Where Were We?

Sihanoukville, Cambodia (versus, "Where are we," which would be in New Jersey, US.). On our way, thankfully, to Phnom Penh.

While our time in Sihanoukville was reasonably well spent, it was not the place I would head to first upon a return trip to Cambodia. The sleaze factor was just too high for my liking. Between the badly aged Euro-trash hanging with the gorgeous young Cambodia woman and the constant reminders in billboard advertising and ads in the tourist literature of jail awaiting anyone who was caught buying or selling children, there was a fair amount that made me cringe. 

Not that one should ignore the child s*x trade, which is of course why I mention it. But it's an incredibly difficult problem to wrestle with. Assuming one has a soul, being a "wealthy" (relatively) tourist in a poor country comes with guilt. How can you lie on a gorgeous beach, sipping high priced adult-type beverages, soaking in the sun and scolding your children for shouting at each other when just around the corner lurks, well, things I have trouble even comprehending?

But what to do? Not visit Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, or Laos because there is an evil undercurrent? Tourism in poor areas always makes me inwardly cringe, so should I limit my travel to areas where there is no poverty? Or travel to poverty stricken areas and inject tourist dollars to the economy? I surely don't have any answers, but I can say that as much as I enjoyed visiting Cambodia, the reality of life for a child born and raised there was always starkly apparent.

That said, we were quite happy to hop on a bus to Phnom Penh early on Friday morning. The bus ride was uneventful, as we drove in a typical Cambodian mad cap manner through the countryside, dodging bicyclists, motorcyclists, and the occasional water buffaloes.

The countryside
 
Random drive-by shot
 

Jeff booked us in a gorgeous little boutique hotel in the Diplomatic area of the city. While I didn't take any photos of the charming, European style hotel itself, Jeff snapped some shots of the electrical work going on outside, a stark reminder that we were not in Kansas.

Yikes.
 

Phnom Penh is, of course, the capital of Cambodia. We did not spend much time there, so I'll not drone on at length about things that I know not of. I will say that in hind sight I would have like to have another day or two to explore the city. Should we ever return to Cambodia, I'll be sure to schedule time there. I will also mention that Jeff was quite puzzled by my inability to say the name of the city properly (I kept trying to turn the "Ph" into a "F" sound), until he realized that I only knew the name of the city from reading it, while as his memory of it was audio, from 1970s television and radio news.  

Which brings us to the real reason we abandoned the beach to head for the city. Jeff wanted to visit the Killing Fields. Tomorrow, I'll post Jeff's guest blog on the topic. I will say as a word of warning that if the brief paragraph above on the child s*x trade depressed you, you might find tomorrow's blog an even bigger downer.

Comments

[Debbie Hanson]

Are the "electrical" people actual electricians, or just homeowners?