Today, I flew to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, to embark on a 5-day, 4-nite tour of the country including 3 days at Ankgor Wat, the 1,000 year old complex of cities and temples of ancient Khmer civilization.
This country is definitely 3rd world. Motorbikes are the main form of transportation for all ages. In fact it often acts as the family car. The most I saw on one motobike was 5 people....Dad, Mom and the 3 kids..but they sped by before I could get a photo. But here's a snap of 4 on a bike.
Here is a typical traffic scene (except for the Land Rover):
And there are a lot of kids here, most of whom are begging. It's hard to know who is legit, as they are all great at looking pitiful and vulnerable. My guide said to just ignore them. If you are taken by one and hand it a dollar, the word is spread to the others and you are surrounded by an entourage. Of course the problem is many of them obviosly need help.
An some are obviously set by their family with their baby sister in arms.
They are at every tourist site in town...and I am told it will be worse at Angkor. The government is pretty ineffective at working for it's people so there are a lot of helpless poor.
The worst is the beggars who have missing limbs due to old, leftover mines from the Khmer Rouge-Vietnam war days of the late sixties.
Of course some of the street kids are just happy and cute.
But eventually they get around to asking you for a dollar.
By the way there are 2 currencies here...the Cambodian Riel and the US Dollar. But only 1,5, 10 and occasionally 20 dollar bills.....they give change in riels if you need coins. 1 USD = 4,200 riels.
After being picked up at the Airport and paying the $20 tourist visa fee, we went to the National Museum, the Wat Phnom, and the Royal Palace and a rickshaw ride along the Mekong River front.
A beautiful building on the Royal Palace grounds:
And a Temple on the Royal Palace grounds:
And the Mekong River Waterfront on a Sunday afternoon:
Tomorrow at 8AM I take the 45 minute flight to Siem Reap and 3 days at Angkor.
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