Taking Off the Rose-Colored Glasses

We arrived in Siem Reap, and the 6 hour drive through the country as well as Siem Reap itself has given us a better feel for the poverty level in Cambodia. When you think of a developing or 3rd world country, Cambodia definitely comes to mind. It is how you might expect a poor country to be. Unfortunately, Cambodia also has the reality that their "history" is still very recent, with Pol Pot dying less than a decade ago and the Khmer Rouge's affects still evident on the country (careful not to stray off the well-trodden path as you may step on a landmine) - all of this provides for a poor and tragic country (you can sometimes see landmine victims around town, in addition to the very poor children and adults).

Jeremy and I had an interesting conversation last night on the tuk tuk about Cambodia versus India. While the poverty levels of both countries seem to be on par, India comes across as much worse in part because the country is so filthy (people don't make an effort to pick up trash or urinate in bathrooms) and because there are so many people which the economy cannot currently support. It is also more surprising because we think India should be a lot further along than it is (because many international companies operate there and it has a larger presence on the international political and business scene), but yet Cambodia seems to be ahead of India (they even have small things like garbage pick-up which we never once saw in India).

We don't want to give the impression that Cambodia is doing really well, because it is clearly not. But they seem to have their act together a lot more than India, and will hopefully continue to thrive in the post-Khmer Rouge era.