shop people just so they don’t have to put up with that constant pressure. As a result, they end up buying nothing because no business would leave them alone to decide what they could buy in peace.
Refusing to do business with businesses that don’t treat customers with respect is the best service you as a foreigner can offer to the local communities. When businesses realize that they are ripping themselves off by being rude, travellers will stay longer and will spend more money. It’s time for sustainable solutions, not short term, shady business practices. Help make the world a better place and do not support local Cambodian businesses that base their business model on racism and mistreatment. Criticism from faux-supporters who support this deadlock situation is superficial and unsustainable. Make the right choices that will promote the real change. It will help to make Cambodia a better and safer country, which right now it is not.
Everybody seems to claim that Cambodian girls are very pretty, but is there any truth to that? The short answer would be “Yes” – most Cambodian girls in their 20’s are in fact beautiful and a pleasure look at, but there is a catch to it. However let’s not get ahead of ourselves and take a look at it all in order.
Photo: Beautiful Cambodian Girl
Cambodian Girls – The Most Beautiful in SE Asia
After having been to practically every country in SE Asia, I must in fact confirm that Cambodian girls are the most beautiful of them all. Vietnam gets a lot of buzz about the near-perfect beauty of its girls and there definitely are some ridiculously hot girls there, however they are an exception, rather than the rule. Vast majority of Vietnamese girls are not much. By walking the streets of Vietnam, you will encounter thousands of below average looking girls before a model material comes to view. When you do encounter a beautiful Vietnamese girl, she’s typically super pretty, but again, for one pretty Vietnamese girl, there are thousands of not much girls so if you think you will come to Vietnam and all those beautiful girls will come hurling from all directions on every corner, you will be disappointed.
Cambodia on the other hand is not like that. Vast majority of girls you encounter – without looking for them, by just randomly walking down any street – will be very pretty. On average, you will see many attractive girls before you see one you would consider “not much”.
Thailand seems to be the magnet for men looking for young girls, yet Thai girls are far away from anything I would call attractive. You will from time to time come by an attractive Thai girl, but they are a rare breed. Oddly enough, most Thai prostitutes come from the Isaan area because for one – there isn’t much economy there so they don’t have many options to make money, but mostly – Isaan is close to Cambodia and girls from there have that Cambodian feel which is very attractive.
Cambodia definitely wins when it come to pretty girls, even though it has nothing on Eastern European girls but that’s a whole different story.
Prettier Than They Seem
Most Cambodian girls are prettier than they seem. Many have long, raven dark hair and near each of them wears it in a silly ponytail. Since I spent most of my time in Cambodia with the locals, I was around during the everyday home-care tasks and when these girls got home and let their hair drop loose, they instantly gained two solid points on a beauty scale.
There is also something to be said about the way they dress which often takes away from how tight their bodies really look, but when you catch them with an outfit that supplements their slender figures, the only word you can think of is… perfect.
Where Is The Catch?
The conclusion is undisputable – Cambodian girls are dangerously pretty, however there is a catch. And because of that catch I would never consider marrying a Cambodian. You see, for some reason, even though Cambodian girls are in fact very pretty, they seem to deteriorate rapidly with age. You will find many ridiculously attractive girls in Cambodia, but not one half-decent looking MILF.
There is a certain age which seems to trigger sharp aging and rapid deterioration of beauty and it seems to start in a neighbourhood of some 30 years of age or so. All Cambodian girls in their 20’s are very attractive looking, but once they reach what I would call “productive age”, they lose all their beauty and turn downright butt-effin ugly. Good luck trying to spot one Cambodian woman (I’m not talking old, just not a girl anymore) who looks anything close to Cambodian university-age girls.
Think before you marry a Cambodian girl. She may be very pretty today, but how long will her beauty last?
Cambodia is an extremely racist country and a foreigners will encounter discrimination on every step of their stay. How you will be treated, how much you will pay will be determined by the color of your skin. This is racism in its purest form and it is so deeply rooted within Cambodian culture, anywhere you go you will be greeted with the “us versus them” treatment.
To better understand the premise of discrimination in Cambodia, one should look at it from an opposite angle. Imagine a Cambodian comes to Canada for a visit. From the moment they set their foot on Canadian soil, they will be treated equally to everybody else. They will have the same rights and the same obligations as everybody else, regardless of their ethnic background. They will enjoy the same respect when walking down the street as everybody else with no one having the right to yell at them from across the street just because they look different. And when they go to buy something, they will pay the same price as everybody else. Regardless of the color of their skin, the treatment in all walks of life will be the same. In Canada, you are one of us. You are no different. You are a human, you are the same and you have the same rights and privileges as everybody else.
It is not like that in Cambodia. Cambodia is a country where from the moment you set your foot on their soil, you will be treated differently. In Cambodia, there are Khmer people and then there are foreigners. As a foreigner, you are not one of them – you are different. You will be treated differently and different prices will apply to you.
If you find yourself within a crowd of locals walking down the street in Cambodia, you will be singled out and subjected to abuse while all of the locals surrounding you will be left alone. You will never feel integrated into the culture, because they will always single you out and always treat you differently and will be very open about you being different. Cambodians don’t try to hide their racist tendencies. You are not one of them, you are different and that’s that. Discrimination and racism in Cambodia and very much alive and as strong as ever. When one group of people gets preferential treatment from another group of people based on their ethnic background, you get a textbook perfect example of discrimination and that’s exactly what Cambodia is all about.
Cambodia is a scam capital of the world. Sure, Nigeria may be the first thing that comes to mind when talking about scam, but Nigeria focuses on on-line scamming, whereas Cambodia is still on top of the game when it comes to face to face scams. Just as is the case with violence, scam is a part of daily lives of all Cambodians. They need scam to feel alive and no walk of life is left out.
Scamming Government Officials
Cambodia is ruled by the most corrupt government in the world which results in all government officials being professional extortionists. Whether it’s the police, Apsara Authority or immigration people appointed to issue visa, they will all want extra money if you end up having any dealings with them.
Poipet Border Scam
Poipet border between Cambodia and Thailand is infamous for endless scam and indeed I have been subjected to it when I tried to cross both to Thailand and back from Thailand to Cambodia. Thais do not scam, but Cambodians make it their profession. Buses will purposefully take you to the wrong place so you have to pay extra to get you to the border or to stay overnight in a guesthouse that pays commission. On the way to Cambodia you will have Cambodian immigration officers and the police insisting on bribes or else you’re left to sweat and roast in the sun until you shell out. This type of scam is not limited to Poipet through. Coming to Cambodia from Laos will expose you to the same scam and so will the Cham Yeam crossing from Thailand (direct access to Sihanoukville).
Planted Drugs Scams
Given that the police are as corrupt as the government itself, their entire purpose is to scam. The police will go through any lengths to get money off of tourists. Planting tourists with drugs is a common practise and could set you back a few hundred dollars unless you shell out right after you’ve been set up. In that case, the scam cops may be happy to let you go after being paid just $20 each.
Fake Pills Scams
I understand that UCare Pharmacy (can find one in both SIem Reap and in Phnom Penh) is supposed to be the one pharmacy in Cambodia which doesn’t sell fake pills, but it’s hard to take any such claim by a Cambodian company seriously. Other than UCare, though, Cambodia specializes in selling fake pills cause that’s an easy money. One type of pills worth particular mention are anti-malarials. When news of fake malaria pills hit the web, I was not surprised at all when I found out that Cambodia was the front runner of the scam. It’s so typical of this country to sell counterfeit pills to people who foolishly believe they will be protected against malaria… Don’t trust anything you buy in Cambodia, but if your life is in question, then multiply this rule tenfold.
Photo: UCare Pharmacy in Siem Reap - Allegedly Selling Real Anti-Malarials, Unlike The Rest of Cambodia
Rental Scams
This usually happens with motorcycle rentals as there is more money involved than in bicycle rentals for example. The scenario is simple – you come to rent a motorcycle, sign a rental agreement which has a clause that you will have to pay the full amount if you lose, destroy or someone steals the motorcycle. You will be provided with the key from the lock while a copy of the key is provided to a person associated with the rental agency. They will follow you from the distance, patiently waiting until you park the bike before the superstore or some other place where you’re likely to step away from the sight of the motorcycle for a while. They will use the key they have to unlock the motorcycle and will drive away. When you come back, there will be no motorcycle and no chance for you to recover it. The police are often part of this scam and will participate with the rental agency to force you into paying the full amount that equals the value of a brand new bike. Many, many and then some foreigners have been scammed this way in Cambodia. Again, businesses in Cambodia don’t try to make it by offering quality service or product. They just look for easy and quick money, and as much as possible the first time.
Bootlegs Scams
Virtually nothing you buy in Cambodia is genuine. Nothing is real. By selling genuine goods the businesses would have to work hard to build up their reputation and customer loyalty and who can be bothered with that? They are simply too lazy to do deal with real business model, so instead they focus on an easy solution – theft. As a result, you will find bootlegs of anything you can imagine sold right on the main streets of every town with store windows displaying all bootlegged items with spotlights on. They have entire stores specializing in selling bootleg software, bootleg movies, bootleg music CDs, bootleg you name it. Cambodians simply like to steal and make money by selling stolen goods.
Photo: Cambodians Sell Bootlegs of Latest Movies Before Official DVDs Are OutPhoto: Do You Think These CDs Sold in a Cambodian Shop Are Real?
Pirated Merchandise Scams
Theft of intellectual property and trademarked names is the name of the game in Cambodia. It starts with photocopied Lonely Planet and National Geographics books being sold on the streets by touts, and ends with sales of fake Borderline suitcases, Gappa wear or Nike shoes. I don’t even understand how they go about selling fake iPhones and other electronic devices, but if you think you’re buying a genuine product here in Cambodia, you’re in for a big surprise.
Photo: Cambodian Market Selling Fake Diesel, Converse and Nike ShoesPhoto: Cambodian Underwear Shop Selling Fake Calvin Klein Underpants
Internet Cafes Scams
Be very careful when using internet cafes in Cambodia. Many have keyloggers installed on their machines to steal your passwords and other valuable information. People have seen money transferred out of their accounts following the use of internet cafes in Cambodia.
Repair Scam
If an electronic device breaks down on you in Cambodia, don’t be silly and try to have it repaired there. Wait until you get to a civilized country, otherwise you’re standing a chance of getting your machine ripped off genuine parts and have inferior, generic parts put in instead. Again, this is Cambodia. Any way they can scam you, they will.
Gas Station Scams
If you are new and don’t pay attention, you stop at the gas station to throw some gas in your tank but the attendant will purposefully not zero out the counter so you will end up paying for the balance of the precious customer, on top of the gas that went into your gas tank. Always make sure the counter is reset before the attendant starts fuelling.
Police Check Stop Scams
Cambodian police just love foreigners riding around on motorcycle. They will pull you over and fine you with… something. It could be that you had a headlight on during the day, or that you turned left or whatever else they can pull off. All traffic infractions have set fee schedule which is usually around 2,000 Riel (roughly $.50 US) but the cop, if they see you don’t know this, will throw something totally outrageous at you – such as $50. If you are able to bring it down to $20, you will feel like you got off easy, yet you had just paid 40 times the amount you should have. Fines for common traffic offences are less than a dollar. Always ask for receipt by saying “sombot”, otherwise insist on going to the police station and calling the embassy to have this handled. They will likely not want to sacrifice their time dedicated for ripping people off by false fines with this and may let you go.
Fake Jewellery Scams
Unless you are an expert on precious metals and precious stones, don’t ever buy any jewellery in Cambodia. Remember, nothing you are being offered is real and unless you know your stones and metals really well, you’re gonna end up buying a chemically produced worthless junk. If you know what you’re doing and can take the risk of having your life put in stake, then rejecting the fakes and insisting on getting the real deal could land you with the real deal, but you’ll be looking for trouble with this approach.
The Ratanakiri province is riddled with mines containing precious and semi-precious stones. It is a great place for experts to go get some valued stones for cheap, but unless you know what you are doing, you’re gonna end up buying a fake. Cambodians will do their best to first ensure they’re selling you the fake and unless you show them that you know your stones backwards, you will have little success scoring a good buy.
Pailin area (homeland of Khmer Rouge) is also known for rubies and sapphires but as it is with Ratanakiri, unless you know your stones, don’t buy anything or you’re gonna end up with a chemically-treated copy.
Helpful Locals
Helpful locals are the most frequent and most potent type of scam in existence. They will offer to negotiate a better price on your behalf because you can’t speak Khmer but will instead negotiate a hefty commission for themselves in exchange for cheating you into paying the price they told you was the best you can get for this item. I got this right away after the Tuk Tuk driver offered to “help” me negotiate the best price for a bicycle. If I followed his help, instead of paying $30, I would have paid $185. Helpful locals are never helpful because they want you to feel good about visiting Cambodia. They only and solely want to help themselves and are only pretending to be helpful because that’s what will get them to scam you.
Local Business Scams
The name for local businesses is “discrimination”. Cambodia is all about us vs them. If you look different, you will be subjected to discrimination. You will be treated like a crack whore by the Tuk Tuk drivers yelling at you and clapping their hands from across the street while market people will make a point of overcharging you just because your color of skin is different. There are a few businesses with clearly posted prices which apply to everyone equally. As someone who doesn’t support discrimination, I stuck with shopping there, instead of with local businesses. Scamming me just because I look different is not my idea of a good business practice.
NGOs and Orphanages Scams
NGOs and orphanages are some of the most profitable business ventures in Cambodia. There is no middle class in Cambodia, only 12 million of extremely poor people and a handful of extremely rich ones. There is a hefty group of those in between, though. They ride Lexus SUVs and honk their horns at everyone to make way. Those are the NGO owners who came to easy riches by establishing NGOs. Through foreign donations none of which made it to the people in need, they were able to secure themselves with above average lifestyles. They often use fake orphanages as storefronts to make foreign donors feel sorry for the impoverished kids and send some money over. This money is used to finance outlandish lifestyles and expensive cars of the NGO owners. This is one extremely successful scam that yields insane and easy revenue.
Fake Monks
When it comes to Cambodia, the locals will stop at absolutely nothing to scam you. They will also dress up as Buddhist monks because those usually enjoy a great deal of respect and it is easier to lure money out of unsuspecting victims when your head is shaved and your body wrapped in an orange robe. Fake monks exist all over Cambodia but the more touristy the area, the higher a density of them.
It is not a secret that monkhood (is there such word?) is the shelter for criminals who would otherwise face repercussions. Joining the ranks of Buddhist Monks saves the delinquents from punishment which is abused by the lot of them. That’s why you will see the monks behaving in the ways monks should not behave – you will see them drinking and smoking, browsing porn in internet cafes, rubbing it up with bar girls in karaoke restaurants and stealing valuables from the pagodas so they can sell them for personal profit. You can tell who’s in it for the right reasons and who’s not.
If you get approached by a monk and asked to make a contribution either to the pagoda or towards his studies, you are likely speaking with a fake monk. Real monks don’t approach strangers like this directly. You will see them making their rounds every morning which usually consists of standing silently in front of businesses or homes and waiting for someone to come out and make a food donation into their alms bowl. They will wait silently for a minute or two and if no one comes out, they will move onto another house. This is their standard morning ritual.
Keep in mind that because someone is ordained, it doesn’t mean their natural greed and habit of getting hand-outs goes away. This is Cambodia. Cambodians do not like to work, they like to get stuff for free and draping oneself in a saffron robe doesn’t wipe their natural selves clean.
The saddest part about Cambodian Buddhist Monks is that they are Cambodian. That means that all head monks are as corrupt as the rest of the country. Anyone who’s in a leading position in Cambodia is corrupt, including religious leaders. Money that the temples generate through donations and other contributions usually end up in pockets of those corrupt head monks so even if there is a new monk with the right intentions looking to change the world, they will soon be defeated by the corruption that deeply penetrated all walks of life, including religion.
Considering that Cambodia is a Buddhist nation, the number and omnipresence of scams is unnerving. Shouldn’t they think of Karma, you ask? I was asking the same thing myself and can’t explain it in any way other than by calling them “hypocrites”.
Cambodians don’t believe in building up on the name of their business by offering quality product and/or service. They strictly focus on ripping each customer off as much as possible the first time they attempt to make a purchase to boost the initial score to the max, even if it means that the customer will never come back. There is also an ongoing currency exchange scam but that only results on about 5 cents loss on every dollar and usually doesn’t end up making a significant impact on your budget. It is truly saddening that Cambodians don’t see and don’t treat tourists as people, but as wandering cash cows. Their smiles so many people talk about are fake. They force them upon their faces because that could engage you into an eye contact which for a Cambodian is an invitation to sell you something or entice you into falling for one of the many scam they’d mastered.
Seeing how Cambodia is a major scam operation, I was not surprised when I found out that “Seeing Hands” massage by the blind did not have any blind people doing the massage, but they were good at pretending to be blind. It was nothing more but a marketing gimmick combined with a scam to generate more interest in the business. Foolish foreigners believe they are supporting the blind yet they are simply supporting scammers. This is real Cambodia!
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