I'm just a bit confused and flabbergasted every time I leave one country and enter another by bike. You'd think that geopolitical borders, many of which around here were drawn on maps by former colonial powers, would mean little in terms of dividing cultures, languages and economies into neatly separated regional compartments. Yet again, though, crossing over from Laos to Cambodia, although the landscape remained much the same, most of the things I'd come to associate with Laos vanished, and new (to me) foods, architectural elements, organizations of space, language, facial features, attitudes, etc., appeared.
Suddenly, sticky rice is gone, beer is cheap, people are poorer, yet tourist prices are higher, markets are huge and filled to the brim, streets are dirtier, and bargaining is required. Cambodia's per capita GDP is only 10% less than that of Laos ($1800 vs. $2000), yet the average person seems much poorer here than the average Laotian. I also get a sense of much greater income inequality, with street kids huffing glue in Phnom Penh while the richest Cambodians careening around the city in their Land Rovers with little regard for the destitution of their brothers. Maybe it's just better hidden, but although many Laotians lived pretty basic lives, sometimes without electricity, or running water, it always seemed like they were all pretty much in the same boat, and at least had enough to eat, a clean environment, and good community to back them up.
Cambodia, on the other hand, just recently suffered through the Khmer Rouge (ruled the country until 1979, and remained a powerful resistance group until the mid-90's!), which executed or starved to death one-quarter to one-half of its population (statistics vary), and is still recovering, both economically and culturally. So what you've got basically is a really poor country where certain economic sectors are booming (namely textiles and tourism), creating huge economic inequality, and from the perspective of a traveler, a weird tourist scene, whereby all these little pockets of overpriced restaurants and hotels exist purely for the benefit of international tourists, and to the exclusion of locals, who are priced out of the market. Consequently, while in Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos, I often found myself dining, sleeping, and sightseeing at the same establishments as locals, in Cambodia, I get the feeling that all of the infrastructure I use has been created just for me. And while all the locals I've met have been good to me, especially considering the hardships of their recent past, and I know my tourist dollars are benefiting them, I feel kind of uncomfortable, like I've been at Disneyland too long, and not much that I've been experiencing here has been really "real," whatever that means.
Well so far, this post has been all work and no play, so here are some photos, which embarrasingly enough don't have much to do with the prose written above.
Look at Laos.
Now look at Cambodia.
This gentleman was so excited about making this fried noodle dish, one of the first foods I tried in Cambodia. He put a lot of lovin' into it, and it was delish, especially at $0.75.
This is one thing that I think we need to pick upon more in 'Murica. No, not welding on the street using a motorcycle helmet as a shield, but cheap, small scale solar panels for household use. The technology is there; c'mon people, especially all you people in the Southwest, cut down on your friggin' energy usage, buy some cheap solar panels, and stop burning coal/uranium. If Cambodians can afford it, so can you.
It's hot, jungly, mother nature is active. Which means ants EVERYWHERE. You can't leave food out for more than 5 minutes or it gets devoured.
Just another beautiful sunset over the Mekong River, complete with a river bank full of trash.
It's so hot during the day now, that I can't be bothered to eat lunch most of the time. I just drink tons of water and three or four glasses of fresh sugarcane juice from one of these ladies! $0.25 a pop, all natural sugar, beats a coke any day. Although I'm sure diabetes and tooth decay are still right around the corner.
If I ever get tired of the bicycle, I'm going to switch to one of these. My dream motorcycle.
Most roads in Cambodia outside of city centers are not paved, or at least only partially so. This is a pretty typical thoroughfare. It's interesting that each neighborhood along the highway has a gated entrance such as the one above. Basically a little Khmer-style structure, a mini-Angkor Wat, denoting the beginning of a little township. Nice.
I should've stayed in Phnom Penh, the capital, a bit longer, but since I'd already been there a long time ago, and wanted to keep heading south towards the coast, I opted for a short, 36 hour stay, just enough time to hit up the Thai Embassy and apply for a visa there (Thailand is next!). Luckily for me, I happened upon Katie on warmshowers.org, a great resource for cycle tourists.
A cyclist herself, Katie let me camp on her roof for two nights....
....and took time out from her busy days to hang out with me to boot! Thanks Katie, and good luck on your own upcoming bicycle adventure. Let's meet again. (No we are not almost holding hands in this photo.)
*You'll notice that the other shakies, Mike and Minseong, are absent from these photos. We split up after crossing over into Cambodia from Laos. M&M took off to the east to go check out an extinct volcano's caldera lake, while I've been booking it south, doing more than 100km per day, to hit up an organic farm, and then hang out with yet another good friend named Mike, who used to be my neighbor in Korea, and is currently on vacation in SE Asia. But never fear, the shakies will all reunite in Bangkok or thereabouts, and thenceforth quadruple shaky adventures are sure to resume.
Suddenly, sticky rice is gone, beer is cheap, people are poorer, yet tourist prices are higher, markets are huge and filled to the brim, streets are dirtier, and bargaining is required. Cambodia's per capita GDP is only 10% less than that of Laos ($1800 vs. $2000), yet the average person seems much poorer here than the average Laotian. I also get a sense of much greater income inequality, with street kids huffing glue in Phnom Penh while the richest Cambodians careening around the city in their Land Rovers with little regard for the destitution of their brothers. Maybe it's just better hidden, but although many Laotians lived pretty basic lives, sometimes without electricity, or running water, it always seemed like they were all pretty much in the same boat, and at least had enough to eat, a clean environment, and good community to back them up.
Cambodia, on the other hand, just recently suffered through the Khmer Rouge (ruled the country until 1979, and remained a powerful resistance group until the mid-90's!), which executed or starved to death one-quarter to one-half of its population (statistics vary), and is still recovering, both economically and culturally. So what you've got basically is a really poor country where certain economic sectors are booming (namely textiles and tourism), creating huge economic inequality, and from the perspective of a traveler, a weird tourist scene, whereby all these little pockets of overpriced restaurants and hotels exist purely for the benefit of international tourists, and to the exclusion of locals, who are priced out of the market. Consequently, while in Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos, I often found myself dining, sleeping, and sightseeing at the same establishments as locals, in Cambodia, I get the feeling that all of the infrastructure I use has been created just for me. And while all the locals I've met have been good to me, especially considering the hardships of their recent past, and I know my tourist dollars are benefiting them, I feel kind of uncomfortable, like I've been at Disneyland too long, and not much that I've been experiencing here has been really "real," whatever that means.
Well so far, this post has been all work and no play, so here are some photos, which embarrasingly enough don't have much to do with the prose written above.
Look at Laos.
Now look at Cambodia.
This gentleman was so excited about making this fried noodle dish, one of the first foods I tried in Cambodia. He put a lot of lovin' into it, and it was delish, especially at $0.75.
This is one thing that I think we need to pick upon more in 'Murica. No, not welding on the street using a motorcycle helmet as a shield, but cheap, small scale solar panels for household use. The technology is there; c'mon people, especially all you people in the Southwest, cut down on your friggin' energy usage, buy some cheap solar panels, and stop burning coal/uranium. If Cambodians can afford it, so can you.
It's hot, jungly, mother nature is active. Which means ants EVERYWHERE. You can't leave food out for more than 5 minutes or it gets devoured.
Just another beautiful sunset over the Mekong River, complete with a river bank full of trash.
It's so hot during the day now, that I can't be bothered to eat lunch most of the time. I just drink tons of water and three or four glasses of fresh sugarcane juice from one of these ladies! $0.25 a pop, all natural sugar, beats a coke any day. Although I'm sure diabetes and tooth decay are still right around the corner.
If I ever get tired of the bicycle, I'm going to switch to one of these. My dream motorcycle.
Most roads in Cambodia outside of city centers are not paved, or at least only partially so. This is a pretty typical thoroughfare. It's interesting that each neighborhood along the highway has a gated entrance such as the one above. Basically a little Khmer-style structure, a mini-Angkor Wat, denoting the beginning of a little township. Nice.
I should've stayed in Phnom Penh, the capital, a bit longer, but since I'd already been there a long time ago, and wanted to keep heading south towards the coast, I opted for a short, 36 hour stay, just enough time to hit up the Thai Embassy and apply for a visa there (Thailand is next!). Luckily for me, I happened upon Katie on warmshowers.org, a great resource for cycle tourists.
A cyclist herself, Katie let me camp on her roof for two nights....
....and took time out from her busy days to hang out with me to boot! Thanks Katie, and good luck on your own upcoming bicycle adventure. Let's meet again. (No we are not almost holding hands in this photo.)
*You'll notice that the other shakies, Mike and Minseong, are absent from these photos. We split up after crossing over into Cambodia from Laos. M&M took off to the east to go check out an extinct volcano's caldera lake, while I've been booking it south, doing more than 100km per day, to hit up an organic farm, and then hang out with yet another good friend named Mike, who used to be my neighbor in Korea, and is currently on vacation in SE Asia. But never fear, the shakies will all reunite in Bangkok or thereabouts, and thenceforth quadruple shaky adventures are sure to resume.
