Day by day
The light in Phnom Penh has a distinctly yellow quality to it, and though it might be a little cooler here than in Ho Chi Minh City, it feels like I’m simmering a bit more in Cambodia! For better or for worse, the afternoon rains also last a lot longer here, so it’s been much cooler in the evenings once I sit through the downpours. I was kind of surprised, coming from Phoenix, that life slows down as it does when it rains in places like this. I had always thought that people just trudged through it, but I guess it’s kind of hard to do that when the streets flood halfway up to your knees. Now that it’s the rainy season, I finally understand why there aren’t many pedestrians in Sai Gon and Phnom Penh!
Places
Phnom Penh was once considered the most beautiful city in Southeast Asia in the 1960s, and it shows. There’s distinctive Khmer architectural flourishes almost everywhere you look, which is refreshing after the seeing so many utilitarian buildings in Sai Gon. The city still has the narrow shop-below/house-above style buildings you see everywhere, but the sidewalks are a bit wider and there are trees everywhere. I live near the awesome looking Independence Monument, and from there you can follow a series of parks through the city to the waterfront and to the cultural sites like the Independence Palace and the Parade grounds. At night, the walkers and people playing sports animate the whole park into one circuit. It has such amazing energy that's provided by people inside it, and not the giant billboards and traffic that ring Sai Gon’s Park 23-4. (not my pictures here, for the record-- nice shot though!)
Wealth
Some of the people on the program say that the people in Phnom Penh seem less materialistic than those in Sai Gon— a little more dressed down, from students to street vendors— though we get the sense that that’s not exactly the case. On the one hand, Cambodia is a whole is poorer and more rural than Vietnam. Phnom Penh, which is much, much smaller than Sai Gon or even Hue, has poverty and deteriorated neighborhoods that are much closer to the surface. Still, even when I was exploring the other day, I kept seeing Lexuses parked in these same neighborhoods! We had always heard jokes from the Cambodian students about how there
are more Lexuses in Cambodia (population 14m) than in Vietnam (pop. 85m), and it’s sadly true. You see the SUV’s driving through Phnom Penh every minute with “LEXUS” emblazoned across the side very conspicuously. The most powerful also have no license plates, which, true or not, makes them appear above the law. Apparently you often see no-plate Lexuses and Range Rovers parked outside Phnom Penh’s boutique stores on Saturdays as generals and police chiefs take their mistresses out to shop!In a way, I think I’m just a little uncomfortable being in political capitals in Southeast Asia. The corruption and opulence that lingers behind closed doors just seems to leak out into the streets, and it’s especially revolting considering the poverty elsewhere. In Sai Gon, the modal share of cars was only about 2% and they weren’t as nice, so I don’t think it bothered me as much. Moreover, I think that Sai Gon’s ostentatious wealth was powered by tourists and foreign business interests; here, most foreigners are ex-pats in NGOs or with the U.N., so the wealth seems more likely to be coming from the government alone— kind of a sad thought.
The upside is that I’m more encouraged than ever to travel off the beaten path to the rural areas of Cambodia, especially now that I have my S.E.A. legs a bit (hardy harr harr). Don’t worry ma, I’ll take my malaria pills and lots of pictures!
4 comments:
Wylie! Cambodia sounds so interesing. I think you should go get lost in the jungle for a few weeks. If you don't show up next semseter, we will send out a search party (and by search party, I mean Erica, Heidi and I will come and join you).
So, they might actually close the borders here because of swine flu, so then I'd really be stranded!
I agree with Brynna, as in I will definitely join the search party [and when I say party, I mean "partay" of course]. I'll bring my boom box to play "Born To Be Alive."
Cambodia DOES sound so very interesting! I'm on board for wandering around the jungle with you guys anytime.
As for the whole nauseating-opulence-juxtaposed-against-superiorly-nauseating-poverty thing, that's something I've had a hard time confronting myself. It makes you wonder what the hell is going on when the government elite have disgustingly luxurious lives and most everyone else lives in the squalid conditions that characterize poverty. But what gets me knotted-up even more is thinking about how much of the so-called "opulence" that the elite possess is pretty much equivalent to normal middle class living standards in America, you know? If having a home and a car and a job with a salary and a disposable income is "opulence," that makes me feel really uncomfortable with my life in America sometimes. If we get disgusted by the rich government officials in these poor countries, should we get disgusted by the richness that is just standard in America? I don't know. I still really like my indoor plumbing and ice cream and I don't usually feel guilty about enjoying them when people around the corner are living on a dirt floor with no income to buy themselves ice cream should they want some. When I say it like that, it makes me feel like a bad person, but I don't know! Argh it's so confusing. I was wondering if you have had any flashes of insight on that matter? Like how you feel about the kind of life you lead in America when you evaluate alongside the rural poverty of Cambodia? That's a lot to answer in one sitting I know. Haha. Don't feel pressured to come to any conclusions because I sure can't (haha see my most recent post) :)
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