I'M A BLOG, BUT THATS OK: I ♥ CAMBODIA

Angkor Wat

‘It is not the temples, it is the people!’
as the shirtless old cowboy I encountered in Phnom Penh proclaimed. And he ought too know that cowboy, visiting Cambodia for the first time already in 1990.

I’d say it is both though. I found Cambodia fascinating at so many levels. Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and the other temples in Siem Reap did in deed blow my mind. But as exuberant I found the temples, as much did I value chatting with my moto driver during our lunch break. And riding the bamboo train, visiting Pagoda’s, Temples and the Killing Cave in Battambang would not have made it one of the best days of my life if it hadn’t been for the company of my moto driver Ob Pengan. He took me through all the small villages surrounding Battambang, and even, in the evening, to a Cambodian discotheque. It is the people that make the temples dynamic, alive and vivid.

In the 2010 Lonely Planet Cambodia edition you can read that ‘(Siem Reap) is one of the most popular destinations on the planet right now’. This you will not fail too notice, along with the enthusiasm of the Khmer people. Everyone greet the growing tourism, that according too people I’ve been talking to, had it’s boom three years ago and is since then increasing every year. There is however, danger around the corner. Foreign investors starting too see the great potential in Cambodia, and with a poor government and a country still recovering from the Khmer Rouge Regime, short term profits are hard to turn down. During my visit to Cambodia, the lake was sold to Japanese investors; with the result of people being forced to leave their homes. This being just one example of many similar “land takings”.

Cambodia is in a great position, but it has to play their cards right, learning from their neighbors mistakes. But what ought Cambodia to do, it can’t be everything for everybody?

The majority of travelers I’ve met, and discussion I’ve read on CS, are all mentioning this “too touristy”, and that they want to experience the “real”, the “authentic” country. I understand this, however I can’t help pondering what is authentic? And what right do travelers have to demand that a place stays the same (“real” “authentic”), as more and more tourists are going there, being a huge source of profit and an opening for a better life for the people living there? Of course they shift focus to tourism as their main income. And then, the travelers regard the place “too touristy”, ( and not "authentic" enough ).

A lot of Cambodians that I have spoken too, ask me to tell everyone that I know to come to their country, to come visit Cambodia. So I would like to do that, I would like to encourage everyone to visit Cambodia, and while in Cambodia, spend money, but spend them wise and make sure they end up in the right pockets.