Cambodia for Sale

Roadside, hand-filed keys.


I'm not sure what I expected of Cambodia. No other travelers we'd met said they really liked the country but none said they really hated it either. It made me curious how they almost all paused, thoughtfully reassessing their experiences to see if anything had changed since the last time someone had asked their opinion. We'd heard that it was 'lawless', a bit like the wild west, that you had to watch your back. I knew, like its neighbor Thailand, Cambodia had a thriving sex trade. I'd heard the legends about shooting ranges where you could fire off AK47's or grenade launchers. (True, even now.) We heard from more than one person that, if you wanted it, you can get it in Cambodia. The past half century has seen Cambodia struggle to get out from under the yoke of the colonial French, stagger from the horrific maelstrom of violence that flooded over from the U.S. war in Vietnam only to then fall into a ghastly genocide at the hands of the Khmer Rouge.

What we found after we arrived was a surprise, if a surprise can unfold slowly over weeks. I don't know that I've ever visited a country that confounds and charms the way Cambodia has. It's a scruffy land of hustlers who seem to love few things more than having a laugh at the expense of a "falang" (foreigner). Easy to obtain visas, low cost of living and the ability to live under the radar have drawn expatriates from around the world who've opened all manner of businesses, notably bars, restaurants or other entertainment oriented ventures. I didn't know Bogie's Casablanca still had modern day cousins but Cambodia seems like that kind of place.

• You can rent scooters or motorcycles easily. Forget the helmet, though. Cambodians don't bother with those.
• Traffic flow on the streets is akin to blood cells in a vein. Where there is space, bikes, scooters, cars or cycle rickshaws crowd into the lane until they can flow freely. At intersections, it's very common for the two-wheeled vehicles to cut the corner by cruising right through a gas station or parking lot without slowing.
• Books, the backpackers' great indulgence, can be had here for a fraction of what they cost even next door in Thailand. Cambodia puts little effort into copyright protection. There is a cottage industry re-printing (i.e. photocopying) books. DVD's and CD's can also be had for extra cheap. There is even a small chain of shops (see photo below) here that allows you to download MP3's to your audio player from "their" very extensive catalogue. For the local folks looking for Asian pop music, some enterprising Cambodians simply set up a computer, a monitor and some headphones on the sidewalk and allow people to plug in and get music right on the street as if it's a snack.

• Sex for hire is as common as coffee here. It's an old, routinely accepted practice in southeast Asia. Some entrepreneurial expatriates put new spins on it, though. Down on the coast, Russian "investors" (i.e. mafia) opened a club where customers choose from girls who swim in a pool mermaid style or lounge with large snakes.
  
  A lady and a potential customer.