The other side to Cambodia

Staying around Siem Reap - the nearest city to Angkor and it's temples is a sobering process. There's a lot of wealth around due to the tourists and the hotel chains but there is also poverty and despair.

When we first visited Angkor Wat we passed a children's hospital with hundreds of families waiting outside to be seen. It's quite routine to see beggars with no arms or legs as they've been blown up by landmines (children and adults). On our last day in Siem Reap we visited the floating village and it made us both feel very uncomfortable as we soon discovered that was the sole purpose of the visit. To intrude and observe on their way of life. It felt like a human safari park. The top pic shows how the people live - in floating homes. The way of life is different from anything we know and that's OK, the fact that we were visiting them and they were not gaining anything from it was hard to take.

The 2nd pic shows a sign that this patch of land has been checked for landmines and is clear. It's not just rural areas (the main road from Poipet the border town was being checked as we drove along).

The last pic shows the holes where the jewels that have been stolen from the statue.

When you look at Cambodia as a whole you need to take all this into account when you see how desperate people are for tourists' money (beggars and street hawkers) and while we have both gained from the experience of Cambodia we had mixed feelings when we left. We tried to do our bit by donating blood, buying from landmine victims or supporting restaurants that employed and trained street people but it never felt nearly enough.