Being Cambodian for 1 month

Hello,

Being Cambodian for 1 month?

It's like tasting something totally new, never tried before.

My experience in Cambodia I would split into 2 parts: working and cultural. Both of them are full of learning and new experiences.

I always wanted to see how a new educational institution is established; I always wished to see a real Asian country (REAL in my understanding and stereotypes:). So, Cambodia, here I come!

Working and…

At the moment I came (28th July), it was 2 days left until students’ orientation days for which me and my colleagues were responsible. How would I describe Cambodian students? They are full of energy and really keen on learning through activities rather than listening. During two days of orientation they got to know why Limkokwing is relevant in Cambodia, what University is all about in terms of global platform, academics, and student activities. Lots of information, sharing, and fun.

Besides the orientation days, I was also working on marketing, research on opportunities for University in this country as well as lots of down to earth jobs. The crazy thing in Cambodia is that 24/7 you are with your colleagues. We live together, go to uni together, work together, go back together, eat together, go out together, share rooms when sleeping... More then the family:)

…cultural

The second part of my experience is cultural and this is the same exciting. Cambodia is a country that has a glorious history with Angkor Wat and other temples build in earlier centuries that I had a chance to visit while staying here. The pyramids or Machu Picchu of Asia!

However, Cambodia has a sad part of their history as well. 1975-79 Khmer Rouge regime wanted to create agricultural communism in the country, therefore, a lot of people were killed, the country is still trying to recover. One of the weekends together with other colleagues we visited Killing fields and genocide museum.

And now about everyday life there, simply going into the street…

…buildings

When we were landing in the airport, the first thought of mine was: were all the scyscrapers that we are used to see in most of the capital cities are? Our 6 storey university building was the highest one in the whole area.

…roads
And then another new experience on the road... the roads you cannot compare to anything (even Polish roads:)). On the way to Uni we had to use country road with the wholes almost equal size to the tyre. Not that bad though, after a while we got used and the roof of the van was soft.. just in case:)
…cars
In the roads you can actually see the real Cambodia - country without middle class people. They either use tuk tuks or motorbikes OR LEXUS cars. Have never seen such a big concentration of LEXUSes’ before. And if they use tuk-tuks or motorbikes - no free space is left not used (the load is 1,5metres to all sides). So, there people are either VERY POOR or VERY RICH.

…other experiences in the street:

• To cross the busy street in Cambodia takes time if you are not local – the best way to do is to go near the local person and cross together


• My last day of stay I tried going by motorbike to work with my colleague – a very local experience going along dusty street, diving into the busy traffic without any order, crossing flooded road by simply by raising the feet


• Almost in every step you take, a small child comes and offers to buy post cards, books, clean your shoes, etc. On the one hand I felt sorry for them on the other hand it was annoying when “no, thank you” does not help. Though my colleagues said that in Cambodia those children are not that bad – they don’t jump on you as in some other countries like India or Vietnam (though no proofs from my side)


• One of the weekends I just took my bag, water and went for a 5 hours tour around the streets of Phnom Penh. It was a real experience – to be asked for tuk-tuk every 5 steps, to see handicapped people everywhere, to see food that is sold at the same place where motorbikes are fixed, to see people selling fried fish just on the pavement near the busy street

“Girls”

Other typical thing in Cambodia are “girls” – everywhere you can see them selling themselves. I would not call them prostitutes in a real sence, they are more seem like small teenage girls, really shy and just try to satisfy the demand of the tourists.

So, if you enter a club you can get one for around USD 5 just to spend evening and entertain you, and then – the night comes (don’t ask the prices, haven’t found out yet:)).

Who is responsible for that? Well, I don’t agree with the statement “it’s Cambodia”. It’s more about the people who are using the situation of the country. In general prostitution is a normal profession when it’s done by conscious grown-ups but I do not think that those children really understand what’s happening.

Markets and money

In Phnom Penh there are two main market – central and Russian (probably because of their previous friendship with communists). You can buy there anything – from silver which is very typical and relatively cheap there to lots of different souvenirs to household goods, etc. Bargaining is needed especially if you are not local – you can get things 3 times cheaper. Though for me it was harder than for my Asian colleagues as somehow people think that white skin means “has money”.

In Cambodia US dollar is used as a currency, so everything there is quite expensive. The local currency real (1 USD=4,000 reals) is more used like cents.

To be continued…