-Longdy, my tuk tuk driver through Angkor, is a full time student and a full time driver. The youngest of several children, he's held a job since his early teens. One night, while working in a Siem Reap restaurant, a customer from California offered to pay the $500 tuition bill for his first year of university. It had never been something Longdy had thought possible, but now he's in his third year. He quit the restaurant job because it was taking too much time away from his studies. With the tuk tuk, he can take a day off if he has a test, and when he really needs to cram, he can study in between customers or take a nap before pulling an all-nighter. Longdy now refers to the Californian as his "cousin," and although he pays for his own studies now, he still keeps in contact with his "cousin" through email.
-My moto driver in Battambang grew up in the countryside. At 29 years old, he wasn't alive when the Khmer Rouge was Cambodia's official government. But until he was about seven, the regime still controlled his village. His family lived on almost nothing but rice and sugarcane water. They raised cattle, but all the meat had to be given to the Khmer Rouge, along with a large portion of their rice crop. Now things are much better, he said. His family isn't wealthy by any means, but the $2,000 or so he earns each year is much more than the $600 he estimated most families make. In contrast, a small portion of the populous is extremely wealthy by Cambodian standards. They're the ones who live in large mansions, have internet connections, go on honeymoons and drive Lexus SUVs. At his wedding, he spent $2,000 on the dowry (with the help of his father and brothers) and instead of the wedding cakes reserved for the upper class, he went all out with a huge pile of fruits. Guests drank, danced around the table and plucked fruit from the pile until the last piece was gone, signaling that the party was over.
Although tourists are a big part of his income, he said he feels a mixture of gratefulness for the money, and anger at how quickly Western influences are changing the country. Unmarried couples having sex, fewer and fewer young people staying on the family farm, and more and more of them dressing in western fashion--higher hemlines, lower necklines and shorter sleeves. More jeans and fewer kramas (the checkered scarves women wrap atop their heads and men wrap around their waists). He said people come to Cambodia to experience a culture so much different from their own, but many forget to respect those differences when they come. Their behavior rubs off on young Cambodians and the result, he said, could be that ten years from now, there'll be no cultural difference.
Other thoughts:
-There's a Buddhist festival going on right now to honor the elders and ancestors in families. Every few miles, the roads are lined with huge, colorful tents filled with food and music. It's a treat to hear the traditional music wafting up from the loudspeakers as you walk along.
-Outside nearly every small hut, there are several large urns. Except in the cities, the water here isn't potable, so the people collect rainwater during the wet season and store it in these pots to use during the dry season. They've got the sustainability thing down pat (except for the littering part).
-It's so dry here! I don't think I've stopped sweating since I crossed the border from Vietnam, and I''ve probably spent a total of less than an hour when my feet weren't covered in a film of dust. It's impossible to keep things clean here, but that doesn't mean the Cambodians don't try. They're constantly dusting the ledges, sweeping the floor and spraying the ground outside their homes with water to keep dust from blowing.
-If you want to understand someone's economic status in Cambodia, look no further than their means of transportation. The poorest of the poor travel only on foot. The slightly less poor have bikes, the middle class have varying degrees of motorcycles (from the glorified dirtbike to the shiny red Honda), and cars are reserved for the rich.
-Cambodia's cost of living is cheaper than Vietnam, but I've found that traveling here is more expensive. Food is still cheap, but not as cheap. Accommodations are cheaper, but that doesn' tmean much when the average was already below $10. Transportation, however, gets expensive when the only way around is buying bus tickets all the time, and hiring a moto is a must on the sprawling country roads around here. Plus, most of the temple sights require a fee to get in, then the monks inside ask for a donation. You don't have to pay, but it's hard to avoid it after they approach you and tie a kabbalah bracelet to your arm without asking.
A few photos of the varying degrees of economic status in Cambodia:
Your typical one room shack. This is the norm when you get outside the city.
A rich person's house just outside Battambang.
The great equalizer: rice porridge. No matter what their economic status, Cambodians eat this for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Will you get me a krama?
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