Khmer Experience

velHow to pronounce? Khmer? Before I arrive Siem Reap, I told hubby that it is pronounced as "camel" and after two day of tour, it is actually pronounced as "Kei Mier". It is a race in Cambodia which is a mix of Indian& Chinese long long time ago. 95% of the the population of Siem Reap are Buddhist and most of them are practising Buddhism the serious way unlike us, perhaps because the religion, it is relatively safe here and I must say Khmer are one of the friendly people in the world. They always greet us with a smile, and they are always helpful.

These trip had made me realised how backward it is here compared to Malaysia. The poverty issue here is a serious issue where young children age from 3 onwards would rush to you attempting to sell you things with their trained English "One Dollar for Five, Lady, Please buy, One Dollar for Five, Lady. Please help buy from me, I no business today. Please Lady" Their persistancy is something that I really admire, Hubby and I ended up paying then a dollar for them to stop bugging us. It may sound horrible that we gave them a dollar to "shu"them off. It is impossible for us to give so many children a dollar as they are so many of them chasing after you once you start to give to one child. We usually just walked pass them and feel sorry for not able to help them.

I even saw a less than 2 years old Kid at the temple area, he was not with any pants, and his feet was tied with a bell - I guess so that his mum can hear where he's going. I saw him naked bottom sitting on the hot stone, grabbing sands and putting his mouth, walking around clumsily, banging left and right... I can't control my tear from the side of my eyes, luckily I was on sun glasses, otherwise his mum would probably rush to me and ask for money with the young boy. Poor darling. The boy has a big eyes, sharp nose, he's got an adorable features and healthy tanned skin tone. He's so cute! I feel so bad for not able to help him. :( I was told that, averagely each family would have seven children. The local government is not funding in education nor medical service. There are two children hospital here which offer free service to children below 16 which is actually funded by private organization. There are many volunteers from other country to offer to provide the basic education to these children/orphanages.

The poor family is only making US 15- US 30, the average family US 50 - US 200, and the rich family is making US 300 - US 600, and usually only the rich can send their children for education. The education here is free but there is so called extra class which is chargeable, they sort of making it compulsory for them to pay for the extra class in order to pass the syllabus. It is impossible for the poor to pay, further to that how to pay for seven of them in the family. Majority of the Khmer work in the Paddy fields, and those children who cannot afford to go school would help in the Paddy Field. There is no power supply & there is no water supply at all. They get the water from the well or nearby river, and use candle and wood burning for light in the night.

Well, this is One part of Siem Reap. The other part which is the downtown, where many people work in the hotel service line, hotel chef, cleaner, gardener, driver, Tour Guide, Business etc etc. These group of people is the average to rich family where you will be able to the children in their school uniform and slipper, the richer kids would wear a proper shoe and own a bicycle.

There are only two malls in Siem Reap - Lucky Mall & Angkor Trade. I have not gone into the Lucky Mall, but I have been to Angkor Trade, I must said it is like Ampang Point ? or much smaller than Ampang Point. The luxurious supermarket is like our Sri Kota or even less smaller? I am not sure whether there is theatre in town, but even there is I dun think many people can afford to watch it. But, I saw stalls which sell pirated DVDs. There is not much of souvenir to get here, as I think it is pretty similar to Thailand which I don't find it interesting at all.

Talking about similarity to Thai, Yes, I PERSONALLY think that it is similar to Thai in terms of their language, food, culture, skin tone, friendliness. Khmer Food - Fish/Chicken Amok is very kinda similar to Non Spicy Green Curry, the Stir Fried Chicken with Cashew Nut is something that can also be found in the Thai Menu except Khmer's one is not spicy at all. I don't speak Thai not Khmer, but they have a similar tune "TO ME" - like KUM, KAM, NUNG (maybe a little of Vietnamese too).

Khmer Food is not something that I will actually eat once i get back to KL, unlike Thai. Thai is more flavour, most importantly it is hot & spicy. However, I must say that the WHITE RICE here is exceptionally good. It has a nice texture with it's natural fragrance - mmm ~~ I can actually eat it without any sauce. Nice! Oh by the way, I was told that the rice here is very cheap, they are paying about 800 Riels Per kg which equivalent to RM0.80 or less per kg. So cheap & so good.

That's it - My Khmer Experience!!