Life in Cambodia

Oh Bangkok!

Compliments of the US Government I got to spend the past week in Bangkok, doing a short consultancy for my old employer. For my troubles, I was put up in the Conrad Hilton, quite possibly one of the nicest hotels I’ve ever stayed in so I dare you to check out its website. Bangkok is a city alive; an actual city, and compared to it I am hesitant to even label Phnom Penh a backwater, as I doubt it is even that. I was on the 17the floor and had a view of the entire downtown. In the room, there was even a “pillow menu” that lists 10 or so pillows of different shape, stuffing, smell, etc. that you can order from the front desk if the provided pillows do not suit you. The bathroom, though, is my favorite. The walls of it are all glass and set up in a way so that you can sit on the toilet and see downtown; though of course that means downtown can see you sitting on a toilet. The water of the shower comes not from the shower head but from a hole in the ceiling and comes down in a flood (and hot as hell) “Rain” setting as they called it. Being the Conrad though, you can use a shower head if you want and can have it dribble out cold if you’d like. There is a really big tub and they even provide a rubber ducky (yours to keep!) that I soaked in for a little while before I got bored of it. They also provided a number of big furry robes that I was content to lounge around in when I was in the room. The Conrad is attached to a fancy mall that just could have easily been transplanted from the states, complete with large Christmas tree and fountains. Among the many stores, it has a Starbucks, a Burger King, Auntie Anne’s Pretzels, and a Sizzler. I know that probably doesn’t mean much to you, but it does to me, since I’ve been eating rice and living in a shack for the past few months. The Thais and the Cambodians are like night and day. Not so different deep down in who they are, as they are similar peoples, but there is development and education here that you do not find in Phnom Penh. I know there are parts of Thailand racked by poverty and people living in thatch huts, but Bangkok is a world unto itself. As I people-watched downtown, it could easily be the US, which is a stark contrast from Phnom Penh. Regardless of where you are, despite how nice it may be, there is no mistaking the fact that you are in Cambodia.

I think you can tell a lot about a country by the size of its middle class. In Cambodia, I can count on one hand how many people would be considered middle class – hell, I don’t even need one hand – Zero! You are either dirt poor or driving Lexus and Land Cruisers. That’s what is hard for me here – all the foreigner NGO workers are living the good life here while right outside the hotel room in Phnom Penh there is a ghetto where people are subsisting on far less than the cost of my morning coffee. I am also the first to admit that I partake of “the life” and it’s a good one indeed. There will always be poverty, I understand that, but here the divide between rich and poor amongst Cambodians is so large and sometimes I doubt whether our presence here helps close it at all. In fact, we give rise to places like I am sitting right now. I like it here, but the only Cambodians I see are the wait staff and the moto driver outside waiting for a rich foreigner to come out. But why would any Cambodian come in here? The ice coffee right around the corner in PP costs 50 cents, here its probably 3 bucks. I have seen nothing that leads me to believe that the playing field is being leveled. Whereas in Thailand (at least Bangkok) there were middle class folks all over the place, left and right. I know it is difficult to compare the two as Thailand hasn’t been through anything like Cambodia has in recent past, but Bangkok was an amazing place and I am hesitant to call Phnom Penh anything put a dirty little town with a few nice enclaves. I really don’t like living in a place driven by a tourist economy. I know that you could say Thailand is tourist driven, but it also seems to have its own things going on. I never got waved at by a moto driver or chased around by a guy in a tuk-tuk. Bangkok even has a downtown, a business district occupied by Thais and not foreigners. Sometimes I think Cambodia is run by NGOs (and doing a poor job of it!), but Thailand! Oh Bangkok, an island of development in a sea of poverty.

Anyway, I digress. The consultancy was good, but admittedly it should have been a little bit longer. I’m not saying that just because I would like more money (I would), but I kinda’ had to stop half way through and pass it on to an actual employee to finish up, where it would have been far easier to give me 3 or 4 more days. Anyway, was a good time and I enjoyed its benefits and it’s another country to tack onto the ole’ resume. I’m counting on the resume to pull me through the graduate school applications as the math section of the GRE…….well….guess we’ll see how that goes in a few weeks.

Oh Wedding Season!

And just before the GRE madness falls upon us, wedding madness has come in full force in Svay Rieng. Matt and I are being dragged into the thick of the loud-speaker-stereo-system-louder-than-your-neighbor’s (and proud of it!) season from early Dec. through May…this is prime time for weddings, which are rare and I think, often frowned upon from June-October when everyone is (literally) knee deep in water from the rains and planting/harvesting rice. Matt declined an offer to join me in the wedding of a sister of the guard at the office (the whole office trekked over together, very important…) and today, the sister of one of my staff is getting hitched…so we’ll join together in this venture, but of course Matt asked this morning “and how long will we need to stay…?” Of course through the first rice wine toasts (this is a real sight…I wish I could explain it…old small water bottles filled with the stuff, boxes and boxes bought for the occasion, passed out to each table—2-3-4 bottles at a time and then the host comes around toasting and you can’t say no, so down 1, down 2, 3,…8,…11 and then well, you’re done for, making wildly silly gestures on the dirt dance floor, pretending like you know what you’re doing (actually just trying to keep up with and copy what the others are doing in front of you) and everyone loving it and asking the ‘barang’ (foreigner) to stay longer. All this means is that I’ve got to keep Matt away from the rice wine and we’ll be fine. As you may have remembered from my blog last year on the subject of weddings, the bride is the worst off, with like 20 outfits to change into and lots of fake hair and ornaments on her head. It’s hot for the rest of us too, but I’ve gotten smart and now wear the fancy cotton outfits instead of the heavy silk or polyester. Poor Matt has a really nice traditional shirt but it’s of the polyester variety. Anyway, we’re off to get ready for the festivities as we deal with the onslaught of weddings every weekend!

posted by Life in Cambodia @ 8:40 PM