Our First Few Days in Cambodia

Well, we had no idea what to expect when we arrived in Cambodia. On our way from the airport, we would see the contrast between rich and poor that is so evident here. Beautiful, luxurious 5-Star hotels costing $300 to $800 per night alongside rickety huts over the river whose inhabitants would be lucky to make $200 in a year. On our first walks around town we were approached by myriads of young kids trying to sell us postcards, books, bracelets, etc. They are pretty damn persistant too! It is really hard because they are suffering a kind of poverty that I cannot even dream about. The good thing is that they have a sense of humour, and can be very sarcastic at times. Michelle and I have taken to joking around with the kids, because we do not want to be rude and ignore them (and also because we would have hundreds of cards and bracelets if we didn't!). Many great interactions with the kids, but a few definitely have a grudge on life and have made it evident.
Beggars are everywhere too. Most of them are amputees given the fact that Cambodia had, and still has, an immense number of land mines around the country. The mines were set by the horrible Khmer Rouge, the Vietnamese and others, and still plague the countryside. Unlike Laos where the landmines and cluster bombs were designed to kill, here, the unexploded ordnance were designed to maim leaving the victim alive to suffer a horrendous existence. It is so tough seeing these poor people without limbs, but you just cannot help everyone. If you help one, then another one comes over, and so on. We tend to give food to some that we see, as we have no idea where any money would go.

Traffic here is, as usual in Asia, chaos! There is no common sense used on the roads in Cambodia. Always driving against the flow, and pulling out into traffic. They don't even look and expect others to avoid them. Crazy! They also carry absolutely anything on their motorbikes. My favourite is the live pigs strapped upside down to a bamboo plank and mounted across the back seat of the bikes (good, full size pigs). We also saw someone transporting a table upside down and a passenger sitting in it!

I'm sure we will see many bizarre things in this ever evolving country, trying to pull itself out of the hole that was dug by the Khmer Rouge and all the atrocities and fighting that has been all too recent. One good thing though, it has not been taken over by US fast food joints, and there isn't a McDonald's in sight!!! *Stub