Siem Reap, Cambodia
December 28, 2000
Last day in Cambodia. I bought a plane ticket to Hanoi, Vietnam leaving this evening. The temples of Angkor Wat have been incredible. So much intracies in the architecture. Not a single pillar, stone, or corner lacks intricate designs, many still visible throughout the passed centures of time.
In nearly every temple, you have a large assortment of young Cambodian children selling anything from sodas to t-shirts to a local tour guide, almost anyone of those services cost about one US Dollar. One afternoon I spent talking to about six or seven of the children, and they were quite interesting. Just like most Cambodian people, they were extremely poor with knotted hair, and dirty hands and feet. I did learn that most went to school to in the morning. The odd thing about the kids, is their English was really good. I was impressed. I actually found out that most of them also knew French, and a few words of Japanese as well.
Also, one of the other interesting aspects of the temples were the many monks who lived and tended them. I was quite impressed with their devotion to their religion. I perplexed me immensily to see such incredibly poor people so devoted to a religion which seems to have failed them. I can't imagine any worse lives than the ones they were living, in desparate poverty, without any kind of industry, and reliant on tourists to perhaps choose them of the thousands and thousands, to give one of their US dollars too. It just seemed like life and all good things that come from it, have been deprived of for them. Many of them have lost half or all of their family members to Pol Pot's genocide of the people, or causal victims to landmines which very dangerously haunt nearly everywhere throughout the entire country except for the city of Phnom Pehn (which makes up for cleared landmines by the number of guns).
I think one of the more exhausting aspects of travel in Cambodia, is the constant neediness of money from the people. Just walking around, you'd have children and locals shouting out for you to buy a coke or water or if you need a ride somewhere. They were all so desparate, and anyone with children, seemed to be sending their children out to warm the tourist's hearts. It was kind of exhausting, this 'you buy, mister' syndrom. I also felt a sense of sympathy for them.
Also, in the countryside especially, but almost anywhere, it was quite common to see children without clothes. I don't think their parents could even afford them, or maybe their one set of clothes was being washed that day or something. The ones who did have clothes, had such a thick cache of mud and dirt on them. Everything seemed to be dirty in this country.
Rread the Next Journal Entry in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam:
December 30, 2000
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