The sad one on Cambodia written in Vietnam…

I saw the floating markets on the Mekong River and a bit of Vietnamese country side. I saw rats, snakes being served in the restaurants… I got flowers and a lot of little things made from bamboo leaves from my boat driver (ring, braclet, fan, and shrimp)… I got some exotic fruit from a little boy and met an old men who has been coming to the same spot in the park for 10 years now to talk to foreiners… Unfortunately he spoke only French so I was introduced to his English speaking niece. In other words I’m ready to hit the big city.

Yesterday night I came to Ho Chi Minh City (former Saigon). In general when I crossed the border to Vietnam, or a least when I got to my first stop I got an impression that I came back to civilisation. This post won’t be about Vietnam though but about Cambodia. I want to share some things with you before I forget them.

When I crossed the border from Thailand you could see straight away that Cambodia is so much poorer. When I got to the taxi to Siem Reap the front glass of the car had bullet holes in it. I was also surprised to see that the campaign slogan “Please protect our national treasue” referred to children. I didn’t know then that child prostitution was such a big problem here.

Yet from the first moment I liked Cambodia a lot. The endless green green rice fields, the blue blue sky and lovely lovely people 🙂  It’s very flat so “endless” is not an exaggeration. It’s cusine (bitter sweet) is a good metaphor of the whole country – full of contradictions. You could probably see from my posts the bright side of Cambodia or to be exact traveling in Cambodia. There is a dark side as well. Apart from it’s beauty it is an underdeveloped and difficult country to live in. From what I saw and was told the following things surprised me the most:

– I would call it the “no money no honey” rule

Cambodians are very conservative and modest. In general there is no premarrige sex. To makes things more difficult to get maried men has to pay the family of his future wife around 4 000 $ (2000 $ if her family is poor or work for a year for them so they could see what he is worth). Since the average pay is maybe 100 $ it takes them a long time to get the money and in general there is a big age diference between the couples. I was told that there are almost no divorces. Why? “Who could afford to pay for another wife?!”

It’s really sad but “no money no honey” rule apply to almost everything. The country is very corrupted and the is no social care. My driver’s father died because they couldn’t afford paying the doctors and nurses to take care of him. On one occasion I was asked “Does your parents still live?”. Here this question makes sense.

– sex workers

Because of the poverty there are so many sex workers… More than once I was in a bar where I was the only not prostitute female. Cambodia has the highest rate of HIV in South East Asia.

– street children

There are so many orphans here. Mostly because their parents died of AIDS or other diseases. They work (for their “pimp”) begging or selling books or stuff. Some parents take their children out of school so they could “work”. It’s really difficult not to buy things from them. You sholdn’t because you are not helping by doing that (!!!).

– Khmer Rouge

I knew about the genocide of Pol Pot before coming here. Now I saw it’s full scale. Still it is beyond me how in 4 years you can destroy the country. He basiclly turned Cambodia in one big work camp and brutaly murdered 2 million people. Bones of the victims are scatterd in Killing Fields all over the place. I saw it myself. It happend 30 years ago and untill now nobady was held responsable.

Now I’m a little sad and in need of a breakfast. I want to spend one more day here so I will better get going. Tomorrow I’m heading to the beach. I hope I didn’t depress you. Kiss!