Cambodia Condensed

Alright so I got a little behind on the blogging simply because internet is hard to come by here. Our three days in Siem Reap were pretty entertaining to say the least. We flew from the Bangkok International Airport to the Cambodian airport in Siem Reap. We took a taxi from the airport to our hotel and on the way our driver offered to be our driver for the whole time we were in Siem Reap. Since the price was really reasonable and the guy was really sweet, we agreed knowing that we would be able to see much more.
I think that our drive into the city of Siem Reap was when the culture shock really started to set in. The streets of the city were mostly dirt roads with the occasional paved ones. The stores and market stalls along side the road were very dilapidated and the people that were working in them would occasionally stare at us as we drove by. Even the scooters that people were riding were really dusty and dirty and pretty run down, the amazing thing was that they managed to cram as many as 4 people onto one scooter. We saw whole families riding a motor bike with babies and children, none of whom were wearing helmets. Similar to Thailand, the lines on the roads are simply taken as suggestions on which side of the road to drive on. It was pretty intimidating to even ride in a car on these roads, I can't imagine what a motor bike would be like.
The poverty and lack of sanitation was visible right from the get-go. My mom and I didn't do much research on what Cambodia would be like when we got there, we were just advised by one of my cousins to go there. Since we didn't know much,the shock of being thrown into a city that housed 5 star hotels and extremely impoverished people all in the same area was pretty intense.
Right off the bat our friendly driver whose name was Ｂoonray, took us to the first few stops in the Angkor Complex. This complex had so many temples that we had to visit them over a fast-paced 3 days. The first one that we went to was in the middle of a dense forest that was overly infested with Cicadas. Cicadas (as we learned from our trusty driver) are the Cambodian version of crickets. We never really did see any but we could hear them loud and clear. The noise that resonated from the forest was like a high pitch screeching, very different than the crickets in the US. When we stepped onto our first ancient temple ruins, we were shocked by the amount of destruction. Tourists are allowed and encouraged to walk all over the ruins and go exploring. We learned that the government doesn't really care about the condition of the ruins, they simply are interested in making a profit off of the visitors (40 dollars per person for 3 days), the sad thing is that the Cambodian don't ever see this money. When we looked around at the few villagers that were allowed to stay living on the temple complex, it was very clear that they are barely surviving. The temples also are home to many bats who leave a lovely essence of guano. As you could imagine, the mixed smell of the humid forest air, guano, and incense burning at random areas around the inside of the temples, was oh-so enchanting. My mom and I laughed because it felt like we were in an Indiana Jones movie! The feeling that we got at many of the temple around the complex was pretty mysterious, there was a lot of blood shed that happened in and around the temples. One of the reoccuring things we saw was buddha statues with their heads cut off. When a military ruler, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge (the communist party that attempted to take over Cambodia) came into this area, they killed countless numbers of people and demolished many of the temples and any symbols of Buddha. It was pretty horrific to see decapitated statues.
One of the hardest parts of going around to all these temples is that the villagers that live in the complex (and even outside in the city) have resorted to begging tourists to buy all sorts of merchandise that is obviously mass produced. The children and young teenagers would swarm the car when ever we got out and beg us to buy tour books, bracelets, scarves, handbags, and even food, for dollar bills. It was so sad to see the children living like that, I mean they were obviously starving because we could see their ribcages protruding near the bottom of their necks. Even the locals that would pose as tour guides for any cash. One time a random local man started talking to us in a temple and telling us the history. At the end of his tour he held his hand open and when we gave him a couple dollars he kept asking for more and more. We finally had to just walk away once we realized that he was simply conning us. This sort of thing was the norm in Cambodia as we would find out throughout our 3 days.

The food in Siem Reap was pretty underwhelming. We had difficulties finding clean and sanitary places to eat, the only place that we found was safe to eat was the restaurant at the top of our hotel and a European pastry shop. Even though were were there for New Years Eve, we decided not to go out to their main Pub Street because we felt too vulnerable. The next day we found out that there was a huge fire in a night club in Bangkok that was caused by sparklers that people were holding inside the club. 61 people died and countless were burned and injured out of the 1000 that were inside. My mom and I were pretty shaken up about that since we had just left Bangkok a couple days prior.

It's hard to describe my emotions and opinions of Cambodia. The people are so trapped in their own country by poverty and their government that it's almost like walking around on the inside of zoo cages. Most of the people that worked in hotels and restaurants were unbelievably hospitable and friendly, but the fact remained that the majority of the population is devastatingly poor and obviously miserable. It was really difficult for me emotionally because I have never been exposed to living conditions like I saw in Siem Reap. The country needs help, but it is clear that any money given to the government will not be properly used. Our side trip to Cambodia turned out to be one of the most impactful events of my life, it really made me thankful for all the luxuries I have and the freedom I was born with.