Wat's the magic word in Cambodia

A young Cambodian boy on a boat approaching a floating village on the Tonle Sap in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Picture: Supplied

The Angkor Wat temple in Cambodia. Picture: Supplied

By Padraic Murphy
News.com.au
December 25, 2011

CAMBODIA is fast becoming a tourist mecca as it repositions itself for the 21st-century traveller, writes Padraic Murphy.

On the one hand it's a kingdom blessed with magnificent ruins, lush countryside, friendly locals and rich culture that has made it a hit with the cooler-than-you traveller bored by passe destinations such as Thailand and even reasonably daring Vietnam.

But on the other hand it's mired in poverty, is still a haven for sex tourists and was run by genocidal maniacs only 30 years ago.

For now at least, Cambodia is attempting to put its differences with the outside world behind it and is embracing tourism as its ticket to riches and the 21st century.

The country's capital, Phnom Penh, is undergoing something of a boom, with large, gated hotels backed by the country's generals and politicians springing up everywhere, and they want you, Mr and Mrs Australia, sitting by the pool as soon as possible.

Although the country has its own currency, the riel, inflation has rendered it useless for all but the most minor transactions.

So instead of using its own currency, the US dollar has been adopted and almost every transaction, from hotels, to markets, to tuk-tuk trips, relies on the greenback. With that in mind, travellers should be armed with large wads of small-denomination US notes.

Most day-to-day expenses such as restaurants or entrance fees rarely cost more than a few dollars and vendors get stroppy if you start waving $50 notes around most wouldn't make that much money in a month.

The ruins of Angkor remain the country's major drawcard, attracting hordes of tourists, who come to marvel at the 1000-year-old sprawling complex that is capped by the most famous of the temples, the majestic Angkor Wat.

Angkor was built in the 11th century, originally as a Hindu complex, but became Buddhist a couple of centuries later. The ruins have been a tourism drawcard for centuries and were once a must-see for wealthy Europeans.

During the Khmer Rouge regime, the complex was largely forgotten and the jungle once again encroached as the country retreated and its borders were closed.

Today, Angkor is a major earner for the country. Entry for foreigners costs about $US50 ($A50) for a three-day pass, a fortune in a country where most people get by on a few dollars a week.

The complex is heavily patrolled by police and tourism officials, who check tickets. Tour guides are also licensed and the positions are highly sought after, enabling guides to lift their families out of poverty.

"I'm thankful every day to Angkor Wat it enables me to earn more than $200 a month," says guide Ny Danith, a former rice farmer who has been showing tourists around the complex for five years.

Surrounded by a moat, Angkor Wat's domes are the most impressive of the temples, but hundreds more ruins are littered across the site. Two days' exploring should be enough for most visitors, although diehard temple junkies could probably spend a week or more poking about.

About 7km from the complex, Siem Reap is a clean and gracious city with wide streets that has long catered to visiting archeologists and historians.

More recently, Siem Reap has boomed on the back of tourists and the city is bustling with markets and tourism businesses catering for high-end package tours through to budget backpackers.

Most hotels and backpackers are centred around Pub St, a lively district with restaurants and bars that open late into the night.

The area is also crawling with prostitutes, many of whom appear disturbingly young, and sex tourists swagger about with girls under their arm, unashamed and unconcerned.

The other main tourism drawcard near Siem Reap is the floating village, a ramshackle community of Vietnamese refugees and fishermen who live in squalor on boats among the tributaries that run into Cambodia's great lake, the Boeung Tonle Sap.

There's no sewerage and conditions are unhygienic; particularly during the wet season when residents have to spend months on end drenched.

In what's described as people porn, tourists are ferried through the crowded village to essentially marvel at the poverty.

Disease in the village is rife, many children die, and tour guides direct tourists to the businesses run by locals, not those who live in the village.

The villagers are nominally fishermen, but low fish stocks and the year-round influx of tourists mean many get by trying to flog trinkets and soft drinks to the visitors.

Despite humanitarian concerns about the village and the effect of tourists, the Government is forging ahead with a new port nearby to cater for the expected increase in visitors.

While Siem Reap's wide streets create a laid-back atmosphere, Phnom Penh is a pulsating city buzzing with activities.

Straddling the impressive Mekong River, Phnom Penh is home to more than two million people.

The city was largely established by the French, who designed the streets and built sprawling apartment precincts that would look more at home on the Seine and lend a colonial splendour to the city.

Not as clean as Siem Reap, Phnom Penh is choked with mopeds and blanketed year-round in thick smog.

Shops spill out on to the street, while markets heave as hawkers try to sell every item imaginable.

Indeed, the food section of the covered central market is a wonder in itself, with carcasses and offal hanging unrefrigerated next to stalls selling the latest electronic gadgets.

Speaking of exotic cuisines, tourists who make the 300km road trip from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh can stop off and sample deep-fried spiders and frogs.

Road fatalities remain the county's major killer, and on the way in from the airport a young man travelling in front of our minibus was lucky to survive after his moped clipped another and he almost went under a truck.

But despite the heat and traffic, Phnom Penh has oases of calm. The Royal Palace near the city's centre is still home to Cambodia's King Norodom Sihamoni and is cut off from the outside world by large walls.

Built in the 1860s, the King's residence remains private, but tourists can wander the gardens and admire the Angkor and European-inspired buildings, including the dance halls and pavilions that are still used to host visiting dignitaries or for official state functions.

The famous Silver Pagoda, or "Temple of the Emerald Buddha", is next to the Royal Palace, within the same walled compound.

Built with a solid silver base, it's the temple where the King listens to the sermons of Buddhist monks.

Surrounding the pagoda is a magnificent series of frescoes painted a century ago by students retelling the story of Reamker, the epic Khmer poem.

But outside the palace walls, life in Phnom Penh centres very much on the Mekong River.

The riverfront has a long promenade, where students play soccer and couples cavort.

Restaurants and bars look out across the river from French colonial buildings that haven't changed much in the past 100 or so years, where one can while away the afternoon sipping a Pimm's, watching traditional dancers before taking a sunset cruise.

On the whole, Cambodia is still a raw tourist destination coming to terms with its past. See it now before it's transformed into just another resort destination.

The writer was a guest of Air Asia.