A traveller I met recently described her trip to Laos. She said that it was like Cambodia but without all the people asking you for money. I must admit, it does wear on you here. It’s not just the beggars, though there are plenty of those. It’s the fact that in every transaction you make, someone is trying to rip you off. Let’s take my motorbike for example. I rented one in Phnom Penh at a rate of $6 per day. This was done through my guesthouse, which called a guy from a motorbike rental place. At the time, I could tell that $6 was a little high. After all, $6 was 240 baht and that was almost the same as the Chopper I like to rent in Thailand. But having little inclination to haggle over the price, nor go out and walk around looking for a place, I took it for 2 days. Today, when I returned it to the motorbike rental shop, they told me that if I rented it again I might be able to pay less. This was, of course, if I came alone. “How much per day?” I asked the man. $3 he said coyly.
Now, which one is mine again..?
Whenever you go somewhere, you can guarantee that someone will be running a few steps in front, trying to get a commission on the room, bike, tour, meal. However, commission is a little misleading as it’s a direct ‘foreigner referral surcharge’ straight from your pocket into the referrer. This could be a guy you have never met floating around outside the hotel, or it could be the guy who drove you to your guesthouse. In any case, they make money off you any way they can. When you first arrive, it’s easy to mistake it for friendliness. My guesthouse staff were very friendly to me, but knowing that they were making money surreptitiously through my motorbike rental helped to lose any goodwill I had for them. They would’ve made that money in the tips I was going to give them, but as they didn’t really help me out in any way, no tips for them.
Am I wrong to be worrying about $3 here or there. Let me put this in perspective, though this notion of monetary perspective is almost impossible to see clearly. Cambodian boys and girls who work in bars, cafes or restaurants, commonly receive $50-60 each month. Factory workers might receive a higher pay of $80 or even up to $150 with overtime. Taking this back to an average wage per day, we’re talking between $2 at the lower end and $5 at the high end. So it’s easy to see that for an average Cambodian, a few dollars is quite a big deal. That part of perspective is the easy part.
Mister, photo 1000 riel. I gave them 500 each.
The other side is that there are two currencies and two prices for most things. The local currency, Cambodian riel and U.S. dollars, which are taken everywhere in place of riel at a rate of 4000 riel to 1 dollar. Typically, a tout with something to sell will ask for a dollar the first time. When I was on the bus to Siem Reap today, we made a pit stop and the usual group of local kids descended upon me to sell me pineapple and mangoes. At first they asked for a dollar, then dropped to 1500 riel. What is confusing is understanding just how much this is for a local. In Korea, it was easy. 1000 won was like a dollar. 1000 won bought you a dollar’s worth of goods, be they melons, water or train tickets. At first impression, I’d like to think that Cambodian riel is similar, 1000 riel is like a dollar for them. However this means that their daily salary is still only between 8000 and 20000 riel, something like $8 and $20 for us Westerners back home for an 8 hour work day. Still not enough. I’d like to visit a shop somewhere with standardized prices and see just how much a local might pay, yet everywhere I go is either on the tourist route (thus the prices are inflated) or subject to instant price inflation. It’s almost impossible to tell for sure.
I’m not a scrooge. Far from it. I’ll happily pay more for good service, when someone makes an effort. What I don’t want to pay for is nothing. Bad service, beggars, cheats, don’t deserve a reward. Last night is an example. A couple of kids came up to me. One, probably around 12, was carrying a baby, possibly his younger brother. Another kid was asking me for money, he was around 6 or 7. I said no. He kept asking. Then I noticed he had a water bottle. I asked him how much for the water. In Korea, I pay 50 cents, in Cambodia, 1000 riel is a good price, or 25 cents. The kid asked for a dollar. I told him ok, give me the water. He did and I gave him a dollar. It looked like he had just won the lottery. A few seconds later and he was gone, running up the street yelling to his friends. I’m not changing the world here, but if a kid is selling me something, rather than just asking for money, well that’s pointing a kid in the right direction. I didn’t drink the water, mind you. It was dirty, and while it wasn’t opened, the top of the bottle looked a little worse for wear. God knows how long he had been holding it.
Before this little transaction, as I was sitting in the restaurant I noticed a peculiar statment on the menu. It read: “If you would like to buy your waitress a drink, add $1 to the price of the drink. The dollar goes to the waitress, as staff are paid only $55 per month.” I thought, why don’t you bloody pay them higher yourself! Yet one friendly girl told me (after I’d bought a number of drinks and kept persisting in my questioning) that she had saved up nearly $1200 after 2 years of work. As I listened, I tried to put my $2000 monthly salary in Korea as far from my mind as possible. Here was me just 2 months ago thinking that $2000 really wasn’t that much money.
Siem Reap. Home of Angkor Wat, and adjacent to the huge Tonle Sap lake, and now proud host of yours truly. I travelled up here because to be honest, I was just not enjoying Phnom Penh that much. It was just a city. Granted, I didn’t explore it as much as I could’ve, but all the stories (3 seperate stories in one day) of bag snatching and hold ups got me kinda spooked. I might possibly go back and rent a scooter for a day or two before I head back to Thailand, to visit some of the other landmarks. Then again, saying the word Thailand in my head makes me just want to go back there to the land of smiles. Beyond that, I’m finally turning my mind toward home. In fact, Siem Reap was the farthest part of my planned tour, so now that I’m here I suppose it’s almost time to turn around and head back.
The damned thing is, I really don’t feel like I’m truly travelling. I am seeing a different country, but everything feels so packaged. Granted, I’m nowhere near those Korean tourists who arrive by the busload into their A/C hotel rooms, take a guided tour of everything, eat some Korean food, then fly back to Seoul. Yet, I am only a step away as I am one member of the horde of backpackers, walking our way between guesthouses, sleeping in our fan rooms, eating our western food and seeing all the major landmarks. Another tourist, looking for his internet cafe of a night to blog about this crazy country and it’s dusty one-laned roads. It’s really not enough that people say “wow Cambodia, that’s real travelling”, because once you’re here experiencing it, it’s really not that far removed. Little challenge is required of the tourist who goes where all the other tourists go. For us, the path is paved with millions of footsteps before us, modern conveniences and groovy bars. For locals, the path is paved with dollar bills.
Cafe culture in Siem Reap
As I travelled on the bus, through the countryside on my way here, I longed to just get out and step away from the road. I wanted to go into one of those homes on stilts, see their house, eat their food, play with their kids. The only way I could possibly do this is to hire a motorbike and possibly take a guide with me, and just travel through the countryside. It sounded like a plan. It could be a plan for this trip, or for another trip to come, but if I have learnt anything this time around, it’s that to really travel and see something worthwhile, you have to step outside of your comfort zone.
This particular traffic jam was anything but comfortable
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After giving a comment I brushed the keyboard and it disappeared and I’ve no idea where to ! So I give up.
No.One Son,
I am following your feelings as you travel. Perhaps we think the same way. Travel as a group on a bus looking at the world and it’s peoples through a window soon palls. the bus screen becoming similar to a television screen It may have something to do with being a gregarious species , we feel the need to be with the people experiencing their lives. It may have to do with being a gregarious species, we need to join in and be a part of them. rather like putting a black sheep on the outside of a strange flock it will always be the outsider. My most memorable trips were those staying with the people, rather like your time in Korea teaching or Mum’s time in England working at a school.
We thought you might be running low on funds so put some extra into your account.
Look forward to hugging you again. the years of absence takes it’s toll on us parents.
Love, Dad.