I flew out of Cambodia and spent three nights in Bangkok before boarding the first leg of my trans-Pacific flight early this morning. If all goes well, I’ll be in San Francisco in about 13 hours. It’ll be good to be almost home.
It’s been one hell of a great trip. Many delightful experiences, and only a handful I would have rather avoided. Five weeks, however, is long enough to be away.
But I suppose I should add a little about my impressions of Cambodia.
Well, in short, it’s a basket case.
Like Vietnam, it’s a very poor country. But unlike Vietnam, it doesn’t seem to have much going for it. At least not anything that’s readily visible to someone zipping through it the way I did. Oh sure, Angkor is probably a very lucrative tourist attraction. But that appears to be about all the Cambodians have going for them. And who knows where all that tourist money actually ends up?
On every trip through downtown Phnom Penh and Siem Reap I was impressed by the big, white SUVs cruising around with signs on their doors indicating that they belonged to some NGO or other. Most of the NGOs seemed to be involved in land mine clearing, but there were medical or agricultural or family-planning or nutrition organizations as well. Taxis were about the only other cars on the road. And almost every road bridge, no matter how small and insignificant it may have appeared, had a sign next to it acknowledging the country (usually Japan, Germany, or France) that donated the funds to construct it. Same with the highways—or what passes for highways—power plants, airport terminals, etc. It’s almost as if the country’s entire infrastructure depends on donations from foreign sources.
Perhaps not surprisingly, considering our sorry history here, I didn’t see a single sign crediting any American help.
The people were friendly enough, but did not exhibit anywhere near the level of openness I experienced in Vietnam. Given the history and the current political situation in the country, that may not be so unexpected. But it was a sharp contrast nevertheless.
Judging by the number of maimed people I saw, the land mine problem is a serious one. There were always some of them begging or playing in small Khmer musical groups outside the temples. But on every trip through the countryside on my way to distant temples or other sites I encountered people with only one or no legs. I can’t say what percentage of the population is affected. But I’ve never in all of my travels encountered anything like it.
Having said all that, I only spent a week in Cambodia. So my impressions may not stand up to much scrutiny.
Besides, sometimes it seems to me that the more I travel, the less I know about the world. Strange encounters far from home tend to knock some of the tenuous notions I carry from under me. It’s one of the things I like about traveling, actually.
And there’s lots to like here in Asia. Every day was a long string of strange encounters.
But I also like other stuff about Asia. I’ve discovered that I really like eating with chopsticks, for instance. Makes it a lot harder to quickly shovel vast quantities of food down my gullet. And of course the food is so great that the temptation to shovel vast quantities is powerful.
I like the way life is lived on the streets here. Maybe it’s because of the heat, so no one wants to spend much time sweating indoors. But there’s a carnival aspect to everyday life here, and it’s a great show to watch.
But I guess the thing I like most is that “it” is just so different here. Things we just assume are “right” are plain “wrong” here. The examples are far too many to list. But running into them every day forces me to stop and consider why I do some of the things I do, or why I’ve never done other things. It can be exhausting, sure, which is maybe why five weeks of it is enough. But still, it’s good.
There are, of course, many not so good things; the poverty, the constant hustle for cash, the mounds of garbage everywhere, the constant stench of that garbage rotting in the tropical heat, the oppressive politics, etc., etc.
But there were no bad days on this trip. Parts of days, sure. But no days when I just should have stayed in bed. And today the best day of the trip is finally upon me.
I’m a happy (and lucky) guy.
A lot luckier than that pig, for instance.