Siem Reap and Kampong Phluk: Contrasts of Privilege and Reality

Siem Reap can be a sleepy town or a complete madness, depending on the hour of the day. It’s definitely far from the busy Phnom Penh, but as the sun starts to set, with a slight drop in temperature, the pub street opens with its loud music and blinding lights, all the massage parlours start calling out for business, and the tuk tuk drivers will not stop offering you a ride.

One of the things that soon enough started to annoy me on this trip is how you are constantly harassed by anyone trying to sell you something. When you are on a short holiday, it is annoying but soon you’ll be back to your normal life… but when you’re travelling long term, visiting hot tourist spots, it starts to really get on your nerves.

In Siem Reap, the moment I stepped out of the hotel, I would have a few different tuk-tuk drivers offering me their services. You try to be nice the first few days – no thanks, no thank you – but after a while it’s bloody exhausting. What is supposed to be a quiet and relaxing walk in town becomes an obstacle run. What is supposed to be just you killing some time browsing the markets and the shops becomes an absolute tiresome endeavour.

In the town of Siem Reap, there really isn’t much to do – it’s a base to explore Angkor Wat. But there are still some things to see, one of them being, the Wat Preah Prom Rath temple. It is small, and you can walk in without paying any fee, and look around as there is a lot to take in, despite its size. But I wasn’t even there for five minutes when a man approached me giving me pointers about the temple. I smiled politely, telling him where I was from and really wanted to believe he wanted nothing in return – of course soon enough he was trying to sell me his services as a driver around town. I had to insist again and again that I didn’t want to, and I had other things to do afterwards (which was a lie). He insisted and kept asking what about tomorrow, clearly ignoring the cues that I really just wanted to be left alone. Part of me wanted to just say that – leave me alone. But then you don’t want to be rude, and be that sort of tourist.

This is what a gas station looks like in many places in South East Asia

While I know being there, as a tourist, from the West, is a privilege, I think we as tourists also have the right to be able to walk and visit places for which we are often paying for without being disturbed. Offer your services if you must, but don’t insist. Take the cue if the person is literally trying to walk away. It almost feels like they want to guilt us into giving away our money just like that. This experience in that temple practically ruined what I was hoping was a leisure visit. I felt he kept observing me as I walked away. I had also lied about where I was staying (as you always should when approached by strangers) and I kept having the feeling he was chasing me as I walked down the road. At some point, he was indeed driving his tuk tuk right behind me, but I soon entered a cafe and he disappeared.

The Pub Street is the sort of place I don’t like spending time on – a bunch of western style bars and restaurants, with loud music and inflated prices.I simply walked through it at night, and immediately felt overwhelmed, and wanting to leave.

Thankfully, if you have a few days to spare in Siem Reap and you’re done with temple hopping, you can also take a tour to the floating villages. It is a way of seeing a different side of Cambodia, and once again, an impoverished one – Kampong Phluk. About a thousand families live here, mostly making a living out of fishing. But that’s not enough – they often take extra jobs to try to get enough money to educate their children and send them to school. They don’t want their offspring to have to follow in the same footsteps. They want them to be able to leave that place and not have to live off the waters of the biggest freshwater lake in South East Asia – Tonle Sap. Also dependent on tourists for the extra money.

Once again, I felt conflicted. Kampong Phluc is a tourist attraction but also it is a reality people live with everyday – not because they want to, they simply have no other choice. It was strange that after looking at those fragile-looking houses, the boat took us to the middle of the lake, to see the sunset, enjoying music and drinks. Such a contrast of privilege, of choice, of classes. And after the guide took us on foot through the village, when the sunlight was barely enough to shed any clarity of our path. Unpaved streets, lined with basic shops, and kids playing around, lifting dust with every jump, every step, breathing it with every laugh.