Comments | kitling: Travel Diary

kitling

Travel Diary - Cambodia Day 6

Nov 22, 2013 22:21

I guess there are only so many temples you can visit, although there were many we didn't find time to see. On Day 6 we opted to visit Tonle Sap. Tonle Sap is the biggest lake in Cambodia, this is a huge lake that numerous rivers run into and the size of the lake varies greatly between wet and dry season. Lonely Planet recommended the Tonle Sap ( Read more... )

Comments 7

qamar November 22 2013, 22:08:15 UTC

I miss you and want to spend more time with you.

Also, thank you for writing about Cambodia in the way I wanted to write about Bali.

I have very close friends who live in Cambodia (they run successful online businesses) and I have collected laptops for the children there. A toddler diet consists of red bull and rice. It's such a terribly broken culture and economy and so confronting.

*hugs* and thank you for writing all this up. It's really making my Saturday morning.

kitling November 22 2013, 22:32:23 UTC

I think we can really treat travelling in SE Asia and various Pacific Islands in two ways.
1. Yay cheap sunny holiday.
or
2. Travel with your eyes open, enjoy the experience but pay attention.

Yeah - I had ethical qualms about visiting the tiger kingdom and the Thai elephant conservation centre, but the sad truth is, without an economic purposes, these animals won't have a place in the wild much longer. If tiger and elephant tourism is what it takes to ensure these magnificent animals survive. So be it.

I dumped an empty bottle of ice tea in a rubbish bin in Bangkok, then saw someone had pulled the bottle out of the bin and was sticking their finger in it to scrap every fragment of sugary drink out. The other thing is, these people would be so much worse off without the tourist industry....

It's heartbreaking but important to discuss openly.

See you at midsummer?

qamar November 22 2013, 22:58:17 UTC

Yup. And hoping to make it a child-free one this year. Tram up and taxi home.

kitling November 22 2013, 23:17:06 UTC

Train up (closer than tram) and call me from the station for a lift :)

I brought lots of duty free tequila :)

txxxpxx November 24 2013, 22:51:47 UTC

I can well imagine your shock at the poverty in Cambodia. We were eased into it a little. We went to Thailand first, and thought that was poor. Then we went to Vietnam & realised they were poorer. Then on to Cambodia and realised that the Thais were rich by comparison ( ... )

kitling November 25 2013, 06:18:18 UTC

I know that most shop assistants here are getting paid an okay salary, that said, I've worked retail and I have waitressed, so I am always polite to those that work in the retail and food service industries. I suspect most of the market stalls I went to, the staff weren't on salary. I suspect most of the restaurants were small and family owned and again, probably not on salary. That said - tipping still confuses the fuck out of me and I continuely second guess it. Shopping in the market isn't charity, so I think I disliked that it felt like it was ( ... )

gypsyamber June 13 2015, 11:47:26 UTC

I am so glad that you had such an amazing experience with the tigers, and that someone else was able to point you in the direction of a much better place than where we went - which incidentally has long closed now.

I'm really enjoying reading your travel diary - thank you for writing it and sharing it :-)