The Land Of Smiles
Posted by Scott Calderon on Saturday, September 4, 2010
I think I read somehwere that Cambodia is known as the land of smiles. If not, it should be. Everybody here smiles. Even if you are just passing them on the street they still smile. I can't believe how nice and happy people are here and yet they are very poor and there is lots of poverty. I think things are getting better here, but you can see things are not great for lots of people. Today I rented a tuk tuk for the day ($15).
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This guy and his tuk tuk took me around Siem Reap and Angkor for the day. We drove all over the place. In the morning we went on a hunt for an external hard drive for my computer as my old one died last night. I needed to get on right away because that is where I back up all my pictures and videos from this trip. So after going to 4 or 5 places we finally found it and for a reasonable price. From there I bought a couple of local sweet breads for breakfast and off to Angkor we went. Angkor is the area where many famous temples or wats can be found including the well known Angkor Wat.
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We spent the day driving from one temple to another. I got to see a lot of the countryside along the way. Here is a typical view of country life in Angkor. You can see a house and a small store or restaurant all accessible right from the road.
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A couple of my favorite temples were these two: The temple of faces
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and the Bayon Temple (which is being reclaimed by the jungle).
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The temples were amazing to see. I had to admit that Angkor Wat, which is the biggest and most famous might have been my least favorite. I liked Bayon Temple the most. I thought it was cool to see nature reclaiming the land and the temple. While Angkor was interesting to see it was not as great as I thought it would be. Maybe I had built it up too much in my head or maybe I don't like ruins as much as I thought. I don't know. It was definitely interesting to see I just thought it was going to be better. I was definitely templed out by the end of the day. The worse part of the day was dealing with all the local vendors and hawkers. There are a lot of them and they are super aggressive (to the point where you can feel their desperation). It was hard to deal with at times when all the wanted to do was sell you a t-shirt, bracelets, water, or anything and for only $1 or less. It was especially hard to say not to the little children and it doesn't get any easier when you reach your 10,000th child hawker. I even had one say to me that she needed the money for school because she can't afford the supplies so she can't go. I am sure it was a line to sell her items, but I am also sure there are many children who can't afford school. Needless to say after dealing with that for a day it was very tiring and I didn't even want to get out of the tuk tuk anymore. If I could have I would have gave everyone $1. $1 seems to be such a big deal for them here and yet it is practically nothing at home. How many of you would wash my car for $1 or cook me some food for $1? Here is another example. I ran into a guy who wanted to sell me a guide book for $18 (original price was $28). I declined. He then started to haggle with me. I kept saying no. Then he started to practically beg me. I kept saying no as I was walking (besides I had been offered the same book for $1 everywhere else). So he finally says $1. I said yes, but only because he had been at it for 10 minutes and I could easily spare $1. So I give him $1, but he then says no I mean $11. Well I said no and tried to get my $1 back. He hold onto the $1 with all his might and he refused to take the book back from me. I then threatened him with dropping the book on the ground if he did not take it. I started to count backwards from 3 and out of desperation he said $5. I pulled out the money from my pocket and showed him that I only have $4. So he agreed and took the money. I walked away from that encounter feeling sad, embarrassed, and thankful. Here I am carrying a $350 camera with $50 shorts, $90 shoes, and $20 shirt on and I won't even buy a $28 book for $5. I would only pay $4. I know I can't save the world and help everyone, but still it is not a great feeling when you encounter such desperation. However, despite the poverty and desperation the people here are truly nice. As I drove around during the day I was greeted with smiles everytime I saw a local (even if they weren't trying to make money off of me). I wonder if they are truly that nice or if they know that a foreigner means money for the country and its people. Either way I hope that more people come here and help out the locals. You just can't help but feel their gratitude for you being here. On the bright side from what I have read the country is finally getting better financially and is starting to stabilize. Hopefully this trend will continue.
Well tomorrow I will take a bus to the border town of Poiphet and then I will walk across into Thailand. From there I will take taxi to the train and then take the train in to Bangkok. I should be in Bangkok, Thailand by tomorrow night.
This guy and his tuk tuk took me around Siem Reap and Angkor for the day. We drove all over the place. In the morning we went on a hunt for an external hard drive for my computer as my old one died last night. I needed to get on right away because that is where I back up all my pictures and videos from this trip. So after going to 4 or 5 places we finally found it and for a reasonable price. From there I bought a couple of local sweet breads for breakfast and off to Angkor we went. Angkor is the area where many famous temples or wats can be found including the well known Angkor Wat.
We spent the day driving from one temple to another. I got to see a lot of the countryside along the way. Here is a typical view of country life in Angkor. You can see a house and a small store or restaurant all accessible right from the road.
A couple of my favorite temples were these two: The temple of faces
and the Bayon Temple (which is being reclaimed by the jungle).
The temples were amazing to see. I had to admit that Angkor Wat, which is the biggest and most famous might have been my least favorite. I liked Bayon Temple the most. I thought it was cool to see nature reclaiming the land and the temple. While Angkor was interesting to see it was not as great as I thought it would be. Maybe I had built it up too much in my head or maybe I don't like ruins as much as I thought. I don't know. It was definitely interesting to see I just thought it was going to be better. I was definitely templed out by the end of the day. The worse part of the day was dealing with all the local vendors and hawkers. There are a lot of them and they are super aggressive (to the point where you can feel their desperation). It was hard to deal with at times when all the wanted to do was sell you a t-shirt, bracelets, water, or anything and for only $1 or less. It was especially hard to say not to the little children and it doesn't get any easier when you reach your 10,000th child hawker. I even had one say to me that she needed the money for school because she can't afford the supplies so she can't go. I am sure it was a line to sell her items, but I am also sure there are many children who can't afford school. Needless to say after dealing with that for a day it was very tiring and I didn't even want to get out of the tuk tuk anymore. If I could have I would have gave everyone $1. $1 seems to be such a big deal for them here and yet it is practically nothing at home. How many of you would wash my car for $1 or cook me some food for $1? Here is another example. I ran into a guy who wanted to sell me a guide book for $18 (original price was $28). I declined. He then started to haggle with me. I kept saying no. Then he started to practically beg me. I kept saying no as I was walking (besides I had been offered the same book for $1 everywhere else). So he finally says $1. I said yes, but only because he had been at it for 10 minutes and I could easily spare $1. So I give him $1, but he then says no I mean $11. Well I said no and tried to get my $1 back. He hold onto the $1 with all his might and he refused to take the book back from me. I then threatened him with dropping the book on the ground if he did not take it. I started to count backwards from 3 and out of desperation he said $5. I pulled out the money from my pocket and showed him that I only have $4. So he agreed and took the money. I walked away from that encounter feeling sad, embarrassed, and thankful. Here I am carrying a $350 camera with $50 shorts, $90 shoes, and $20 shirt on and I won't even buy a $28 book for $5. I would only pay $4. I know I can't save the world and help everyone, but still it is not a great feeling when you encounter such desperation. However, despite the poverty and desperation the people here are truly nice. As I drove around during the day I was greeted with smiles everytime I saw a local (even if they weren't trying to make money off of me). I wonder if they are truly that nice or if they know that a foreigner means money for the country and its people. Either way I hope that more people come here and help out the locals. You just can't help but feel their gratitude for you being here. On the bright side from what I have read the country is finally getting better financially and is starting to stabilize. Hopefully this trend will continue.
Well tomorrow I will take a bus to the border town of Poiphet and then I will walk across into Thailand. From there I will take taxi to the train and then take the train in to Bangkok. I should be in Bangkok, Thailand by tomorrow night.