The Man
Part-time travelers, and part-time investigative reporters. So here’s a post for you to learn with us. While traveling through Cambodia, popular spots like the temples in Siem Reap and museums in Phnom Penh, we were continually approached by kids in dishoveled clothing, asking us to buy Cambodian handicrafts or counterfeit tour books (like Lonely Planet editions for neighborhoding countries). The kids deliver the same robotic lines in their limited English: “Buy some postcards? Buy for your girlfriend? Buy for your husband? Buy for your (father-in-law, niece, half-sister)?”
It’s one thing to see kids selling handmade, unique goods to earn money for their family, but as we saw more and more kids (and some adults) hawk the same bracelets, postcards, books, etc, it reminded us of the film “Slumdog Millionaire” and the possibility that all these kids might be working for a slumlord, aka, the man. This theory was only encouraged when we encountered more kids in seemingly dire straights beg for money in the crowded city of Phnom Penh.
So who might be the man? Well, we know this: the admission price to get into the Angkor temples cost $20 per day, which is pricey regardless of which country you are visiting (the average Cambodian salary is $480/year). The back of the admission ticket reveals that these tourist-heavy sites are operated by a hotel corporation, and its owners are widely regarded as to be amongst the country’s wealthiest.
Despite the pricey admission, the temple sites appear to be under incompleted renovation. When you think about the volume of tourists that come through at $20+ a person, it’s a hefty budget for the maintenance and upkeeping of these sites. Today, about 58 cents out of every dollar goes to the temples, the rest to the government according to the internet and confirmed by our local sources. This is much better than the 5 cents per dollar these sites used to see. Corruption? Can’t say for sure, but that is a common problem developing countries face early on.
Now back to the kids and the fake books. The birth defects can be explained by low education (taking inappropriate medications or a bad diet during pregnancy) or maybe Agent Orange, used heavily in the area by the U.S. during the Vietnam War. As for the counterfeit books, not unlike the counterfeit DVDs or luxury handbags found elsewhere in the world, we bet there’s a man running the show, and his foothold in Cambodia appears to be strong for now.
