Cambodia is a pretty big change from Thailand. Thailand has tons of tourists and it seems like it is trying to get rid of all the things that Western people don't like in order to be a place that people want to come to, which makes it seem less realistic. Cambodia is not like this. All day long, anytime I go outside I am bombarded by people wanting something. There are the millions of tuktuk drivers and motorcycle drivers hanging around that want to give me a ride somewhere - "Hey lady, you want tuktuk?" - the people hanging around the fronts of restaurants trying to get me to eat there, and of course the kids. Around Angkor Wat it was the worst of anywhere. As soon as you get out of your car, they surround you and try to sell you postcards or bracelets. They start out at $1 each but pretty soon are 10 for $1. They're actually really smart kids too. If you say no to them, they ask where you're from. If you say Canada, they say, "Canada, capital Ottawa", and I think they know the capital of anywhere tourists come from. They can also count to 10 in English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Korean, Japanese, and Khmer. That's way more than I know. If you keep saying no, they say "I need money to go to school!" so you feel really bad. The problem is if you say yes to any of them, there's always other kids around with them that'll see and want you to buy from them too. Also, it just promotes kids staying on the streets if you give them money. To us, $1 isn't much, but the people that work in real jobs here don't make much more than that in a day, and when they see that kind of money just being given to people on the street begging, it doesn't make much sense to keep working.
Sometimes the people call me madam when they want me to buy something, and even though that sounds really formal and makes me feel old, it sounds so much better than "hey lady".
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