Cambodia, The Wild Frontier

Anything goes in Cambodia. All vices and fantasies can be fulfilled here, for the right price. Wanna be Rambo for a day and play with military weapons? No problem. Want a prostitute or two for a night, week or month? Easily can be arranged. Child prostitution seems to be the only social illness that is visibly not tolerated and heavily campaigned against. Sadly, Cambodia is a very popular country for paedophiles and almost daily there are newspaper articles of foreigners being caught and prosecuted for having sex with minors.
Despite its problems and against the backdrop of the residual effects of the atrocities from the Pol Pot regime, there is an atmosphere of optimism and opportunity. The huge presence of international and grassroots NGOs have undoubtedly improved the lives of Cambodians. The spirit of entrepreneurism is felt everywhere, from the ever-available tuk-tuk drivers aggressively vying for your business to brave expatriates leaving their homelands to establish small businesses, like the French baker in Sihanoukville who owns a bistrot and makes the most delicious baguettes, and the Dutch woman in Kampot who used to own a guesthouse and now works on a river cruise. Khmers who have luckily escaped the war are returning back to help rebuild the country. Foreign entities from the public and private sectors are pouring money into infrastructure projects and investing heavily to modernize Cambodia; most noticeably, South Korea.
Despite all that the Khmers have been through, they smile very easily and live life fully as if there’s no tomorrow (well, not so long ago, there was no tomorrow).

Phnom Penh
The contrast between devastation and joy, poverty and wealth, disgust and admiration, chaos and serenity, dependency and entrepreneurialism, the mundane and absolute absurdity is more pronounced in Phnom Penh than any other city I’ve visited so far in this trip. The presence of people disfigured from landmines or medical conditions, child beggars and older foreign men with young prostitutes is sobering and downright depressing. On the other hand, there is a definite feeling of relief and joy in the air as people are finally experiencing peace and economic growth, as heard by frequent bursts of laughter and excited voices. Luxury cars are parked on sidewalks lined with garbage, beggars and booksellers approach you competing for your money and the lawless, panic-inducing traffic is juxtaposed with the serene Tonle Sap River.
The absurdity that is Phnom Penh was felt most strongly by me when my travel mates and I visited the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek and the Tuol Sleng Museum. Both were solemn reminders of the hell and inhumane suffering that the Khmer Rouge caused to the entire country. The massive tower of human bones at the killing fields and the sheer amount of photographs of people tortured and killed at the museum were profoundly depressing. After visiting both places, we climbed back on our tuk-tuk, and our driver asked, “OK, now you want to go to shooting range?”. Why would I want to shoot M-60s and AK-47s right after visiting places that exhibits the darkest side of the human spirit?

Kampot
Kampot is a small riverside town in southern Cambodia with a French architectural legacy, and a pleasant respite from chaotic Phnom Penh. For a small town, it seems like a high percentage of NGO workers live/work there. Kampot is known for its pepper, and before the war, no self-respecting French restaurant in Paris would be without Kampot pepper. Kampot is also a good base to visit Bokor National Park and the Bokor hill station, an assortment of old, abandoned buildings built by the French in the 1920s. I did a day-long trek in the jungle to the hill station, which was rugged and beautiful (and much needed exercise).

Sihanoukville
For a Cambodian beach holiday, Sihanoukville is the place to go. I stayed at Serendipity Beach, where I met up with Katrina, a fellow backpacker who I first met in Bali. We compared our itineraries for the remainder of our trips and they were almost identical, so we decided to travel together, which is excellent! Serendipity Beach itself is nice, not fabulous. The beach is lined with shacks serving food and drinks, the water can get pretty rough and the fine sand has a beige hue. This popular beach attracts a constant flow of beggars and people trying to sell you fruits, bracelets, snacks, massages, manicures and pedicures. To really get away from it all, you can hop on a boat and go to an island off of Sihanoukville where the beaches are so much nicer and you can practically have the whole island to yourself. There are a few dive operators in Sihanoukville, but the really good dive spots are six hours away from the mainland. There’s a big backpacker community and the core group of people I hung out with grew bigger and bigger as the days went by.

I’ll be spending the next few weeks in a small town near Siem Reap volunteering at a school and teaching children English.

Memorial Stupa at the Killing Fields

Tuol Sleng Museum

Tonle Sap River, Phnom Penh

Serendipity Beach, Sihanoukville

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Tags: Cambodia, Kampot, Phnom Penh, Sihanoukville