Reasons why Cambodia is the most frustrating country I’ve visited

This post will be followed by one on reasons why I loved Cambodia. It is important to see both sides, because Cambodia is a very complex place.

 

1. Corruption: Cambodia is one of the worlds most corrupt countries. In a study done by Transparency International, Cambodia was given a rating of 2, 10 meaning not corrupt, zero meaning totally corrupt. There were only 13 countries that received worse scores. You can see that corruption around every corner. The government funnels in aid money that never reaches the public. For the expats living in Cambodia, it is almost a laughing matter. It seems so hopeless that all you can do is laugh it off. After just two weeks, I started to feel like those expats. At first, you are outraged. The government is selling off anything they can to Korean or Japanese companies, privatizing everything in order to make some more money. You must bribe the police officers on an almost daily basis. Because of this corruption, most of the population is incredibly poor, while the rich get even richer. Eventually, you end up just laughing it off and saying, “Eh, that’s just the Cambodian way.”

2. Scams/Getting Ripped off: People are always trying to make money any way that they can, and a lot of them resort to scamming tourists to get it. In places like Siem Reap and Sihanoukville, Westerners are viewed more as walking ATMs. At the borders people will try to help you get your Cambodian visa, often saying it costs $40, and unsuspecting tourists fall for it, while the “helpers” pocket an extra $20 bucks (purchasing a visa at the border or at the airport should only cost $20, no matter what). Buses take you to guesthouses of their friends instead of the bus stop like they are supposed to because they receive large cuts from the guesthouse. Guesthouses take a huge commission when selling you bus tickets and tours. There are a lot of scams floating around about people getting conned into giving money to monks or NGO’s that aren’t actually legitimate. It’s easy to fall for them, as people have gotten really good at selling sob stories. Avoiding these things is relatively easy to do, but it requires constant attention and prior knowledge of what things should cost. Unfortunately, it makes several travelers incredibly jaded, to the point where they will say that they don’t trust anyone. That’s a sad way to look at it, I prefer to say that you should just always be cautious and on your guard.

3.Children: Children are recruited early to start selling (although begging is a more accurate term) to the tourists. In Angkor, children as young as four years old approach you, trying to impress you with their English and knowledge about other countries. “Lady, where are you frooom?” they whine. Then they tell you the capital, population, president, etc. Tourists like to play this game and we routinely make up countries or say obscure ones. My country of choice is Uruguay. A fellow traveler would always respond, “The Congo. It’s in Africa” as if it was a totally obvious statement. When you don’t buy something from the kids, they start whining about how they need the money for school. They know that this tugs on Westerners heart strings. The question everyone forgets to ask is why are they standing outside the temples selling guidebooks and bracelets and not in school. The money those kids make during the day doesn’t go to them, and it doesn’t help get them educated in any other way but how to sell. The education system is terribly screwed up in Cambodia anyway, it goes back to the whole point of corruption. Some fellow travelers I met were told by a Swiss expat that teachers sell grades, or will refuse to teach unless the children give them more money. Less than half the population has earned more than a high school education. Important: I don’t “hate” the Cambodian children for this, nor do all the children of Cambodia sell things on the street. They do what their parents tell them to do, and are victims as well. It’s hard, however, to remember that when they are following you down the road, tugging at your clothes and whining.

4. Backpackers/Tourists: I won’t lump all backpackers into a negative group, because I am one, but there are plenty of tourists that come to Cambodia without understanding the situation of the country. They come for the 50 cent drafts I talked about. It is impossible, of course, to think you can understand the political and cultural climate of a country in two weeks, but I think it is important to be an educated tourist. Knowing that the way you spend your money affects the population in direct ways is essential. Many young guys come to Cambodia and Thailand and are excited to see how much attention they get from women. Of course, this is just a less blatant form of prostitution, and it keeps the Cambodian girls from getting educated and empowered (although that is a whole other problem in Cambodia). Likewise, continuing to give money to begging children as talked about in #3 keeps them on the streets and out of school. If tourists learn to spend their money wisely, then the systems of corruption and abuse wouldn’t be able to thrive like they currently do. It’s hard to say if that could help fix Cambodia’s woes since I don’t have a clear enough understanding of the economic issues at hand, but most people seem to agree that it would be a good start.

5. Humidity: This isn’t Cambodia’s fault, but I really hate humidity! So does my hair. Just a personal gripe. I’m tired of constantly feeling sticky. As a budget traveler, I have been staying in cheaper guesthouses without hot water and without air conditioning, so I haven’t felt properly cool in two weeks. A little rough when you‘re not used to it.