Cambodia, saying goodbye

Glen: 4th January 2015

One month and a day in Cambodia

My favourite saying in the diving world is “leave nothing but bubbles take nothing but photos” well here in Cambodia I’m leaving nothing but smiles and taking nothing but lovely memories. That said Cambodia has taken a little bit of me, my finger prints! I hadn’t read about it and so was a little bit surprised to discover when landing at Phnom Penh airport that as well as checking your passport and visa they scan your fingerprints! Well, I’ve never been to prison; that was one of the first questions Mandy asked me on our first date! I’ve never committed a crime (not that I’ll admit to here) and so I’ve never had my fingerprints taken before. But here I was standing in line waiting to pass through immigration and I could see everyone was having their digits scanned. I wouldn’t have known how the scanner worked but luckily I watched the man in front of me go through the procedure first. He was asked to put his four fingers on the scanner and then the green light scanned across them. Then the customs officer asked him to do something else but the ‘foreigner’ was confused so the officer, in an effort to explain, played charades and raised his thumb. The foreigner gave a big smiley grin and gave the thumbs up sign to the customs officer and started to walk off. He was quickly pulled back and told to press his thumb against the scanner!

I’ve read since that some people are concerned that the Cambodian government will sell these fingerprints and names to the highest bidder. And to think that we in Britain were up in arms about the possibility of I.D. Cards. LOL!

We are now, hopefully, on a ‘plane flying out of Cambodia (we overstayed our visa by one day and so we’ve either paid a one day fine or are now in some unnamed prison in Phnom Penh!) and it’s time to reflect. It feels like we’re leaving South East Asia even though we are on our way to Krabi, Thailand. Thailand seems a more western, familiar place from our experience to date. More people speak English, there are more white faces there, you can eat in a McDonalds or Burger King and there’s even a Boots the chemist! We’ve been lucky enough to visit many countries in Asia and each one has been different enough to make us realise on a day by day, minute by minute basis that we have definitely not been traveling through Europe.

They don’t drive quickly in Cambodia like they do in Vietnam, in fact they drive too slowly sometimes and everyone gives way to everyone else at junctions and roundabouts. We’ve hired a motorbike on many occasions here and it’s always felt safe as there’s little traffic and as I said they all give way to each other. The only danger here at a road junction is ‘Death by hesitation’ LOL!

Much of the way of life here is very similar to the rest of Asia, only women work in the meat and fruit markets, only men drive Tuk Tuks, their houses double as a shop and at the end of the day a garage for their bike or car! Here, as in all the other countries in Asia, toilets are generally not up to European standards in terms of cleanliness. Finding one in a restaurant can also be an exciting and interesting game. You’re never sure where it will be or what it will be like. The staff will point you in the rough direction of a toilet and then you have to use all your skills learnt over the past few months to find it. Is it through the kitchen out the back down a damp dark alley on the left? Is it up the stairs on the right past the two children’s bedrooms? Is it through the open bedroom with a matress on the floor? Is it the one with the son’s tooth brush and toothpaste in a jar by the sink? Or is it the one that when you’re standing having a pee they have conveniently put four large air holes in the bricks so you can look through to the kitchen and watch them preparing your Amok Curry!? The possibilities are endless and to make it more interesting for us they rarely put a toilet sign up pointing the way or on the door! Generally the toilets here are clean, by Asian standards, the record for the dirtiest has to go to Yangon with the green thick mould on the walls, lovely! I think one of the reasons the toilets are fairly clean here is because only half the population use them, the men find it much easier to pee, day or night, in a bush up against a wall or into a river!

We’re not sure what the future holds for this country as it’s still poor financially. Some of the people in power today were leaders in the infamous Khmer Rouge, the now Prime Minister included. Major illegal logging still goes on and we’ve seen plenty of beautiful mountains scared by open cast mining. Some people are getting rich here, we’ve seen many prestige cars in Phnom Penh, but still so many are very poor. Over sixty percent of farming here is subsistence farming with little left over to sell for profit. Still the rich / poor divide can be seen in many countries, ours included!

We liked Cambodia and the people. The people seem to be happy and laugh easily with each other and us. The children, the very young and teenagers, would say “hello” to us often and they had a big smile on their faces. Often when I was cheeky and playful to the staff in restaurants and shops they would happily join in the fun.

Cambodia has a lot to offer and has its own identity and the fact that we’ve stayed here a month and a day must mean that it’s a nice place to be, just don’t spend too long in Phnom Penh!

Footnote: We made it through customs with just a $5 fine each and have arrived safe and sound in Krabi, Thailand.