'Life is a game, so fight for survival'---I saw a young Cambodian girl wearing a shirt with this slogan. Ironic words, considering the history of her country & its people...
Impressions of Cambodia & people:
--Cambodia is known to be incredibly corrupt--everyone wants to scam you in some way, shape or form, you have to be careful and stand your ground. To be fair, the average Cambodian is constantly getting screwed in daily life as the corrupt politics continues to make the rich richer and keeps screwing the poor--whether its in politics, ownership, or education. So you can't really blame them for wanting to get an extra few dollars out of you--after all, as Tom so aptly puts it, you are the gold fish in their world. I usually wasn't angry with people's tactics, but, understandably, sometimes it can get to you. Cambodia was one of those examples where we saw a fair share of scamming, mainly because we were only on the tourist routes. For once, this seemed to anger Tom more than it angered me. I found myself quite ok with it & I really don't know why? Maybe I felt bad because Cambodia has just had such a hard history & I can't blame people for trying to make things better for themselves by using 'rich' tourists. Tom wasn't so accepting of that concept & the lying would really bother him. Either way, we've seen our fair share of scamming/lying/cheating/overcharging/etc. on this trip, but maybe its just getting to him more now? To be fair we have also seen our fair share of kindness & warmth during our travels, so there really has been a full spectrum of behaviors. For reasons we don't quite understand, I was a softie with the Cambodians, while Tom was full of skepticism & negativity about them- go figure?!
It's a place I would come back to though---to see the ruins of Angkor again, & to see how the place changes over time, with such a brutal history behind it...
