Caitlin's Asian Adventure

Monday, January 23, 2006

I hate Cambodia

There comes a time in every trip where you hit your low - all your excitement plummets to dire depths all you can think about are the mosquitos swarming around you like gnats, the grease in the food, how much you start to hate your copanions - you start to realise that you have nothing at all in common with them and that in fact you think the opposite to what they feel the majority of the time, you think everyone is parasitical and after your money, that all kindness is false and then eventually you go to see somethinmg very moving like the Cambodian Landmine Museum and as you read the stories of the victims you start to cry, but not for them, for you and the overwhelming crapness you feel. I've hit that point and it's in Cambodia. I don't blame Cambodia for my dislike of it, it'was under the khmer Rouge until 1998, and Vietnam was still bombing until 1999, tourism is a new thing,they just haven't quite mastered relations yet. You'll haggle with the tuk tuk drivers for prices, they'll agree and then suddenly forget they agreed to an extra stop or ask for 50 cents more at the end of the journey and when you say no to their demands, they shout 'fuck you lady'' and then try to mow you down. At Ankor Wat - which at the moment I feel is NOT worth the trip out for - built in the 12th century - by that time we had the bayeux tapestry, magna carta, a thousand years after the romans built great ampitheatres, before that the greeks built intricate friezes on the acropolis, before that there were the pyramids!!! Angkor wat is basically a big estate with lots of empty buildings with carvingd, if you want to see something similar only better go to versailles or hampton court! Same difference only less exotic! Don't you think it's slightly patronising to be like oh it's amazing what they achieved that early on - by that time chinese and europeans had already established mercantile trading and we're like wow they built a palace in the jungle. Anyway you go to ankor wat and little children are the main pests, I want to stamp on their feet! You try to politely shoe them away as they follow you to the toilet and when you come out they demand payment for showing you where it is?! And when you refuse 'I help you and you give me nothing?!! I get zero lady?! Fuck you'. They, they make you want to cry. By the end of the day after being shouted at by children anddrivers you feel so demoralised you don''t want to get back out of your bed. You envisage some bitter tuk tuk driver waiting for you at the bottom of the dark alley by your guesthouse in a black mini van waiting to leap out with a few of his friends waving base ball bats. And then you think you could take a bike and go off the beaten track and meet wonderful people who don't want to sell you anything, but you think what's the point, already did that in laos and they were much nicer, and the setting was prettier.

Everything started badly at the border various scams, lost money, mini vans breaking down, waiting on the roadside for another. Getting shouted at in Pnom Penh.... it''s endless but the same kind of thing. Plus Cambodians have a strange habit of laughing when they feel uncomfortable and then being silent when they know their in the wrong but not wanting to justify themselves so they stare into space and say nbothing until you eventually do what they want you to do anyway. Maya said in her frustration, this is what happens to a country when you kill all the smart people, and I can't help thinking to myself all this disorganisation and chaos maybe it's true???!!!! A czech girl we met was outside the royal palace at noon with her bag slung across her body from one shoulder to the opposite side of her body and a guy on a motor bike came by, grabbed the bag - thinking it was like a hand bag on a shoulder? and dragged her for 50 meters before realising he wasn't gonna get the sucker off - meanwhile she had to have stitches above her eye, her tooth was broken and she had various other cuts and bruises. I know otyher people who love cambodia who went off the beaten track - beaten landmine ridden track!! who loved it, but even then they said for every good thing that happens an equally bad thing happens too. Cambodia is just too bipolar! My next blog will be about the end of lovely laos, where everyone is chilled out!

To everyone who had emailed me, please keep doing it!! It's so nice, I can't really respond though b/c computers are insanely slow here.... When I get to India hopefully they will be faster

No more Nepal on this trip, too violent, very sad

17 Comments:

Blogger jjoollee said...

Hell ya lady. You just put into wrds exactly what I was feeling in Cambodia. Thank you.

6:45 PM  
Blogger Miss.Sunnyta said...

I agree with you 100%

3:54 PM  
Blogger MHJ said...

I live in Cambodia and am having an "I hate cambodia day" today - Your write up made me laugh!! Very funny and very true in places!
Michelle

2:35 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

I'm Cambodian and i feel the same way, too.

5:36 PM  
Blogger sienna said...

Can you honestly say there is one place in the world where not one person is suffering??? These people are just doing what ever it takes to live and feed their family! So I think you should consider some things saying stuff like that
p.s hate is a really strong word to use.

5:35 AM  
Blogger Andrea Lauro said...

I agree with the blog comment. I hate Cambodia also. As for Marlo, take your bleeding heart for the Khmers and live among them. I have dealt with them for 20 years to the US-educated ones to the power brokers at the Ministries and at the village level with my local church. They do not endure because they are humble and tough people. They endure because they have no choice. They have no way out of their materialistic souls and cannot change their mindset. They go to school for the paper diploma and not the knowledge because the believe in MONEY. They will bear false witness for money.
I am a dark haired Southeast Asian and they treat me like dirt. I have lost my whole home, two bikes, a car and over 6 phones. My office mate has an IPhone while his 2-year old runs around naked and barefoot beside a highway meters away from giant 18-wheelers.
Until you speak the language and deal with them for as long as I have your comment is from a point of ignorance. These people are hopeless.
Oh and they like you because you are white.

9:39 PM  
Blogger I hate Scambodia said...

Cambodia is a nation of scammers. Moreover, they are lazy, stupid and untrustworthy. For those of us born and raised in the West, we truly hit the jackpot not being born in the shithole called Cambodia.

3:01 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Agree 100%. I don't know who can possibly like this country or recommend it to others to visit. Smelly, icky place

6:22 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Im khmer and read all your comments!! if u unlike dont care/hate coz hate = love & love =hate! No idea answer for hater coz I love all ppls in the world

8:59 AM  
Blogger Lindsay said...

We are not comparing countries at the moment we are talking about Cambodia. I'm tired of people like you who do not know how to properly argue against an opinion or observation and your only rebutted is defensive. Do you even know what you are defending?

9:50 PM  
Blogger I hate Scambodia said...

cambodia is full of lazy and stupid people. cambodia will always be a 3rd world country. I will be shocked if they make it to second world status.

3:03 AM  
Blogger sarah said...

Omg I googled I hate Cambodia as I'm here now and it's the biggest waste of money I've ever spent, the people are straight up arse holes! The police are corrupt, the hotels vile and stinky and the thieves ever present, after the beauty and wonder I experienced in Vietnam I was looking forward to coming here. Clearly I lost my mind, Vietnam was majestic, this is a dodgy shithole hell palace and frankly they've been so awful to me I can't say the killing fields have me any emotion at all, apart from... I guarantee you'd do that to me if I didn't tip you a dollar for your shitty tuktuk. Awful. Would have had a better time holidaying in my spare room

10:05 AM  
Blogger I hate Scambodia said...

Cambodians can't do anything themselves and need foreign help to get their shit together. They are the Africans of SE Asia. Even the Philippines which is a piece of shit in its own right is more advanced than Scambodia. Makes you wonder how such a lazy, scamming bunch of people ever built Ankor Wat. There is no hope in Cambodia and the country and its people will be mired in poverty forever. You would think that as human beings with pride their country that they would want to work hard for a better tommorrow...but this is Cambodia, the laziest and stupidest country in the world.

11:37 AM  
Blogger Cimo said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

1:31 AM  
Blogger Jerry St.Peter said...

Ten years later, things have not gotten better. Cambodia is still a filthy cesspool swimming with vulgar, ignorant assholes who only see you for the $ in your wallet. I would encourage anyone traveling SE Asia to skip it completely.

7:40 PM  
Blogger TheJourneyToFreedom said...

I agree with you Caitlyn. It's 2018, and I took the one month long trip to Cambodia. I don't think I have ever hated a place, and found the people to be so evil. It was down right scary how ignorant the people were. I refused a Tuk Tuk driver (the 100th one that day) and the driver got two cops to surround me and bully me and said, "Get into the Tuk Tuk". I was so pissed off, I just waved at the cops and acted like they came over to greet me, and I walked back to my hotel. I suddenly got sick, and was really concerned about going to a Cambodian hospital, so I booked a plane immediately back to the U.S.

I also think that it's actually going to get worse there soon. I spoke to one of the crazy local guys in his 20s and he said they are on the verge of revolution again. I don't think any foreigners should go there anymore. It's just too ridiculous. Glad you made it out alive!!!! Cambodians actually hate everyone and they will tell you that. They think that everyone that comes there, should give them money. A disgusting nation. Truly. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

3:46 PM  
Blogger mangalan108 said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

8:22 PM  

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