Cambodia Travel Advisory

When speaking about whether Cambodia is a dangerous country or not, one should not miss out on valuable pointers provided by the travel advisory of each of the western governments. If you read through the Cambodia Travel Advisories, you will find repeated statements warning you about Cambodia, off the hook muggings and violent crime, including rape and murder against foreigners, but somehow this message gets lost in the translation. The following are extracts from the travel advisories posted on government websites of a few (English speaking) western countries:

Cambodia Travel Advisory by the Government of Canada

Violence in Phnom Penh and other cities occurs occasionally.

Street crime, targeting foreigners, has been occurring with increasing frequency in urban areas, including Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Sihanoukville, even during daylight hours. There are reports of armed assaults along the riverfront in Phnom Penh and on isolated beaches in Sihanoukville. Canadians have been injured in the course of assaults and armed robberies. Thieves, sometimes on motorcycles, grab bags and other valuables from pedestrians, motorcycle drivers and their passengers. Banditry continues, largely at night, in rural areas and on routes between Snoul, Kratie and Stung Treng in the northeastern provinces. Sexual assaults have been reported. There have been reports that foreigners have encountered difficulties with ill-disciplined police or military personnel. Canadians are advised to exercise a high degree of caution at all times, avoid travelling alone, especially at night, and ensure personal belongings, passports, and other travel documents are secure at all times.

Website: voyage.gc.ca

Cambodia Travel Advisory by the Government of the USA

Cambodia has a high crime rate, including street crime. Military weapons and explosives are readily available to criminals despite authorities’ efforts to collect and destroy such weapons. Armed robberies occur frequently in Phnom Penh. Foreign residents and visitors are among the victims. Victims of armed robberies are reminded not to resist their attackers and to surrender their valuables, since any perceived resistance may be met with physical violence, including lethal force.

Local police rarely investigate reports of crime against tourists, and travelers should not expect to recover stolen items.

The U.S. Embassy advises its personnel who travel to the provinces to exercise extreme caution outside the provincial towns at all times. Many rural parts of the country remain without effective policing. Individuals should avoid walking alone after dusk anywhere in Sihanoukville, especially along the waterfront. Some of the beaches are secluded, and the Embassy has received reports that women have been attacked along the Sihanoukville waterfront during the evening hours. Take security precautions when visiting the Siem Reap (Angkor Wat) area. Travelers should be particularly vigilant during annual festivals and at tourist sites in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, and Sihanoukville, where there have been marked increases in motorcycle “snatch and grab” thefts of bags and purses. In August 2008, the Embassy received reports of unaccompanied U.S. citizen females being robbed at knifepoint during daylight hours in Sihanoukville. Another U.S. citizen female was sexually assaulted in October 2009 while walking alone at night in Kompong Thom province.

Website: travel.state.gov

Cambodia Travel Advisory by the Government of UK

Particular areas where crime levels have been relatively high in recent months have been the riverfront and BKK areas of Phnom Penh, and the beaches and tourist areas of Sihanoukville, although incidents are not confined to these areas. You should be particularly vigilant at night, and in deserted areas, although incidents have occurred at all times of day.

There have also been a small number of rapes and sexual assaults in various locations.

Website: fco.gov.uk

Cambodia Travel Advisory by the Government of Australia

Opportunistic crime is common in Cambodia and the frequency of incidents is increasing. Thieves frequently snatch foreigners’ bags and pick-pocketing is a problem in Phnom Penh, Sihanoukville and Siem Reap. Several foreigners have been injured in the course of these incidents, in particular when bags are pulled from passengers on moving motorbike taxis. Bag-snatching, other robberies and assaults often occur during daylight hours.

There have been reports of assaults and armed robberies against foreigners, especially in areas frequented by tourists and expatriate residents, including the Riverfront in Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville (particularly at isolated beaches). You should exercise vigilance when travelling through these areas at all times, but especially after dark.

You should limit night time travel around Phnom Penh, Sihanoukville and Siem Reap to well-lit public areas and travel in groups. At night, travel by car is safer than motorcycle, moto-scooter or cyclo (cycle-rickshaw).

Foreigners have been the target of sexual assault in Cambodia. Due to the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS, victims of violent crime, especially rape, are strongly encouraged to seek immediate medical assistance.

Levels of firearm ownership in Cambodia are high and guns are sometimes used to resolve disputes. There have been reports of traffic disputes resulting in violence involving weapons. Bystanders can get caught up in these disputes. Foreigners have been threatened with handguns for perceived rudeness to local patrons in popular Phnom Penh nightclubs and elsewhere.

Banditry and extortion, including by military and police personnel, continue in some rural areas, particularly at night in areas between Snoul, Kratie and Stung Treng in the north-eastern provinces.

Website: smartraveller.gov.au

Cambodia Travel Advisory by the Government of New Zealand

There has been an increase in violent crime against foreign travellers, particularly in areas frequented by tourists and expatriates including the river front area of Phnom Penh, and at isolated beaches in Sihanoukville. New Zealanders are advised to be vigilant and maintain a high level of personal security awareness at all times.

Website: safetravel.govt.nz

So there you have it. It’s all between the lines of each travel advisory. Some of the most repeated statements include warnings that there have been an increasing number of violent attacks in Cambodia, including sexual attacks (rapes) against foreign nationals and they are urged to exercise an increased degree of caution. Don’t take these warnings lightly unless you intend to stick with visiting the tourist Cambodia, not the real one!

Is Travel to Cambodia Safe? My Personal Experience

History of Cambodia is a history of violence. Violence has been part of Cambodian culture and everyday life for centuries and is as prevalent today as it has always been. As a traveller who spent a few months in the country and didn’t go through it locked up behind the safety fence of his hotel, I was exposed to the reality of the Cambodian ways, including its endless violence and crime. I have already shared the stories of other travelers who were victims of violent crime while travelling through Cambodia, and now I would like to share my personal experience and answer the question “Is Travel to Cambodia Safe?” with my own stories.

I stay in amazement when I see certain bloggers or forum members go through lengths to portray Cambodia as a safe country. Whatever the agenda behind such purposeful twists of truth is, I can’t help but express the horror over how public is systematically mislead. It takes savage imagination to call Cambodia a safe country. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet.

The following is nothing less and nothing more than my personal, firsthand experience after 2 months in Cambodia. These are not reports I got from other people, this is what happened to me personally:

My Personal Experience

I came to Cambodia with an open mind. I have been volunteering and supporting this country since the moment I set my foot on its soil and continued doing so unhindered despite the ordeal locals were repeatedly putting me through. Just as most other visitors to the country, I was also told that it was safe to travel in Cambodia. Having traveled through many countries before, including third world, non western countries (6 months on various islands in the Caribbean and 2 years in Eastern Europe – aside from countless other countries) I knew one has to keep his wits together and play it safe at all times, but still I came here believing that Cambodia was reasonably safe.

Theft

The very first time I had an unfortunate encounter was after two weeks in Cambodia at a more remote temple on the grand circle of Angkor. I locked my bike and walked inside the temple when I got that funny feeling that maybe I should have locked my bike against a tree rather than merely locking the wheel against the frame. This was the first time I only had my bicycle locked against itself and sure enough, as I walked out of the temple, I saw little kids who stood around with the banner that they were from an orphanage carrying my bike away. I yelled at them instantly, so they dropped the bike and bolted away. It was particularly disappointing since only minutes prior I had donated money to their orphanage as that’s what they were there for. Needless to say, I left that temple instantly even though I have only seen a small part of it.

Photo: Preah Khan Temple Where Fake Orphanage Kids Tried to Steal my Bike
Photo: Preah Khan Temple Where Fake Orphanage Kids Tried to Steal my Bike

A few days later, I had the bicycle lock keys stolen. I know I should have kept it on my chain along with other keys, where it’s much safer than loosely in my pocket, but it was becoming inconvenient as I rode the bike everywhere so I kept using the keys all the time and pulling the whole bunch on a chain became troublesome. Luckily, when a person who was suspiciously getting close to me unexpectedly left, I checked to see whether I still had all of my belongings and as I saw missing keys, I went right to my bike which was still there (in my vicinity all the time), took it to the shop to pay 2000 riel to get the old lock sawed off and spent additional 5000 to purchase a new, vastly superior lock. Unfortunate event, but I still ended up with little loss so I wasn’t making much of it.

Phnom Penh

It wasn’t until the time to renew my visa came. I wanted to combine it with a short trip to Phnom Penh. My stay in the nation’s capital started with a boy of about 10 years of age trying to steal my wallet. Cambodians, even though skilled thieves are not very smart and he failed to put two and two together so my wallet stayed safely fastened to the chain with the keys on the opposite end. I’ve worn my wallet on the same chain for 20 years and have never had my wallet, or my keys stolen thanks to it. I would have to be either unconscious or threaten with lethal force to lose it. The boy used the moment when I was posing myself to take a picture of hundreds of motorcycles taking off at the traffic lights, pulled the wallet out of my rear pocket and bolted off only to have the wallet ripped out of his hands by the chain that remained sealed in my other pockets thanks to a bunch of keys attached to it. Even though I was focused on the photo I was about to take, I still could feel the wallet coming out of my pocket so I don’t know how exactly he thought he was gonna be successful with this pull. What do you do with a 10 year old when you catch him stealing, though?

Photo: I Was Posing to Take a Photo of the Phnom Penh Traffic When a 10 Year Old Attempted to Steal my Wallet
Photo: I Was Posing to Take a Photo of the Phnom Penh Traffic When a 10 Year Old Attempted to Steal my Wallet
Photo: My Wallet and My Keys Are Connected With a Chain Making Them Difficult to Steal
Photo: My Wallet and My Keys Are Connected With a Chain Making Them Difficult to Steal

Violent Crime

I only had three days to spend in Phnom Penh, but the crime was persistent. The day prior to my intended visit to the immigration office, I was jumped by a man a block away from the riverside, not far from FCC. He came running from behind me and skilfully snatched at my bag in an attempt to steal it. Not willing to part with my $1,600 laptop inside, I managed to grab at the strap as the bag was leaving me and started to fight back for it. It was followed by the thief yelling something in Cambodian, after which I saw several dozen men with metal rods, knives and machete loom out of every direction running towards me. I don’t know what that man yelled at them, but he obviously abused the fact that I was a foreigner so he said something in a language I couldn’t understand to set those people against me. And they surely did.

I have never run that fast in my life. I don’t even know how I escaped getting killed there that day, but I counted my blessings and when the following day came, instead of going to renew my visa, I went to the Vietnamese Embassy and got myself a visa to Vietnam so I could leave Cambodia instantly. I called people from the village where I was volunteering that I would not be back, because I feared for my life and that instead I was going to Vietnam. As I was riding the bike back to my guesthouse from the Vietnamese Embassy, I saw a group of people standing around a bullet riddled body along the road. I didn’t have the camera with me to take pictures of it as I rode across Phnom Penh to spend my whole day dealing with the visa situation, but this has added a seal of approval to my decision to leave the country. Besides, where there is one dead body in Cambodia, there are also people with deadly firearms. I wouldn’t want to join the dead man by being next with a bullets in my head.

Vietnam vs Cambodia

Vietnam was a whole different world from Cambodia. It was a breath of fresh air I desperately needed. Not only has it helped me to relax and get over the terrible experience from Cambodia, it was also a place where locals respect tourists (unlike it is in Cambodia). I could walk into a supermarket, do my thing and walk out – there would be locals there, but no one would start whistling at me from across the street, clapping hands at me and yelling like I’m a cheap whore. It was unbelievably liberating to have this type of treatment after a month of abuse in Cambodia. There were locals out there, but they were minding their own business, leaving me alone to enjoy my time at my own pace.

Then I would go for a walk (I have explored entire Ho Chi Minh on foot) and there would be tens of thousands of motorcycles passing by me every minute, yet I did not get any of them in my face every 3 seconds like it is in Cambodia. It was incredibly refreshing. When I went to highly touristed places, that’s where I would occasionally get asked whether I wanted a ride on a moto, but when I said “no”, it was a “no” and I was not bothered by that person anymore. That’s again unheard of in Cambodia. But what I really liked is that even beggars in Vietnam have respect. Cambodia is the only place I know of where a 10 year old kid would say “Fuck You” straight to your face if you don’t give him any money after he asked for it.

From the beginning I could not understand why treatment of tourists in Vietnam was so different from Cambodia, even though they are so close to each other. Why did people in Vietnam leave me alone? Vietnam is not that rich either and unlike Cambodia, they don’t enjoy extra millions from tourist revenue because they don’t have anything equal to Angkor to attract mass numbers of tourists there. And then it all came together.

I noticed that Vietnam was abuzz with construction. There was work in progress everywhere I looked. People were not bothering me, simply because they were involved with their own lives. Millions on motorcycles are either on the way to work or from work. Unless they are on the way to school or from school or on the way to get something for the family. Either way, they are involved with their lives. They work to provide for their families and as such, they don’t have time or interest to bother tourists. They actually appreciate them and are grateful when they visit their country. I have also encountered unconditional help in Vietnam, which something that doesn’t exist in Cambodia, but that’s a whole different story.

Back in Cambodia

I got caught between a rock and a hard place though. I left Cambodia because it was unsafe and too much crime was being committed against me too often. However I did spend a month there building upon something, using my own finances and knowhow to improve the living conditions of people in a remote village but with my premature departure I left it unfinished. I knew that many people whom I started helping would fall back into poverty if I abandoned them before my work has been finalized.

I started to feel the sense of responsibility for being the only hope for a better life these villagers had, so I decided to give Cambodia another go. I thought – since it was Phnom Penh where my life was put in danger in a violent crime attempt, if I stayed away from there, I should be fine.

More Theft

So I came back to Siem Reap and commuted every day 12 km each way to and from the village which is close to Sras Srang moat, not far from Banteay Kdei temple within the Angkor area. I continued teaching English there for free and started a campaign to raise funds for the purchase of solar panel to electrify the village while preserving the environment. All was fine again for about a week, until we went to celebrate some occasion close to that traffic circle, by the entertainment park in Siem Reap.

Photo: My Cell Phone Was Stolen by an Organized Group of Thieves While We Were Leaving This Concert in Siem Reap
Photo: My Cell Phone Was Stolen by an Organized Group of Thieves While We Were Leaving This Concert in Siem Reap

At one point when we were leaving, the street got extremely congested with traffic and we had to push through a group of people which was further congested by food carts on wheels. I had my camera with me and since I felt three young men pressing at me from behind and poking at my beg, I held the bag firmly with my arm, shoving my other arm inside the bag to hold firmly onto the $5000 camera. These young men kept pressing on me from three sides which appeared as though it was on purpose, but I assumed they were in a rush to get through so I didn’t make a big deal out of it and just continued guarding the camera inside my bag. Then at one point the pushing stopped and the boys were gone. I figured they must have changed their plan as these food carts truly kept everyone stuck and gave up on getting through quickly.

The moment I got out of there, I found the cell phone missing from my pocket. I immediately realized what the purpose on pressing on me and poking at my bag was and realized that teamwork and stealing skills of Cambodians are not as backwards as everything else. They work as a team and know very well how to keep you distracted and focused on something while someone skilled at withdrawing things from pockets does what they are best at. This was a painful experience and took me a while to get over with. It was extremely disappointing as I spent a lot of money in Cambodia, brought in some more from other sources, invested a lot of time and effort to improve the lives of people here and this is what I was getting in return.

Murder Attempt

My faith in Cambodia was broken and despite trying hard, I was having troubles recovering from the disappointment cell phone theft had brought upon me. But the biggest hit was yet to come. A couple of days after my cell phone was stolen, I was riding to the village from Siem Reap where I was staying. It’s a 45 minute bike ride (when you step on it and ride swiftly) and I was almost there. Literally, I only had about 2 more minutes before reaching the turn off to the village.

Feeling good that I was almost there, I saw that man crossing the road. I steered in the opposite direction of his walking, but he seemed to have stopped instead of continuing walking so we could safely dodge each other. As I was getting closer, he snatched at my bag I had hung on the handlebars and pulled at it in an attempt to steal it which was followed by a swing of a machete.

Photo: Camera Bag Attached to Handle Bar Gears Look As Though It Was in a Basket
Photo: Camera Bag Attached to Handle Bar Gears Look As Though It Was in a Basket

I have a bicycle with gears. Unlike most Cambodian bicycles, it does not have a basket above the front wheel. However I have been using gear shifts on both sides of my steering bar as hooks on which to hook my camera bag. So instead of having it strapped around my body, I had it safely hooked on the gear shifts as the bag has a handle which is just wide enough to stretch on both hooks. I realized that when I hooked my bag on the handle bars like that, from a distance it could look like it’s actually a bag placed loosely in the basket which is a standard part of most bikes in Cambodia. That is likely what the man who snatched at it was thinking.

Photo: Bag Handle Stretches Just Enough to Go Over The Gears to Stay Safely Attached to the Bars
Photo: Bag Handle Stretches Just Enough to Go Over The Gears to Stay Safely Attached to the Bars

I cannot describe the horror of the experience. The man grabbed at my bag and yanked at it to run away with it, the bag remained safely attached to my steering bar, but it jerked my bicycle which I had at good speed causing me to fall and nearly splatter on the road. A swing of his machete followed and missed my torso by an inch. Had this one landed, I would have disappeared out of all knowledge like British student Eddie Gibson who came to Cambodia and was never heard from again.

This was a direct murder attempt with intentions to rob me off my bag which I have only avoided by a miracle. The man who attempted to kill me couldn’t have known whether there was anything of value in that bag, but since I was a foreigner and had a bag in an area surrounded by jungle and there were no other vehicles on the road which otherwise sees a fair deal of traffic, he took the opportunity and tried to kill me to steal it. Had he succeeded, he would have just dragged my bloodied corpse into the forest so it rots there until the end of days. Unhindered, the man would be free to continue roaming the roads with his machete waiting for his next encounter.

My guardian angel was by me that day, though. The yank resulted in a complete loss of balance but I have somehow managed to stick my foot down and not splatter, but in that process I scratched it quite badly and bled (especially from the heel) like a stuck pig. I could not believe this. I was almost in the village. Given the proximity to the village, I assumed it could have been either a person from the village I haven’t met yet, or someone who lived reasonably close. Why would they otherwise roam around in the neighbourhood?

When the villagers saw me all bloodied and trembling with fear following the near death experience, they asked me what happened and I told them. They also wanted to know what the man who tried to kill me looked like to possibly identify him, but given that I almost died not expecting it, I was so shaken, the last thing I had on my mind was to take a good look at the guy. Plus, I still had the memory of my last altercation I had with a man who tried to steal my bag in Phnom Penh and that ended up with a group chasing me with deadly weapons. This man tried to kill me. Hurting or not, as soon as I was able to get back on the bike, I darted right off from there not looking back, as if I confronted him, he would likely continue swinging the machete until a hit that disabled me was delivered.

Cambodia IS Dangerous

This basically concluded my stay in Cambodia. I immediately started making plans to change my return ticket to leave asap but Korean Air proved excessively difficult to accommodate such requests when they are made outside of the country of origin. This kept me in Cambodia for a few extra days. I stayed mostly locked in, as from my personal experience, Cambodia is extremely dangerous.

I have been half way across the world, but it took a country like Cambodia for a man to fear for his own life. And these are by no means isolated incidents. Since I have been volunteering within Angkor area and close to one of the main temples (on short circuit which is done by most people who visit the park), I got a chance to meet many tourists with horror stories. It starts with seeing people carrying disposable cameras and asking them why the hell would they come all the way to Angkor with this piece of plastic – and hearing answers that this was their only option since their camera along with the money and passports were stolen, all the way to girls walking out of the temple scared to death, crying because they were just raped inside.

Is travel to Cambodia safe? No it is not. Cambodia is one of the most dangerous destinations in the world, period!

Is Travel to Cambodia Safe? How to Draw Your Own Conclusions

So the question that comes to mind is – then how come there are so many people who insist that Cambodia is safe? Well, at this point, instead of trying to raise any more points to prove my case over theirs, I will leave it up to you to make your own mind up and decide for yourself whether Cambodia is safe or not. And in order to come to such conclusions, you need to know what the people who live in Cambodia are like.

One of the most obvious things I noticed right upon coming to Cambodia are countless banners warning tourists to stay away from child sex tourism. It is forced into everyone’s face by banners throughout the country to a point that it becomes ridiculous. Even if you are someone like me, who would not only ever consider sex with a child, but would not even have it cross their mind, by being constantly reminded about it, it almost seems as though Cambodia wanted to introduce itself as a country with striving sex tourism.

Photo: Child Sex Tourism is Advertised All Over Cambodia
Photo: Child Sex Tourism is Advertised All Over Cambodia

I have spoken with countless people, including the police officers and while there definitely are occasional cases of tourists sexually abusing children in Cambodia, these cases are very sparse. Vast majority of all sexual abuses of children are done by local men – the same men who are responsible for an infamous title attributed to Cambodia – the rape capital of the world. Rapes are extremely common in Cambodia and not only are they never punished, they are never even reported because for one – the police force is a joke and secondly, it is socially and culturally unacceptable for a girl to admit that she had a pre marital sex, even if she was violently forced into it. To sum it up – excessive number of Cambodian men are a bunch of sexually abusive characters who don’t stop at nothing. Not even when it comes to helpless children. This is important to understand when coming to Cambodia and you are unsure after hearing one side claiming that Cambodia is safe, while another claiming that it is dangerous. Just take into an account that it is a country of rapists and draw your conclusions from that.

Photo: Boys and Girls in These Pictures Were Recruited by Khmer Rouge To Act as the Killing Machines. Today They Are 30 Years Older
Photo: Boys and Girls in These Pictures Were Recruited by Khmer Rouge To Act as the Killing Machines. Today They Are 30 Years Older

Aside from being a country of child rapists, Cambodia is also crammed with former Khmer Rouge henchmen. These killing machines who were enlisted as young children to kill on daily basis are now in their 40s and 50s and are as used to kill as they were in their early teens. Just because they took off their Mao hats and put on fake designer shirts it doesn’t mean they forgot how to pull the trigger or hack a head off. Having killed dozens of people since they were kids and never facing any repercussions or punishment for it, these people are all over Cambodia and still have the same guns and explosives they were given when they were recruited to kill. Unpunished and allowed to live freely after countless murders, these men and women are but a small part of a large group of armed and dangerous killers Cambodia is full of. Regardless of whether you believe those who say that Cambodia is safe or those who say that Cambodia is dangerous, by visiting Cambodia you will be entering a country where Khmer Rouge murderers roam freely, equipped with uncontrolled and regulated military grade weapons. Instead of believing one side or another, draw your own conclusions based on facts. Take a close look at the type of people who make up much of the society and the picture should be quite clear.

Apsara Authority Cambodia

The Apsara Authority is a government sponsored agency in Cambodia responsible for management and protection of Angkor Archaeological Park. That sounds like a fair and noble cause and to some point it is, however being part of the most corrupt government in the world, it comes as no surprise that Apsara Authority would be as corrupt and twisted as the people who created it.

On their website autoriteapsara.org, the Apsara Authority describes its purpose and agenda as follows:

The government has created APSARA, the Authority for the Protection and Management of Angkor and the Region of Siem Reap, in charge of research, protection and conservation of cultural heritage, as well as urban and tourist development. This legislative and institutional framework marks the beginning of a new active role Cambodia will take, responding to the call of her own people in the voice of her King, as well as to that of the international community, in managing Angkor as a national and world heritage for the generations to come.

On the History and Organization page, the text on the website states that Apsara Authority is responsible for:

  • Protecting, maintaining, conserving and improving the value of the archaeological park, the culture, the environment and the history of the Angkor region as defined on the World Heritage List.
  • Refining and applying the master plan on tourist development according to the five zones, defined in 1994 in the Royal Decree on the protection and management of Siemreap-Angkor and taking action against deforestation, illegal territory occupation as well as anarchy activities in Siemreap-Angkor.
  • Finding financial sources and investments.
  • Participating in the policy of cutting down poverty of the Royal Government in Siemreap-Angkor.
  • Cooperating with the Cambodian Development Council on the investments of all the projects that are involved with APSARA Authority’s mission.
  • Cooperating with ministries, institutions, funds, national and international communities as well as international governmental institutions and non-governmental organization on all projects related to APSARA Authority.

There are some truly dubious statements in the description of their responsibilities and by looking at past actions of Apsara Authority throughout the Siem Reap area one can come to conclusions what they likely mean.

Photo: Apsara Authority Inspector at an Entrance to One of Angkor Temples
Photo: Apsara Authority Inspector at an Entrance to One of Angkor Temples

The first alarming statement can be seen in the introductory sentence where it is mentioned that Apsara Authority was created “for the Protection and Management of Angkor and the Region of Siem Reap” – and the region of Siem Reap? Why does Apsara Authority want to spread their jurisdiction outside of the Angkor Archaeological Park? If their purpose is to preserve and protect the ancient temples of Angkor, than why stick fingers in villages outside of Angkor?

Another even more dubious statement is one you have certainly already noticed – anarchy activities. What in the name of Buddha are anarchy activities? Has this phrase purposefully been forced into the list of Apsarta Authority responsibilities so they have their asses covered no matter what they do? Past actions of the agency show us that it truly could be so.

Photo: Apsara Authority Logo on an Information Panel at Banteay Kdei Temple
Photo: Apsara Authority Logo on an Information Panel at Banteay Kdei Temple

From the reports of people living in touristy areas as well as from articles published in the Phnom Penh Post it is evident that large groups of Apsara Authority officials have been going around villages in the Siem Reap province, threatening the villagers at gunpoint that if they modernize their houses or build something new on their land, they will be evicted without recourse. If any of the villagers voices against unlawful eviction, they are simply told that their actions are perceived as “anarchy activities” and are henceforth removed from the land that their predecessors lived on for centuries. They are subsequently moved to a tiny piece of land that was assigned to them in lieu of their coveted location. Their new land is in the middle of nowhere, in the district where they have no friends or family to rely on. That is what Apsara Authority refers to when they say “anarchy activities”.

Apparently, for as long as the villagers keep their original, “traditional” houses – aka wooden, thatched barns on stilts – and don’t try to modernize them, they should be fine. I have my own theory why they insist on people living in prehistoric houses that are falling apart:

It has everything to do with foreign donations coming in massive chunks to Cambodia. In order for the financial support from abroad to continuously grow, foreigner must be exposed to villagers who look poor, live in atrocious conditions with houses falling apart around them. If there were any signs of improvement of conditions in which regular folk live, foreign donations could diminish. Given lack of transparency throughout Cambodia along with the most corrupt government in the world, any money coming to Cambodia, regardless of who it is intended for, eventually ends up in the hands of the ruling elite while impoverished, underprivileged citizens get nothing. However they are a good bait for foreign donations so it is absolutely essential for the government to ensure that people remain poor and look poor. At least those who live in the areas where foreigners go.

Angkor Archaeological Park

All of those magnificent, world famous temples of the the Angkorian-era Khmer Empire that drive millions of tourists to Cambodia each year are housed within the Angkor Archaeological Park. Covering an area of more than 400 square kilometers, Angkor Archaeological Park is the largest religious complex in the world. Today, Angkor Archaeological Park is considered to be one of the New 7 Wonders of the World and was declared a World Heritage site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s International World Heritage Program UNESCO in 1992.

Angkorian-era of the Khmer Empire lasted between 9th and 13th centuries during which most of the famous tamples of the Angkor Archaeological Park were built. Some of the temples date back to the 8th century while the latest additions come from the 1500s.

The most famous temple of the Angkor Archaeological Park is, expectedly Angkor Wat with Bayon Temple located within larger Angkor Thom counting as close second. The complete list of all 53 temple ruins located within Angkor Archaeological Park in Siem Reap Province of Cambodia is below:

  • Ak Yum
  • Angkor Thom
  • Angkor Wat
  • Bakong
  • Baksei Chamkrong
  • Banteay Kdei
  • Banteay Prei
  • Banteay Samre
  • Banteay Srey
  • Baphuon
  • Bat Chum
  • Bayon
  • Beng Melea
  • Chapel of the Hospital
  • Chau Say Tevoda
  • East Mebon
  • Kbal Spean
  • Kleangs (North and South)
  • Krol Ko
  • Krol Romeas
  • Kutisvara
  • Lolei
  • Neak Pean
  • Phimeanakas
  • Phnom Bakheng
  • Phnom Krom
  • Phnom Kulen
  • Prasat Bei
  • Prasat Kravan
  • Prasat Prei
  • Prasat Suor Prat
  • Prasat Top (East) 
  • Prasat Top (West)
  • Pre Rup
  • Preah Khan
  • Preah Ko
  • Preah Palilay
  • Preah Pithu Group
  • Roluos Group
  • Spean Thma
  • Srah Srang
  • Ta Keo
  • Ta Nei
  • Ta Prohm
  • Ta Prohm Kel 
  • Ta Som
  • Tep Pranam
  • Terrace of the Elephants
  • Terrace of the Leper King
  • Thma Bay Kaek
  • Thommanon
  • Wat Athvea
  • West Mebon

The entire Angkor Archaeological Park is located in Siem Reap Province with the town of Siem Reap serving its main tourist and business hub.

Additional pre-Angkorian and Angkorian-era temple ruins are located Takeo Province, south of Cambodia’s capital city of Phnom Penh. From historical and archaeological perspective, the temples in Takeo Province are some of the most important, however their visual appeal and magnificance don’t match up to the temples of Angkor Archaeological Park.

Angkor Wat Opening Hours and Visiting Times

When planning a visit to Angkor Wat and other temples and ruins of the Angkor Archaeological Park it is important to know what the opening hours and best visiting times are. There are additional details that I will share with you, details you won’t find in any guide book but can help you make the most of your visit to Angkor.

Angkor Wat Opening Hours Are:

Daily from 5.00am to 6.00pm

These opening hours apply to the main area of Angkor Archaeological Park and include all main and most popular temples, including Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom (Bayon, Terrace of the Elephants and Terrace of the Leper King), Thommanom, Ta Keo, Ta Prohm, Bantey Kdei, Sras Srang, Prasat Kravan, Preah Khan, Neak Pean, Ta Som, East Mebon, Banteay Samre, Pre Rup, etc.

Photo: Information Panel at the Angkor Ticket Office Contains Opening Times and Entrance Fees Schedule
Photo: Information Panel at the Angkor Ticket Office Contains Opening Times and Entrance Fees Schedule

The opening hours allow you to get to the temples before sunrise and leave after sunset. Because Cambodia is close to the equator, the sun rises at approximately 6.00am and sets at approximately 6.00pm every day. Angkor temples are a little bit off the equator so this time fluctuates slightly, but as a general rule of thumb, you get exactly 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness every day. Visiting hours have been adjusted to accommodate the desire of tourists to catch both sunrise and sunsets over the temples.

Banteay Srey Opening Hours Are:

Daily from 5.00am to 5.00pm

Because Bantey Srey is about one hour by Tuk Tuk from Siem Reap, which is the main tourist hub for vast majority of all visitors to Angkor Archaeological Park, the closing time for Banteay Srey has been adjusted so you can get back to Siem Reap before it gets dark.

Kbal Spean Opening Hours Are:

Daily from 5.00am to 3.00pm

Kbal Spean is considered to be one of the most sacred places by the Khmer people. It is located on the sacred Kulen Hill (Phnom Kulen) and requires 45 minute hike uphill through the forest. Cambodians flock to Phnom Kulen for the Khmer New Year to prey before the statue of huge reclining Buddha and enjoy the swim at the waterfalls. It’s one of the less visited places by foreigners, but one of the most fascinating. Well known to local Khmer population, the unfortunate part about Phnom Kulen is that it will cost you $20 as a foreigner to get there. That fee is way out of proportion to what you would get for paying $20 to get to Angkor Wat area but can be avoided by taking an extra 2 hour hike. Some truly amazing carving in the rock

What Guide Books Don’t Tell You About Visiting Times!

The opening hours are what you SHOULD adhere to as a visitor to Angkor Archaeological Area. If you attempt to enter the area outside of these opening hours, you would be going there while it’s pitch dark outside, but there are no fences to hold you back so you are in fact free to enter.

The opening hours posted above are also the working hours of ticket inspectors on duty who are paid to check that every foreigner who enters the area has a valid ticket. So if you get to the checkpoint outside of the visiting hours, there will be no one asking you to show the ticket, leaving you free to enter at your own will.

That being said, foreigners caught inside any Angkor temple without a valid pass can be fined, whether it’s during opening hours or outside. All of the above simply means that there is virtually nothing to stop you from entering Angkor Archaeological Area after dark (as per opening hours posted earlier).

This also applies to leaving Angkor after opening hours. I spent a lot of time in a Sras Srang village oftentimes leaving late at night during which time if I wanted to, I could wonder into any temple and stay there (temples have been used for centuries as shelters for travelers). I’ve never done that, but it was a possibility. If I was done in a village before 6pm, I’d still have the guards at the checkpoint to give a wave to, but if I left after 6pm, there would be nobody there so even if I were going towards the village (aka towards the temples) I’d be free to enter.

Please note, that I do not encourage anyone to visit Angkor temples illegally and I definitely do not encourage anyone to wonder the forests of Angkor after dark. While this area has been thoroughly demined, there are other danger lurking in the dark than land mines. The above information is simply provided as a fact I know of but nobody else does. But now you all do.

How a Prostitute Works

Ha really needed to make some money so she can buy food for her daughter, but because she was an alien in a foreign country, her options were slim. All she was left with was prostitution. Because I had evenings reserved to getting some computer work done for myself, I had to leave to her to look after my job during which time she said she would go back to the Temple Club and “work” the way prostitutes “work”. Because Siem Reap is not a sex tourism destination, chances were that she would just spend the night looking pretty but not scoring any paying customers. I knew very well how prostitutes work and how they get treated and was not happy knowing Ha was going to put herself up on the market again, but this was her only option at the moment. I told her she could come stay the night with me again after “work”. I had actual shower and could keep the room at a comfortable temperature level. Plus the beds were comfortable so at least she could get decent sleep.

Ha gave her daughter good byes and lay her in wooden plank bed to sleep. Then we left for the Pub Street so she can promenade herself at the Temple Club and so I can sit in the Khmer Family Restaurant and do some work on a computer. Again, I wasn’t too happy Ha was forced to sell her body out, but I didn’t have the funds to support two more mouth myself and she didn’t have any other options either, so work of a prostitute it was.

This was a rather sticky situation, but I did all I could to offer assistance. I provided Ha with shower and sleep facilities at no charge, took her out for meals with me and bought treats for her daughter. I think I made their tough lives a little bit better without resorting to giving them the money.

I was done with my work at around midnight and briefly popped in the Temple Club to meet Ha and see how her night went. I was ready for the possibility that she may not be there – which would indicate that she may have scored a “customer” and is “working” to earn money. Horrible feeling but it was the fact of her life at the time.

Oddly enough, I went through all of the Temple Club and didn’t see Ha anywhere so I left. I was sort of happy for her, hoping she scored a whale who would pay her a lot of cash for her “services” but at the same time I was sad to have to go home alone. Even though she did not do the “work” with me, I enjoyed her company and loved talking with her.

Photo: Temple Club Where Ha Went to Work as a Prostitute
Photo: Temple Club Where Ha Went to Work as a Prostitute

As I was about to leave the line of Tuk Tuk drivers at the beginning of Pub Street, I felt someone jump on me. Warm embrace and lovable laughter gave Ha away. She said she’d been at the Temple Club whole evening but no luck scoring any customers. She didn’t see me either, but one other girl who also works at the club noticed me and remembered me from previous night. Knowing I was looking for Ha, she let her know that her man just went through the club obviously looking for someone, but hasn’t found her so he left. She must have thought I took Ha with me the night before to have sex with and was looking for her again to do the same thing this night as well. Being a nice fellow-prostitute, she let Ha know and that’s how she caught me just before I would have disappeared in the gloomy darkness of the street that leads to the Prom Roth Guesthouse.

This was good news. I really didn’t want any men abusing this wonderful girl and at the same time I wanted to enjoy her company myself. On top of it, I wanted her to get decent sleep and be able to take decent shower so I was glad she didn’t score a customer that night. But that also meant that she wouldn’t have any money for her daughter so I would have to support her somehow. I was gonna do it like this:

Get up reasonably early in the morning to see whether it’s a nice sunny day again. If the day was going to be nice, I would sit on a bike and ride to Angkor to visit the ancient temples at last. Because the entrance fee to Angkor Archaeological Park is very expensive, there was no way I could also take Ha with me. This meant that if the weather was nice, Ha would have to go her own way while I’m at Angkor. We would still meet in the evening, but wouldn’t be able to spend the day together.

Whereas if it rains, we would just go ahead with an alternative program which wouldn’t involve me going to Angkor, because I wasn’t gonna waste $20 for not even being able to take a picture of any temples because when it rains in Cambodia during rainy season, it really comes down.

Either way, I would take Ha to have a breakfast with me and would buy large meal so she has left-overs to feed her daughter with. This way I would still support Ha and her little girl without giving them money directly. I needed to eat before heading to Angkor so this step would be unavoidable and since she was spending the night with me, she could come along.

This plan went pretty well, except from one thing – we were forced to get up much sooner than I would have liked. Because Pchum Ben festival was still underway, Preah Prom Rath temple which was just outside my window started playing really loud Khmer music out of their old loudspeakers. Music was so loud, we were virtually wide awake shortly after 6am. I have originally appreciated the fact that Prom Roth Guesthouse is so close to one of the main temples in Siem Reap, but the fact that you won’t get enough sleep because of proximity to that temple made it a bit crappy.

This same thing has repeated every day for the rest of the Pchum Ben festival. I’m not an early bird and I work until late at night because I find working at night more productive and more creative. But with the noise from Preah Prom Rath temple early morning for a few days straight, this was becoming excessively difficult.

Regardless, I was excited to go see Angkor Wat at last. The weather was gorgeous and I knew this was the day. I was woken up sooner than I would have liked, but I was excited to go see my most desired site in the world so I sprung out of bed, shook Ha to get up too, we got dressed and headed to Wat Bo area to have nice traditional breakfast in one of the locally owned and operated restaurants. I had to say my good-byes to Ha right after, but that was only for the day. I knew I was gonna see her again in the evening so I did not waste any more time, and rode off north, towards Angkor Archaeological Park.

Getting a Glimpse of Angkor Wat

Since it was such a nice day today and I didn’t spend it exploring Angkor Wat, I thought I would use the evening to at least get a glimpse of it. I knew Angkor Wat is only some 6 kilometres from Siem Reap, so even though I didn’t have the entrance ticket for the day, I thought of taking my bike for a spin to at least see it and take pictures of it from the distance. Because it’s so close, it shouldn’t be an issue getting there within a few minutes of swift riding and even though they wouldn’t let me get close to it without a ticket, I was excited to at least get my first glimpse of it just before the sun sets for the day.

Without much hesitation, I rode off up the road that leads to Angkor Archaeological Park. I was expecting a nice day tomorrow so this would give me a better sense of how far it really is from Siem Reap.

This was the first time I rode in that direction and was surprised to see some of Siem Reap’s fines hotels along the way. I passed the Kantha Bopha children’s hospital (dedicated to Cambodia’s God King Jayavarman VII) in which cello concerts are held by Dr. Beat Richter for charitable purposes and shortly after, the buildings that lined the road disappeared and got replaced by big trees. The sense of leaving the town and entering the forest was only disturbed by a large number of locals on motorcycles and old cars driving in both directions.

I knew I couldn’t have been too far but I couldn’t see nothing for the trees were too tall. Riding was smooth because the road was well paved and there were no hills on the way. Then as I was keeping my speed I got yelled at and had to pull over. The man who was sitting on the side of the road pointed me in a direction of a building hidden in the bush of those high trees just off the main road.

Photo: Angkor Ticket Office
Photo: Angkor Ticket Office

I turned around and swirled off the road to approach that building only to find out that it was the entrance gateway for foreigners. The man on the road was there to halt all foreigners so only locals make it in without paying the steep entrance fee. As a foreigner, after you have paid the entrance fee, you will be let through and you will eventually get back on the same road, but you have to take a detour to go through the ticketing office first. Angkor Wat is a major Cambodian cash cow.

Sadly, no sight of any temple, any silhouette, any ruin or anything otherwise interesting can be had from riding up to that point. I don’t know what exactly I expected to see, but I didn’t get a glimpse of anything. I thought there would be a staple standing up high enough to protrude over the tops of the trees, but it wasn’t the case.

Photo: I Was This Close to Angkor Wat, But From Here You Can't See Any Temples, Only Lots of Locals Riding In and Out
Photo: I Was This Close to Angkor Wat, But From Here You Can't See Any Temples, Only Lots of Locals Riding In and Out

At the time I didn’t realize how vast Angkor Archaeological Park was. The place is massive and temples are spread across a truly huge area. There is about one more kilometre of riding after the ticket booths before you get to see the nearest temple. This of course I didn’t know but I just couldn’t wait until tomorrow and had try to get a glimpse of Angkor Wat. It didn’t work out, but it gave me a good sense of how far it is to get to Angkor Wat from my guesthouse and it wasn’t far at all. At this point I felt confident that even though I haven’t kept myself in any particularly awesome physical shape, I could do the Angkor Archaeological Area on a bike with ease.

It’s Hard Being a Foreigner in Siem Reap

Ha introduced me to the hardship she and her daughter were going through, yet even though unintentionally, she was introduced to the hardship I was going through myself – the hardship of being a foreigner in Siem Reap. I didn’t have to say a word, all it took was for Ha to spend some time with me. After a brief while she acknowledged that being a foreigner in Cambodia is truly horrible, because of treatment we westerners receive from locals.

First of all, when I was talking to Ha, I was never able to finish a simple sentence without being interrupted by a pushy Cambodian eager to get money from me at any cost. I would be walking down the street, minding my own business yet because of my skin color, I would be treated like cheap hooker. I’d be yelled yet, clapped at from across the street, honked at, whistled at or just plain have somebody in my face doing his darn best to talk me into buying something from them. There was no end to this abuse and there was not a single minute I would get without being bothered.

No matter where we would go or what we would do, there would be locals jumping me and insisting on doing some business with them. They never take “No” for an answer and treat bothering foreigners almost religiously. It’s as if something terrible would happen if each of them who caught a sight of me (or anyone else who looks like an obvious foreigner) would not make some kind of move at me, whether verbally, by making obnoxious noises or by getting in my face directly.

This is the real Cambodia – extremely hostile towards foreigners and beyond pushy. Ha has never experienced anything like that because she’s Vietnamese and looks too close to being a Cambodian. But as she was there with me, she could see how much I as a westerner have to put up with and how Cambodians would not take NO for an answer and would continue bothering me even if I completely ignored them. It was frustrating the crap out of her and she was not even the victim.

I think every Cambodian should try hanging around with a foreigner to see what it is like when a person doesn’t get a minute of peace without being harassed by a local. And I really hate to sound like I’m exaggerating, but when I say “a minute of peace” I’m actually being excessively generous. If it was only once per minute that some local jumps me, perhaps I wouldn’t even bother writing this post. But Cambodians go way above and beyond harassment. It is virtually nonstop – as a foreigner you get harassed at virtually every moment.

We had to leave talking to when we are in the room as that was the only place where I could finish a sentence without being interrupted by a pushy local. Courtesy and respect are not virtues known to Cambodians. Personal space means nothing to them so they will stick their noses straight in your face and won’t remove them easily. It almost seems as though their strategy at earning your business is to frustrate you to the point at which you eventually give in. Instead of trying to earn your business by offering quality service, they simply believe that after you have been harassed enough, you will eventually break and agree to accept their Tuk Tuk ride or whatever it is they want you to spend money on.

Photo: Siem Reap Tuk Tuk Driver Looking Out for Foreigners
Photo: Siem Reap Tuk Tuk Driver Looking Out for Foreigners

Being a foreigner in Cambodia is truly hard. Most locals or people from the hood would not realize what we foreigners have to go through in Cambodia, but those who try to hang out with one of us will get a first person feel of what it’s like. And what it’s really like is anything but pretty. Ha knows it very well and felt sorry for me. It got to a point when she would jump pushy locals back and scream at them in Cambodian to leave me alone. While I was at the end with my senses despite ignoring all pushy locals, Ha stood up for me and tried to beat off some of that unceasing abuse. Ha introduced me to the hardship she and her daughter were going through, yet even though unintentionally, she was introduced to the hardship I was going through myself – the hardship of being a foreigner in Siem Reap. I didn’t have to say a word, all it took was for Ha to spend some time with me. After a brief while she acknowledged that being a foreigner in Cambodia is truly horrible, because of treatment we westerners receive from locals.

First of all, when I was talking to Ha, I was never able to finish a simple sentence without being interrupted by a pushy Cambodian eager to get money from me at any cost. I would be walking down the street, minding my own business yet because of my skin color, I would be treated like cheap hooker. I’d be yelled yet, clapped at from across the street, honked at, whistled at or just plain have somebody in my face doing his darn best to talk me into buying something from them. There was no end to this abuse and there was not a single minute I would get without being bothered.

No matter where we would go or what we would do, there would be locals jumping me and insisting on doing some business with them. They never take “No” for an answer and treat bothering foreigners almost religiously. It’s as if something terrible would happen if each of them who caught a sight of me (or anyone else who looks like an obvious foreigner) would not make some kind of move at me, whether verbally, by making obnoxious noises or by getting in my face directly.

This is the real Cambodia – extremely hostile towards foreigners and beyond pushy. Ha has never experienced anything like that because she’s Vietnamese and looks too close to being a Cambodian. But as she was there with me, she could see how much I as a westerner have to put up with and how Cambodians would not take NO for an answer and would continue bothering me even if I completely ignored them. It was frustrating the crap out of her and she was not even the victim.

I think every Cambodian should try hanging around with a foreigner to see what it is like when a person doesn’t get a minute of peace without being harassed by a local. And I really hate to sound like I’m exaggerating, but when I say “a minute of peace” I’m actually being excessively generous. If it was only once per minute that some local jumps me, perhaps I wouldn’t even bother writing this post. But Cambodians go way above and beyond harassment. It is virtually nonstop – as a foreigner you get harassed at virtually every moment.

We had to leave talking to when we are in the room as that was the only place where I could finish a sentence without being interrupted by a pushy local. Courtesy and respect are not virtues known to Cambodians. Personal space means nothing to them so they will stick their noses straight in your face and won’t remove them easily. It almost seems as though their strategy at earning your business is to frustrate you to the point at which you eventually give in. Instead of trying to earn your business by offering quality service, they simply believe that after you have been harassed enough, you will eventually break and agree to accept their Tuk Tuk ride or whatever it is they want you to spend money on.

Being a foreigner in Cambodia is truly hard. Most locals or people from the hood would not realize what we foreigners have to go through in Cambodia, but those who try to hang out with one of us will get a first person feel of what it’s like. Then they would change their approach instantly. After meeting with and speaking to countless foreigners in Siem Reap, I could see that this approach hurts local businesses. Foreigners who would otherwise spend more money refuse to go shopping so they don’t have to expose themselves to this treatment and those who would otherwise stay longer are making plans to speed up their departure as they can’t put up with this anymore.

There is no doubt that disrespect of foreigners has opposite of desired effect for locals. Because of that, even if there are any sincere locals who would like to offer sincere service to foreigners, they will be ignored because foreigners are pushed to the limits and have no other option but to ignore. You can see which foreigner has just come to Siem Reap and is still hanging on to being polite and responds multiple times every minute to being jumped by explaining that they are OK for now. You see the same foreigner a few hours later and without responding, they are speedily moving towards their guesthouse to escape the mistreatment.

Because Ha looks like a Cambodian, she was not subjected to abuse but it only took her a few hours of hanging out with me to get fed up with that herself. It got to a point when she would jump pushy locals back and scream at them in Cambodian to leave me alone. While I was at the end with my senses despite ignoring all pushy locals, Ha stood up for me and tried to beat off some of that unceasing abuse.

I Can’t Stand Kids No More

It’s funny how we sometimes can’t stand certain things yet in the end it’s that very thing that makes us love them. This is exactly what happened to me. I had bad experiences with kids and it got to a point that I couldn’t stand kids anymore but it only took that one kid to make me see them in a whole new light and now I can say that I can’t stand kids no more (no more being the keyword).

When Ha told me she had a child, I had all kinds of weird thoughts. I’ve never had children of my own so my perception of them has always been rather third handed. The last memory I had of kids was that of a horrible plane experience. Each of my three flights from Edmonton to Siem Reap, Cambodia had annoying, screaming kids on board who would not quit yelling for one minute. As if being cramped within a small space, with limited legroom for 10 hour was not bad enough, I also had to listen to nonstop screaming that started before takeoff and didn’t stop until I got off the plane. Long flights tire you down a lot, but having someone scream without a break while you’re at it takes it to a whole new level by giving you a headache from hell.

After this type of experience with kids, I really didn’t feel like coming in further contact with children, no matter how presumably well behaved they were believed to be. That’s why I couldn’t grasp the concept of Ha loving her child. My first thought when she told me that she had a daughter was – “Why don’t you just get rid of it somehow and be done with her? She’ll be no burden to you no more…” I thought she’d be happy if someone wanted to rid her of that kid… I thought she’d grab at the first opportunity to be done with the girl and move on with her life without the annoyance of a spoiled, screaming kid.

Yet she kept mentioning how much her daughter meant to her and how she couldn’t imagine life without her so I just silently wondered what the heck was wrong with her and politely nodded to each of her daughter-full heart pours.

We were at the Royal Independence Gardens admiring the shriek of mesmerising Fruit Bats when Ha told me it was time for her to go home to check out on her daughter and insisted that I go with her. She wanted me to meet the little girl and said she would pay for the Tuk Tuk so long as I come. I was not impressed with the idea, but she had spent whole night with me and went with me to see the bats (aka she went where I wanted her to go) so I somewhat felt obliged to return the favour and go where she would like me to go.

It was a beautiful day but there would be no way for me to use it to initiate my Angkor Archaeological Park exploration adventure and since I had nothing more exciting lined up for today, I agreed I would accompany Ha to her uncle’s place where she was staying and meet her daughter. I really enjoyed Ha’s company and wanted her to spend more of the day with me, but for that she needed to go home to change clothes and do whatever other things she needed to do so it only made sense that I would go with her.

We flagged down a Tuk Tuk, the driver saw me which meant he tried to overcharge us for the ride but Ha put him in place and we headed towards the north east corner of Siem Reap, to an area far away from where any foreigners ever go. The houses there looked the way most Cambodian houses do – thatched barns on stilts made exclusively of wooden planks. This is what most Cambodians live in and so did Ha’s uncle and his wife who accommodated Ha during her stay in Siem Reap.

The house had a little storage room attached to itself at the front end, it was only big enough to have one bed also made of bare wooden planks inside and that’s where Ha and her daughter were staying. Roof was covered with random, irregularly shaped pieces of metal, wood and thatch, with many holes that let water in when it was raining. Since there was nowhere to hide inside of that room and since it was rainy season, the two ladies must have been getting rained on on regular basis. From a westerner’s point of view, it looked like something I wouldn’t even throw a dog to live in and here it was used as the only way by a 23 year old girl and her 4 year old daughter. But the worst part was, that they had to pay (unreasonably high) monthly rent for it.

Photo: Big Lizard Crawling Down The Base of the House Where Ha and Her Daughter Lived
Photo: Big Lizard Crawling Down The Base of the House Where Ha and Her Daughter Lived

From what Ha explained to me, her uncle wanted to actually help her out and wouldn’t mind leaving her in the room for free, but his wife (Who is Cambodian – typical) was against and decided to cash on a desperate couple that didn’t have many options and had to take whatever was offered to them. Way to make a bank on other people’s misfortune.

This was how Ha and her daughter lived. No wonder she was so excited to accept my invitation to sleep with me in an air conditioned room, on a soft bed with blankets and with shower with clean water. Coming from a dog house that looked like slaves storage facility, anything would be an upgrade.

Photo: Home Made Decoration Reflected The Condition of the House
Photo: Home Made Decoration Reflected The Condition of the House

But let’s get back to kids and how I couldn’t stand them. After I had met with Ha’s daughter, my hatred for kids was gone. I started to understand what she meant when she said that she loved her daughter and could not imagine her life without her. I started to understand where the beauty of small children lies. My perception of children was wrong, but was I in for a surprise! If at some time I couldn’t stand kids, then after meeting Ha’s daughter this feeling was in me no more.

Photo: Little Girl Showing Me Where She Lives
Photo: Little Girl Showing Me Where She Lives

More photos of this little girl in the 4 Year Old Daughter Photo Gallery.

Four Year Old Daughter Photo Gallery

When I first met Ha’s four year old daughter, the little girl was crying. I had some chewing gums on me so I gave her the pack which made her stop. I don’t know exactly why she was crying, but I know that she was nothing like I expected. I went to meet with Ha’s daughter anticipating a spoiled kid that screams all the time and acts like a general irritation, but she was none of that.

I will leave the pictures in a gallery below to speak on my behalf. Even if you were like me – someone who used to perceive kids as sheer annoyance, you would instantly start seeing children as a blessing, instead of a curse. This girl was the embodiment of cuteness and was well behaved and respectful. She was nothing like the kids from the plane. I was reluctant to go spend time with a kid, but after experiencing her bubbly personality, I actually had to pull my camera out and snap some pictures so I can print some for Ha.

Realizing the hardship Ha told me about, I felt even more inclined to try to seek for solution and help so they don’t have to spend their lives running and hiding. This little girl should go to school and get education. She should also get some medical care, including dental care because that cavity in her front tooth spoils otherwise gorgeous smile. This girl deserves to enjoy her childhood and go out to have fun with her friends. But for this to happen, something would have to get fixed. The two are constantly on the move so she can’t make any friends and because they don’t have any money, their health issues are not looked after. They can’t afford a toothbrush or a toothpaste so cavities are inevitable. And that makes their story so much sadder.

Because father of this girl is an American, she doesn’t look obviously Vietnamese. WHile she does have some Vietnamese features, she’s a Caucasian cross with dark eyes.