Angkor What? Tips on How to be a Responsible Tourist from Lessons Learned in Cambodia

“I don’t like dealing with money transactions in poor countries. I get confused between the feeling that I shouldn’t haggle with poverty and getting ripped off. -Alex Garland, The Beach

The wheels of the plane left the runway and the nose lifted into the air. The buildings, the trees, the cars and the neighborhoods rushed by faster than my brain could comprehend. Before I knew it, we were passing over the circle road surrounding Chiang Mai and I could see the perfect square of the moat outlining Old Town. The golden tops of the temples glistened and the brown ribbon of the Ping River meandered through the city. I could see it all through the window of the plane, because for once, I was actually able to sit next to the window. I had left my children with their sticky fingers and sloppy kisses back in Thailand while Ben and I flew to Cambodia.

The anxiety and trepidation that I felt abut abandoning my babies in a foreign country while I vacationed without them was short-lived. I don’t know who I am trying to kid. We desperately needed a short break from each other. The kids were undoubtedly going to be spoiled by their grandparents who were visiting from Oregon, while Ben and I got to do things together as a couple again. We planned to spend long days touring the Angkor Wat temples, having a few drinks out at the unchild-friendly time of 9pm while also having long overdue conservations without constantly stopping to address the kids’ demands or praise them for their newest accomplishment or break up a fight, etc.

 

However, what we didn’t plan on was a taking a trip out of Siem Reap and to the floating village of Kompong Phluk. Intellectually, I knew that poverty in Cambodia was worse than most other (if not all) Southeast Asian countries but this was our first experience really seeing it in person. I naively thought that we were going on a short tour to something like a floating market or to see some unique architectural dwellings. It took approximately one minute after our arrival to be completely overcome with massive guilt for exploiting the locals by ogling at their lifestyle. I overheard some tourists being judge-y about the kids not attending school mid-day or the amount of trash in the neighborhood, most everyone seemed moved to be financially supportive. But it was not clear what avenue would provide the most bang for our buck.

The floating village of Komplong Phluk, outside of Siem Reap, Cambodia

In the choose-your-own-adventure of charitable gift giving, would spending money in their makeshift markets make the biggest impact, or paying extra to go on another boat ride with local guides or offering to buy pencils for the kids’ school? So, it was during these moments of indecision and shame that I was motivated to do a little more research on the best practices for responsible tourism and here’s what I found:

 

Let Children Be Children

There is nothing like denying a begging child to really make a person feel like a world class shit, but giving money to youngsters makes them less likely to attend school and to be continually used as the bread-winners for the family. It is better to find a way to employ adults, rather than children. Allow adults to be guides, hire a local tuk-tuk driver, support organizations that provide income to parents, rather than to children.

Gentlemen who had been maimed by landmines working as musicians to support their families at Angkor Wat

Haggle Less Hard

I am insanely frugal so this one is really hard for me. I have to remind myself constantly that I don’t need to get the best possible deal and that I can afford to be ripped off a little. The vendor needs the money much more than I do, and in all likelihood, I would just spend the extra couple of dollars on coffee or beer anyway. Furthermore, supporting local artisans by buying local arts and crafts, rather than mass-produced souvenirs can be also beneficial.

It’s Not Always About the Money

Giving items such as bags of rice, school supplies like pencils & paper, or health-related items like band-aids or diapers, and new or lightly-used clothes and shoes are all very important, non-financial gifts that can go a long way. In the developing world, medical care can be very poor to non-existent. Donating blood is a fantastic way to give back and can be arranged at local hospitals. A hospital would be a good place to do some research and get more information on the specific needs of the area as well.

Donating blood at Angkor Children’s Hospital

Consider Your Purpose

When booking tours or visiting places were people are disadvantaged like schools, hospitals or orphanages, really evaluate what the intentions are for visiting. Imagine being an orphan and seeing rich people with no intention of adoption parading through your home? If the goal is to provide a service or to teach a skill, then continue by all means. But if the visit is to gawk at or to teach yourself or your kids a lesson about poverty, then consider either doing something different or figure out how to make your visit more meaningful. The same can be said for volunteering. Do you have a valuable skill to impart? Are you taking a job from a local person and undermining them by offering to do it for free?

* I have focused on humanitarian topics in this post, although I know that there are plenty of environmentally sustainable issues to consider as well. We truly enjoyed our visit to Cambodia and plan to go back with our children someday. I hope that the research that we have done will help to us make better choices as tourists and to better help those less fortunate than ourselves. Please feel free to comment if there are other ethical tourism ideas that I have not mentioned.