The question wether you should or not visit a country like Cambodia as a tourist I can answer with a clear YES. But of course there is much more then old stones.
But…
Forget the glossy Instagram photos, or the tour providers who take you from A to B in an air-conditioned bus, then take a few photos and leave quickly to the next supposed highlight. Forget the hotels with pools and cocktail bars and supposedly real authentic Khmer food.
Cambodia is different. The reality of daily life is different.
Again and again I read about the travelers who fall in love with Cambodia and the people. This did not happen to me. I remember the first few weeks in 2017. When we took our folding bikes by train from Bangkok to the border to Poipet. Four months of Cambodia was to be ahead of us. I didn’t know yet about the concussion I was going to get, nor the fall from a swing that left me lying on a small chugging boat, full of fear, back to the mainland in 4h, transported there by a Louis de Funes ambulance to a hospital and having to wait 2 days for enough electricity for an x-ray. Full of pain and worry if it was something worse with my back that I had fallen on.
Everything turned out fine, but Cambodia kept being a challenge.
The sun was burning on my skin. Sunscreen is not nearly enough. The markets stink of rumen and lots of dead animals. The dust on the bad roads is constantly swirling through the air and in our faces. And the attempt to learn the language ends in complete disillusionment. Ordering a dish without any kind of dead animal seems hopeless and so we learn to at least pick the meat out of the food as best we can. The dogs and cats are happy about the leftovers. And last but not least, lodgings on the way are often rather unaccustomable.
Why please do we do this to ourselves?
And then all the corruption, the scams, the beggars, the children working instead of going to school, the child abuse, the alcoholism, and so on.
And if you want to go for a walk in the streets in the cities, there are no sidewalks, or if there are, they are packed with motorcycles or food carts. There are no cozy little coffee shops, and even if you do find one, it’s not much cheaper than at home.
So why on earth Cambodia?
Sure, I can turn a blind eye to it all, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. And still, I recommend it to you, if you have at least a little bit of travel experience and bring a certain coolness with you. Then you need patience, you have to observe, if possible not judge. A lot has changed since our last visit. The garbage on the streets has become less, the garbage separation more.
It takes time and Covid has unfortunately contributed again to the regression. Many families who were still above the poverty line have now slipped back below it. But the Cambodians are steadfast. They trust in their work performance. Many young people who were still children during our first visit are now at the age to start their own business.
For me, traveling to this country also means trusting them, believing in them, treating them with respect. And it still needs some time after all the atrocities. If you only have positive experiences, it doesn’t mean the negative things aren’t there, but the other way around is also true. How you experience this country and what you allow to get in your mind depends on you. On each and every one of you.
Take the chance!
What makes Cambodia special?
During the first four months of traveling through this country, I was looking for what I might like. What makes this country special in a positive way? And I found it. For days I walked through completely crowded, dirty and smelly markets and then I saw them: the people. They smiled at me? Wondered surely what I do there every day. I sat down next to them. Ate my rice cake and continued walking. And suddenly all I saw were their beaming curious faces.
People always welcome you!
This is why I come to Cambodia and this is why I like the country. It is not about the hospitality so many travelers talk about, as you can find in many muslime countries, which I don’t feel is the real hospitality (I wrote about it before), here it is a very warmhearted truly welcoming me, in one or the other way.
No matter where we go (outside of the touristy places), we are warmly welcomed. We are greeted, people are curious, they wave. When we stop to have a coffee, they try their best with all their possibilities. They are disappointed when we are disappointed. They laugh when we laugh. And they are relieved when everything seems to be fine for us. And so we have made friends in this country and always like to come back and stay, a few weeks. We immerse ourselves again.
So what does this have to do with the ancient, the old stones of Angkor?
Well, most people come to Cambodia to visit Angkor Wat. What a pity. This country is so much more. Angkor Wat. Unesco World Heritage Site. In 2023 10,000 families were displaced from Angkor which means the end of their existence and their home. They have to leave the 400sqm area. They get a compensation of 250 EUR and a tin hut in a hardly developed area, about 30km away. Without schools. Cambodia has about 17 million inhabitants of which about 30% live below the poverty line. Poverty means the lack of satisfaction of basic needs (especially food, water, clothing, housing, health). And there was Klaus question about poverty in Cambodia. Yes, there are still unspeakably many of these poor people and that is why support is needed.
And that’s why you should come to Cambodia and not only visit the old stones of Angkor Wat.
Leave your money at the small food stalls, in the small stores, with the TukTuk drivers (good ones can be found very easily today), visit the small handicraft businesses. Then these families can also give their children an education and maybe one day, we will have a sidewalk to use in Cambodia 🙂
So forget about the old stones. There is so much more.
And if you like to read more about this wonderful country and the old stones, there is a magazine about all this I wrote after my first visits in this country (only available in German).
Think different, be creative 🙂